Comments on: Is it Cool to Help Katrina?

By: Matt Heerema

Matt Heerema — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 21:22:42 +0000

“Where were we before Katrina?”

I hope the answer to that is faithfully being shining examples of Christ’s love in our own little, local communities. It is something like Katrina that causes us to band together and shine a little brighter, stand out a little more, but I hope we aren’t doing any less in our smaller groups…

By: Todd

Todd — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 01:23:05 +0000

yeah. sometimes i wonder if the church will fade away as quickly as the television cameras. I really hope not and i really think they won’t… i’d like to think the church is a little more compassionate than the media.

By: the Foolish Sage

the Foolish Sage — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 16:42:58 +0000

Hey, Todd, this is Mark from Westminster Seminary. We met at the Philly Cohort a few evenings ago.

One “good thing” (and one hesitates to use that phrase around a disaster) about Katrina and the church that I think is different from most other big disasters we’ve been through is that Katrina seems to have awakened a lot of comfortable Christians to how much social inequity exists here in America. Let us pray that that awakening doesn’t fade too quickly.

By: Ed C

Ed C — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 02:45:47 +0000

Thanks for sharing these challenging thoughts. I think the tragedy of Katrina is inescapable. I felt guilty until I made a donation. Everywhere I go, Amazon, Google, you name it, I see a little Red Cross link reminding me to donate. If I kept the issues of say poverty or substance abuse in front of me as regularly, I wonder if I would be more inclined to give. As it is, I just forget about the problems all around me and move on with my life as if they don’t exist.

By: Len

Len — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 21:34:02 +0000

You had asked me if I thought this entry was too mean or negative.. It’s not. You don’t just say “Hey, we suck, we aren’t doing things right.” You say “Hey, we suck, but we could be doing much better, so lets get on the job in the areas where God has already placed us.”

Katrina hit at the same time that I moved up here to Watertown. Once I was done unpacking enough to use the net and watch TV, I turned on Fox News (it was like day 2 or 3 after the storm). In my heart I wanted to do something, to go down and help. I got on the FEMA website, and found out they have online disaster management courses you can take for free and get certified as a volunteer. I was on this emotional kick for like three days where I was going to get all trained and be ready to go, even though realistically I have my own family, ministry, and job to worry about.

Maybe I will get the basic certification.. We have severe Ice Storms every couple of years up here that leave people without power for days and even weeks, and it would be good to be able to step into a public response role with some background. But hello, church? Yeah, we as followers in Christ should take care of needs in our local communities, and without having a huge disaster to prompt it.

We had a soldier take his life in the church last week, and it blew my mind. I realized how many needs, both seen and unseen, there are in my semi-rural area, just as in New Orleans. It’s different social issues, different physical needs, different cultural paradigms, but it’s all about people, and it’s all stuff the church needs to be immersed in by its very nature.

I’m right on board with you, and you’re not too mean, or too negative.