Christians Emphasize Importance of Providing Hope to Katrina Victims
As food, medical supplies, manpower, and donations pour into the devastated areas hit by Hurricane Katrina, Christian leaders and volunteers are emphasizing the need to provide a message of hope to survivors.
As food, medical supplies, manpower, and donations pour into the devastated areas hit by Hurricane Katrina, Christian leaders and volunteers are emphasizing the need to provide a message of hope to survivors.
Last week, leaders from Christian ministries such as the American Bible Society (ABS) pledged to provide spiritual support, agreeing that "the most important thing to provide is a sense of hope, something that is an absolute essential for life to be remade."
On the Lighthouse Report radio program, Campus Crusade for Christ relief worker Mike Downhauer also stated that "The main things these folks need are hope."
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He noted that at least 17 people committed suicide on Aug. 31.
“Individuals and organizations are looking for ways to meet the emotional and spiritual needs of Hurricane Katrina survivors,” the International Bible Society (IBS) noted in a statement released last Friday.
Since Hurricane Katrina struck the U.S. Gulf Coast last month a wave of Christian organizations have been working to minister both the physical needs and spiritual needs of Katrina victims.
The Women’s Missionary Union (WMU), for example, has prepared and served over 10,000 hot meals a day to evacuees in Pascagoula, Miss., while coordinating efforts to distribute non-perishable items and provide medical care as well in the church parking lot. Working alongside those caring for the physical needs of the evacuees are chaplains and pastors who are ministering to the people receiving care.
“We’ve got probably four or five chaplains a day that are on site, ministering to people in the lines, ministering to people in the cars,” said Kay Cassibry, Executive Director of the Mississippi WMU to Agape Press. “We’ve had six or seven in the feeding line that have been saved, we’ve had several homeless people, and we’ve had two of our trash collector drivers saved. So God is just opening doors everyway.”
Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham – who provided among other donations, 100 trailers to house more than 20,000 evacuees in Shreveport, La. – also called upon Christians to provide spiritual relief.
“I want these people [Hurricane victims] to know that God loves them and cares for them,” he said in a statement on the Samaritan Purse website. “I want to do everything I can to help them in His Name. In a storm we all need an anchor, and I believe that anchor is Jesus Christ.”
Leading Christian bodies such as Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States with 16 million members, and the World Evangelical Alliance have also release statements advocating Christians to share the message of hope.
“It is critical that churches provide not only physical resources but bring a biblical message hope to those who are pain and have lost so much,” said Geoff Tunnicliffe, WEA International Director.
“This is the kind of ministry that's so urgently needed because it points people to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," said Bobby Welch, President of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), to the Baptist Press.
In addition to direct ministry, ministry through scripture pamphlets is also gaining popularity in evacuee locations. Christian groups such as International Bible Society (IBS), Compassion, and Book of Hope USA are helping to distribute pamphlets or booklets of scripture to the evacuees. Book of Hope USA was requested to deliver 100,000 copies to the Gulf Coast region while IBS and Compassion will jointly distribute 180,000 “Survivor” booklets, scriptures specifically designed for children who have undergone a crisis.
Across the broad spectrum of the Christian community – from Church-based ministry to faith-based organizations to scripture ministries – the delivery of hope is gaining in popularity, prominence, and priority in relief work.
“These faith-based groups are meeting the needs of the people," says Michael Pittman, a North Mississippi resident volunteer to AgapePress. "There's thousands and thousands that are coming through, and they're begging and begging for preachers and lay people to come down there and to minister to them. These people have no hope. They need hope, and the only hope they can get is through Jesus Christ. They need people to go down there and share Jesus Christ with them."
