By Rick Grover
On August 29, 2005, I wrote the following in my journal:
New Orleans got hit with a category four hurricane this morning. There”s been a lot of damage, but it doesn”t look like it will reach the extreme level of devastation they were predicting. We want to help with the cleanup, but we may not be able to get home for about four or five days.
Two days later I wrote:
The levees have been breached and water is pouring into the city. People are trapped and many rescues are being made. It may be another week before I can get back in to the city.
On September 1 I added:
New Orleans is still under water, and it may be over a month before we can get home.
Isn”t that the way life seems to happen? At first, things don”t seem too bad, but then life spirals downward and you don”t know if it will ever stop! When we left New Orleans we took one suitcase with some T-shirts and shorts. We thought we would return in a few days. But those few days stretched into a few weeks. For many people it will be months before they can return home, and some will never return.
When I got married I remember thinking, Am I really ready for this? When we had our first child I thought, I”m not ready to be a dad! When we experienced the flood of New Orleans, the thought raced through my mind, I”m not ready to go through something like this!
God doesn”t always wait until we think we”re ready. In hide and seek, when the seeker says, “Ready or not, here I come!” it doesn”t matter if you”re ready or not, because the seeker is going to seek!
I like things to be ordered in my life. I like a routine. I like my Blackberry to be organized with contact numbers and e-mails, my to-do list, and calendar. I like to know what”s coming. But life doesn”t work that way. Ready or not, things will come!
We had scheduled a staff retreat for Saturday, August 29. The next day we were going to launch 16 new small groups and commission 20-plus new small group leaders. We had our fall plans all laid out. Our associate minister had just finished writing the Christmas program. We were on target to work with a second church planter for a new church in 2006.
And then Katrina hit.
One of the jokes we have in New Orleans is that “pre-K” doesn”t mean pre-kindergarten any longer but pre-Katrina. All pre-K plans were washed away. I spoke with an area pastor who was serving a church of 2,500″”more than half of whom have left. The landscape has changed in more ways than one.
Light at the End of the Tunnel
One of the lessons we have been learning, however, is that as bad as things get, they won”t stay that way forever. That”s hard to believe when you”re going through a storm (and the immediate aftermath), but it”s true nonetheless.
Our church went from an average attendance of 200 to 60. We lost 30-40 homeless members from the Lower 9th Ward. Many in our church family decided not to return to New Orleans. Half the churches in New Orleans are closing their doors. As of October only 100,000 of the city”s 500,000 residents have returned to New Orleans. Another pastor friend told me there are 131 churches in his section of New Orleans, and he knows of only about 15 that will reopen.
As bad as all of this truly is, some people did start returning to New Orleans to pick up the pieces when the storm was gone. The devastation did stop . . . eventually. This is how it will be in every person”s life, regardless of how horrendous the loss or suffering may be.
God Always Sends in the Cavalry
When we were evacuating, I started receiving call after call from churches offering financial help and desiring to send work teams. We quickly organized our team to set up a temporary office, and we formed partnerships with other organizations like Stadia: New Church Strategies to help with processing donations, Passion for Community to help with shipments, and Building God”s Way to oversee construction projects. By October we had been contacted by churches from all 50 states and seven countries. We have work teams from more than 300 churches scheduled to come, and we have received shipments of more than $800,000 in food, water, clothing, etc., along with almost $2 million to help with relief and rebuilding efforts.
What a cavalry! A second lesson we have witnessed over and over again is that God is faithful. When disaster strikes, he moves through his people, the church, to bring comfort and aid and to shine the light of the love and compassion of Jesus Christ.
Our youth minister and I were having supper at the home of one of our church members last week. The wife is a Christian and the husband is not. The husband”s parents lost everything in the flood, as did many of his cousins and closest friends. Sitting with us were a couple of volunteer workers from a church in Indiana. (One was a member and one was not.)
During the meal, the husband told us, “Don”t be surprised if I show up at your church. When our family was down, you all stepped in to help, and I”m beginning to see what my wife has been talking about for these past two years.” And then he turned to the nonmember worker and said, “So, what do you think about all of this?”
The volunteer worker replied, “I don”t know. I”m still searching myself.”
Here we were””two ministers, a believing wife, a nonbelieving spouse, a Christian worker, and a non-Christian worker sitting together having supper. And it hit me. The person who is receiving help is taking one step closer to becoming a Christian as a result of Hurricane Katrina, and the person who is giving help is taking one step closer to becoming a Christian as a result of the storm. When God”s cavalry comes to town, you never know what the long-term impact will be.
Don”t Lose Sight of What It”s All About
We have been inundated with phone calls, e-mails, work teams, and an overwhelming need in the city of New Orleans. Sometimes the work is discouraging, and we begin to think we”re not making any difference.
That”s when we need to be reminded of a third lesson: we”re not serving to receive a reward. We serve because Jesus served. We serve because the love of Jesus Christ compels us to serve. Love demands an audience, not for self-glory, but for reception. Love flows into other people like a sponge soaks up water.
Duty can take you a long way, but love takes you further. In those times when we don”t “feel” like loving others, duty may need to kick in. But if we try to run on the fuel of duty, we eventually will run out of gas! That”s why love is our number one motivator for serving others. Love is what drove Jesus to the cross, and love is what drives us to help others.
We still don”t know where God is going to take us in all of this. Hundreds of people are being helped. Resources are being distributed. And much of this is happening because of churches like yours who stepped up to the plate in a time of need and said, “When one part of the body suffers, we all suffer with it” (see 1 Corinthians 12:26).
One thing we know is God is moving in powerful ways as a result of a powerful storm. God”s force is always greater than the force of what strikes against him. The greater the storm, the greater the power to overcome the storm. The greater the devastation, the greater the love to put the pieces back together. That”s the way God works.
Perhaps the greatest lesson we have learned is that God is always up to the challenge. We may not feel like it, but God always does. That”s why we need to spend more time in prayer and in the Word. We can”t overcome the Katrinas of this world in our own power. The devastation is too great. But nothing is greater than God”s power.
Whether you”re “pre-K” or “post-K” in your own struggles, be reminded of the words of Jesus: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Jesus has already overcome the world. All we have to do is connect with him and hold on for the ride.
Rick Grover serves as the lead minister of a new church plant in New Orleans, Louisiana, called Journey Christian Church. He is also coordinating a national Katrina relief and rebuilding effort for Christian churches/churches of Christ for the Greater New Orleans area. Rick is married to Laura, and they have three children””Will (9), Anna (7), and Luke (5). After completing his undergraduate degree at Manhattan (Kansas) Christian College, Rick served as the pastor of evangelism and discipleship at Central Christian Church, Wichita, Kansas, before becoming senior minister with Woodlawn Christian Church, Knoxville, Tennessee. His graduate education is from Lincoln (Illinois) Christian Seminary and Emmanuel School of Religion (Tennessee), where he received his DMin. Rick says urban ministry and racial reconciliation are ministry areas that stir his heart. His personal mission is to help people experience a life-changing passion for Jesus Christ and his community.
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