Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles

Lines of communication into Picayune and the Picayune Item are totally out this morning. (By the way – Tom got the Item website running and updated yesterday, so you can now go there, click on the individual dates under "Special Section" down the left side, and see, enlarge and read every page of every edition of the paper since the day after the hurricane to get an accurate idea of what is going on in that one small town.)

I was only able to talk with Tom for a few brief moments one time yesterday afternoon. I’m telling you all right here and now, this Thursday, September 6, 2005 sunny, warm morning out in Abilene, Texas, that for all practical purposes, New Orleans and the vast area around it for miles and miles and miles, has been hit by the equivalent of 5 atomic bombs. And I am not exaggerating.

I do not believe the United States of America or the rest of the world has yet grasped that reality. I do not believe the myriad of workers going down already in vast numbers to try to help truly understand the depth of the entire problem even after seeing their one minute part of it around them where they go in.

The aftermath of all that is going on minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day is going to be with us for not days, not weeks, not months, but years to come in a vast number of ways incomprehensible to any of us now, even those with the best minds and most educated guesses and predictions.

That being said, as I wrote last Wednesday and Friday, just a few hours and couple of days after the hurricane roared through, upon getting out and first learning of the true picture, God can work many good things in all of this through his people here on earth, not only here in America, but from around the world.

We each, as individuals, communities, towns, cities, states and the nation, can do our small part that we can link together with everyone else to form a human chain of love and caring and concern that cannot be broken.

It begins with our individual devotion to pray, to work, to sharing, in acts of giving and service.

It expands to our neighbors on each side of us and across the street. It grows into our neighborhood and community and multiplies many times over from place to place to place as a giant spider web encompassing our nation surrounding each and every one of those in need.

It will take a commitment and a total change of life for us all, people. It will not come without a heavy price being paid in lifestyle and outreach. But, we can do it and do it well with God’s strength lifting us up far beyond where we’ve ever thought we could go.

Hour by hour each day I, myself, here in Abilene, Texas, some 750 miles from home, am working constantly from morning to late at night to do my part to connect people and groups, to email people with resources who need to coordinate their efforts, to call people and put them together in places much closer than I am to "the action," I manage things for Tom and myself that I can manage, such as contacting our insurance company to start our claims for damages, to balance our bank account balance and to pay bills, to function with as much rationality as I can muster from my ongoing, now semi-state of shock and to pray without ceasing for God’s hand and guidance in all I do.

Am I worried? YES, I worry.

Am I extremely concerned? Yes, I’m extremely concerned.

About Tom, about Mark and family, about our home, our work, our town, our long separation.

But, I press on, anyway, in the face of and in spite of such concerns and anxieties amidst the unknown chaos out of which order is barely beginning to take shape.

Others are pressing on, too. When I next post, I am going to share with you some of the absolutely marvelous individual stories I’m receiving of help that is in action in many ongoing desperate situations throughout southern Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and even Florida.

What can you do, specifically, from wherever you are?

Number one, you can pray.

Number two, you can give financitally to church groups and non-profit organizations you know of and can trust (I’ve listed several, already, and if you will email me, I will give you more and put you in direct touch with contacts I have who are organizing to go in).

Number three, you can volunteer there where you are in your home town or city to help those refugees coming in. Get with your church. Get with your Bible study group.

If you are not part of one, get with one, find out what you can do and lend a hand.

Finally, for all of you "new" readers since Katrina Watch began, here’s a link to my July 1 post called "Interlude" and my August 5 post called "Zoe & Hannah," where you can put faces to the names I’ve been talking about. Me & Tom and Mark’s two little girls, Zoe & Hannah, all of whom I’ve been so concerned with only sporadic communication between us all.

Continue to pray for them. Lift them all up into God’s hands to protect and keep safe.

Pray for me to keep a level of health such that I can continue my work from here.

Contact me, if you wish to take part in any of the things I have thus far presented in any way and I will be sharing more daily.

May God richly bless all of those in need and all of those of you who are helping in any way. May His mercy shine down upon us all. Do not think that what you can do alone is too little. It is not. Each and every act is vital.

And now is the time – today is the day – to take action.