First Line Response

Jane and other PDA team members will be traveling to Houma, Louisiana on Saturday to evaluate the damages caused by hurricane Gustav. Her camp in New Orleans is fine but Houma was closest to the center of the destruction. We know Gustav could have been much worse, but for those lives in Houma, it’s hard to be comforted by “how worse it could have been” when they are coping with “it came to my home.” Jane’s concerned with knowing how to help without the enormity of the situation and the lives affected overwhelming her senses, because she has connection with this community. They are not just faces on TV. She has shared meals with them. Over the past three years she’s been helping with rebuilding in the gulf, but this time she is close to the recovery and was a part of the preparation, landfall and aftermath of Gustav. Medical triage assessors must use their knowledge and skill sets to quickly evaluate and administer aide to patients acting on a kind of superficial level, knowing if they really allowed themselves to sink into the reality of the situation and the consequences that they could become so distraught that they could not help the next person who is someone’s brother, mother, daughter, or grandfather. It’s an aptitude to see without recognition, to touch without sensation, and to temporarily postpone the impact on them. Jane recalled asking our previous minister if he ever got used to making emergency visits to the hospital and consoling families. “He said he hasn't and if he did, he would know it was time to get out of the ministry.”

My prayer for the larger congregation?

Mighty God, We are in need of your strength, your power, and your wisdom. Give our first-line responders the energy they need to continue meeting need after need. Reinforce their skills and allow these gifts of service to offer hope and a sense of stability to the residents of the gulf area. Allow the responders to be treated and attended, knowing that their own lives are in need of restoration and healing. Never allow us to reach a point where we completely turn off our senses, coping as we must but never wholly abandoning or disengaging. As more hurricanes are approaching the coasts, let our country not become overwhelmed by the extent and helplessness of natural disasters instead focusing on what we can do to help. From person to person contact or by prayers where we stand, we can help. Dear God, you are the great comforter and supplier of hope. We trust in you. Amen.