USA (MNN)–Although the monster storm has passed, conditions in along the Gulf Coast states it hit are deteriorating.
Louisiana’s governor has ordered the evacuation of the the whole of New Orleans due to flooding from Hurricane Katrina.
Evangelical Free Church of America’s Jim Snyder says they’re standing by. “The plan is to assist people who are in refugee status, where they’re at, to provide funds for them and to make sure that their needs are taken care of and that they’re actually able to restore their lives after they provide us opportunity to be able to get back in.”
EFCA partner, Pastor John Gerhardt is with Castle Rock Community Church’s Urban Impact Ministries. Their main evangelistic outreach is in the heart of New Orleans’ inner city.
Because many of the members did not have transportation out of the city before the storm hit, the church evacuated their entire congregation to Arkansas.
There, a sister church’s members opened their homes to the evacuees. It’s become a waiting game now, knowing the devastation most likely means everyone has lost everything.
Gerhardt also knows “that God’s people will be mobilized to come down and share that love and make a huge difference, not just in the physical redoing of the community, but the spiritual redoing of folks coming and loving on people and grabbing a hammer, or cleaning up a mess.”
