Inspire, Spring 2006

32 Spring 2006 Afterthoughts In the spirit of the Inspire Winter 2005 issue on Hurricane Katrina, Cherith Payne Kennedy ’05 had this to share: When Hurricane Katrina hurled herself towards the Gulf Coast, I knew my in-laws, Brent and Rita Kennedy, were already on call to join the first response teams. It turned out that only Rita could make the trip this time, and all of a sudden I felt God gripping my heart. Immediately I called Rita and told her I had to go, even though I had just graduated from CU and started my job at Kindred Partners that summer. God worked a miracle for me that day. Andrew Clauson ’05, president of Kindred Partners, immediately gave me two weeks off. The company sent me off with prayers, encouragement, and the trip’s expenses financially covered. My husband, Daniel ’04, also gave me his full support in making the trip. I was overwhelmed by everyone’s prayers and encouragement. I joined Rita and her team in Mississippi and began a journey I will never forget. The first week was spent feeding and ministering to displaced families. God really challenged me as I spent time with families who were left with only the clothes on their backs. I think they ended up blessing me and challenging me more than I them. I learned how to touch lives simply by giving someone a hug, a plate of hot food, by running and playing games with a child, and by loaning out my cell phone for families to contact relatives. The second week Rita and I were part of a chainsaw crew that headed further south to Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The whole town was devastated. God used that week of hard labor to deepen the bonds between Rita and me as we ministered together cleaning up trees and limbs and encouraging families. I came home feeling rather beaten and humbled, not only physically but also emotionally. I left that devastated place knowing that I would have a warm home to return to, and they would live in a crowded hotel room or even a lobby for at least another month or so. To say the least, my spirit was greatly encouraged and uplifted when hundreds of Cedarville students quickly volunteered to go south. My in-laws, who returned to the coast several more times, were also really encouraged as several CU teams worked alongside them in Biloxi. So when I look back and think about Hurricane Katrina, the thing that strikes me the most is how the body of Christ responded so quickly and so dramatically and how I got to be a little part of it. I learned what it truly meant to be the hands and feet of Christ. That fills me with a joy beyond words! Also in the spirit of the Inspire Winter 2005 issue on Hurricane Katrina, Jodie Patterson Gandolfi ’90 shares the following: As the U.S. correspondent for a national Australian newspaper, I was sent on assignment to the Astrodome in Houston, Texas one week after Hurricane Katrina hit to hear survivors’ stories and write about their experiences. It was one of the most gut-wrenching, profoundly disturbing experiences I have encountered in my journalism career. Along with many Americans, I watched the deluge of distressing news reports that swamped our television screens day after day and wondered, “How could this be happening to one of the most powerful and richest nations on earth?” But what stunned and sickened me most was the fact that media such as CNN and Oprah Winfrey managed to make their way to the Convention Center and the Superdome (where people were dying for lack of water and medical attention) long before the rescue crews ever got there. Sadly for many victims, it was too late. Despite all that, nothing that I had seen on television prepared me for what I experienced when I stepped foot inside the Astrodome in Houston. The once-famous sports arena was transformed overnight into a makeshift camp for tens of thousands of hurricane survivors. It was a sobering sight to look upon a sea of some 20,000 people, knowing that their whole lives’ possessions had been reduced to nothing more than a change of clothes in a plastic bag. It is assumed that the journalist’s role is to remain somewhat uninvolved: get the facts, get the figures, get the photographs, and get out. But suddenly, confronted by a sea of grief-stricken faces, I became overwhelmed with the assignment and thought, “Where do I start? What do I say?” “God, help me,” I prayed. For days I stayed at the Astrodome, as in raw anguish survivors described their immense suffering and loss while at the same time exhibiting great courage and will to survive against all odds. I often found myself assuming the role of social worker and grief counselor rather than just that of a Cherith Payne Kennedy ’05 hard at work in Hattiesburg, Mississippi Hurricane survivor holding a Bible he was given by one of the many Christian organizations volunteering at the Astrodome