Posted on 09/21/2005 7:46:07 AM PDT by WestTexasWend
"I'm lost, I'm lost ... all my family is gone," the man cried as television cameras recorded his despair in the flooded streets of New Orleans.
Those words pierced the heart of the Rev. Matt Wolfington.
"It really got me started talking to some of my staff," Wolfington said. "Everybody seemed to feel pretty helpless."
Perhaps it was his previous nine years in police work, but this pistol-packing preacher was shocked to hear people saying that there wasn't anything they could do after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. Wolfington was determined to find something they could do. He is associate minister and administrative pastor at St. Luke's United Methodist Church and Southwest St. Luke's Church.
"The man was saying he had nothing, but he does - he has the church," Wolfington said.
So Wolfington called the people he knew would have some answers - UMCOR, the United Methodist Committee On Relief, which is based in Baldwin, La., about 70 miles west of New Orleans.
UMCOR had 100,000 health kits containing basic everyday items - such as toothbrush and toothpaste, soap, washcloth, towel, comb, nail clippers and files, antibiotic ointment and small bandages for cuts and scrapes - but it was obvious that more were going to be needed as people were evacuated.
Hurricane Katrina struck on Aug. 29. On Aug. 30 and 31, Wolfington said, St. Luke's considered how best to get the entire community involved in gathering items and preparing more health kits to send for distribution through UMCOR.
The Rev. Don Kinder, new associate minister of discipleship at St. Luke's, knew someone at the corporate offices of United Supermarkets. When he called United about assistance with the health kits, St. Luke's was invited to attend a meeting United had scheduled with The Red Cross and the Salvation Army to announce that United would have a barcode at cash registers for people to make donations.
United added a bar code for health kits or flood bucket donations. A health kit cost is $15, and a flood bucket, which contains items for cleaning after the floodwaters recede, costs $50.
Donors could donate cash or purchase items from the list themselves, giving a hands-on alternative, Wolfington said. Volunteers came from all over town and from St. Luke's to man the display at each United store.
"(The response) was amazing," Wolfington said. "A man in Tulia dropped off 20 flood buckets; 120 volunteers helped put the kits together. Getting people to help is no problem."
Church member Linda Clark, who went shopping to put together a demonstration kit of the needed items to display at each store, said volunteers were involved in various phases of the project, but it was Wolfington who was instrumental in getting it going.
"He is a go-getter, and if he has an idea, it is going to get done," she said.
Wolfington said one young man brought a cup of change (about $17) he had dug out of his car, and said it was all he had in money but he offered his muscle to assist in whatever way he could.
"What he did will touch someone's life," Wolfington said. "The effort is still going on."
Donations for the health kits will be taken up to Sept. 30. During the first week of October, St. Luke's will take kits and flood buckets to UMCOR.
"I think we have about 50,000 health kits," he said, "and UMCOR already has requests for up to that, not just for New Orleans, but for the whole Gulf Coast."
On Sept. 16, St. Luke's sent 3,867 health kits, with shipping provided free by Lone Star Overnight Shipping. St. Luke's will have sent about $25,000 in flood relief, more than half of about $45,000 sent from the Northwest Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.
"Before we met with United, Don and I prayed, 'Lord, if this gets out of hand, we'll just have to handle it.' It wasn't a Matt Wolfington project, a Don Kinder or St. Luke's project; it's a kingdom project, and God deserves all the glory in it," Wolfington said.
"Wolfington said one young man brought a cup of change (about $17) he had dug out of his car, and said it was all he had in money but he offered his muscle to assist in whatever way he could."
Now this man is a TRUE MAN. It warmed my heart!
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