First off I want to state that no, it wasn’t a good thing that Katrina caused damage and that floods washed away a large part of a state. However, the topic of this post isn’t so much about Katrina, but rather how the area where I live is responding.
Helena and West Helena are located about mid-ways up the eastern side of Arkansas, so we’re not right next to Louisiana or anything. But over the last couple days we have had an influx of people looking for a place to stay. We’ve got several churches providing shelter and I found out this evening that we’ve got about 300 people coming in tomorrow to stay in the National Guard Armory.
Now, on my shift tonight I learned that a Baptist and an Assembly of God church have teamed up, one guy is allowing a family to live in a rent house he owns for free, the West Helena Fire Department is giving away free toothbrushes and toothpaste. And the list goes on and on.
For those of you who are from around here or read my blog regularly you know that come January the two cities are going to merge. A lot of talk has gone into trying to figure out how to get everyone to work together because, historically, the two cities didn’t care much for one another. Well… it seems like that’s been solved. When different denominations of churches are actually cooperating instead of bickering over Bible interpretations… well, that’s huge.
Again, I’m not happy for what’s happened to these people who are coming into town. But I’m glad to see the Christians stand up and ‘love thy neighbor’ instead of arguing. My prayer now? That we’ll be able to impact they’re lives in such a way that they will always remember Phillips County, Arkansas as an area of Love. And I hope a good number of the people hang around and find work. We could use a larger population.
