Bridging Katrina's gaps

Local churches join forces to help hurricane victims.

A man who risked his life rescuing strangers and now can't find his own family told Shari Stroup that Hurricane Katrina taught him about love.

"He said, 'Loving each other is all that matters,'" said Stroup, who leads the outreach ministry for La Croix United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau and has spent the past week helping victims in Kennett, Mo.

In the end, Katrina may have bridged more gaps than she created.

Local churches, including La Croix, have banded together in their efforts to help displaced hurricane victims in Southeast Missouri, including spending the past week at Camp McClanahan in Kennett.

"My experience has been truly humbling. It's been amazing to see these people share their stories," said Stroup. "Their stories are incredible and their level of faith has astounded me."

Baptist churches across the state have volunteered their camps to temporarily house victims. Members of La Croix, Centenary United Methodist, St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, St. Andrew Lutheran Church and others have volunteered for casework, medical care and other services at the Kennett camp. About eight car loads of people from New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church visited Kennett this week for worship service and prayer. Other local churches have raised funds and collected food and clothing donations for victims.

"We took a team down just to walk around and pray with individuals and hear their stories and allow them to work through their pain as they told their stories," said Stroup.

A group of volunteers from First General Baptist Church in Jackson spent two days in Mississippi helping clean up the devastated area. Christ Church of the Heartland volunteered its van to haul victims from Kennett to Cape Girardeau.

So much has been given and done by local churches that the full extent probably isn't known.

"We're united together to work on this," said Stroup. "The benefit is we're stronger as a unit than standing alone and we're stronger in Christ as a unit than standing alone. Everything we have comes from him."

Several local churches are adopting families to help them obtain meal vouchers, find jobs, enroll children in school and begin to rebuild their lives.

Becky Harding, a member of Cententary United Methodist and American Red Cross volunteer, said this is just the initial phase of helping these families back normal lives.

"This will have to be a faith-based inititive because these people have lost everything," said Harding.

The American Red Cross is organizing that effort among churches.

cmiller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128