Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Considering disaster response ...
Considering disaster response, disaster kits and Camp Noah
Considering disaster response ...
© By Linda Janssen Gjere
What good does a person actually do, when one comes for a week, or a day, or a month, or a year, and then leaves again?
We went to Louisiana to remind some "Katrina kids", and their families, and ourselves, that God loves them .. sometimes through traveling camp counselors.
We went as part of Camp Noah - a day camp/vacation Bible school that gives elemetary children a chance to talk about their own disaster, and play an hear a Bible story about disaster, and grow their faith --and grow ours, too.
Is it really helpful to show up and do whatever it is you know how to do, and reach out to people that you may never encounter again?
The pragmatic part of me says, of course! After all, 'many hands make light work.'
I'm a Midwesterner for heaven's sake, and we have this barnbuilding, quilting bee heritage that shows us that gathering together to help one family, helps us all. When there's a disaster, people are to help clean up the mess. It's not very capitalistic, but it does work.
Then, there's a part of me that says just pray, and send cash.
That helps, too.
There's a part of me that walks with the kid along the beach, tossing starfish into the sea and thinking, "Made a difference to that one."
That helps.
There's a part of me that questions: just WHO are you doing this for? Them or you? God?
Do it regardless.
Christian life is supposed to be about relationship.
How much relationship can happen in a week? How much can you do right or wrong in a week? What's the point of temporary encounters?
Then I recall that that foolish Samaritan stopped anyway. He helped the hurt traveler, arranged for some care, checked in on that person again, and went on with his own life. He didn't stay long, become friends. Just stepped up and did what seemed to be right. And went on.
Sometimes the most important part is the doing -- doing what you can, for as long as you are able, even it's a just a moment.
So a group of us from St. Paul's did just that. We got to be the do-gooders. It did us good.
So, here's a moment from Camp Noah:
One of the cool things at Camp Noah is a tangible, personal disaster kit. Coping with disaster possibilities through preparation.
Each child decorates their very own plastic box and fills it with things the volunteers bring: flashlights, batteries, snacks that keep, cards and games and crayons, a list of disaster phone numbers, a stuffed toy, etc etc.
At our Camp Noah we put ours together on the first day. The plan was that the kids take the kit, and a Bible of their own, and a journal, and other creations they made, all home on Friday, at the end of the week.
Ebony wanted to take her home right away on Monday.
I hedged, wavering between answering "Okay!", and not wanting to slide into the ole instant gratification route, so I said, "But you're coming back tomorrow, right?"
And she just looked up at me and said, quietly, pragmatically,
"Yes, if tomorrow comes."
She wasn't upset or dramatic, just being practical.
and I said, "Yeah, ok, sure. You can take the kit with you, AND come back tomorrow, too."
Whew!
Camp Noah is more than church as usual, more than ordinary vacation Bible School. Or perhaps it REALLY is church as usual. Just doing something fairly ordinary with crafts and songs and Bible stories told by faithful people to other people for whom little is ordinary after a disaster.
So some of us at our congregation went to Camp Noah training, and other people from our congregation said they'd help with the costs, and we combined what we learned with what we already knew about children, and faith, and Noah stories, and songs, and belief ...
and 19 of us went on a journey for whatever reasons we each had ...
and did a good thing, I hope. I believe.
Oh! that's why.
We did it because we believe in what that Jesus fella said ... about loving God, and loving our neighbor (however distant) as ourselves ...
and so we try.
So, yes, Ebony and I will take home our disaster kits today, not waiting for tomorrow.
Her Camp Noah disaster preparedness kit is in decorated plastic box filled with practical stuff that someone chose with care and love for a stranger.
Mine is tucked inside my heart, knowing that love goes on, whether or not tomorrow comes.
lejg July 2006
Posted by the Nebraska weed at 15:19:21 Permanent Link Comments (1)
Saturday, August 12, 2006
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