Get Your Hands Dirty

Last week I wrote an article here about Ministry Outside the Stained Glass Fish Bowl.  In that article I talked about getting out of the church and into the community to minister to people.

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans a few years ago, I sat and watched everything that was happening there on television.  It was hard to absorb what I was watching and I just wanted to do something to help.  I sent a donation to the Red Cross, but I wanted to do more than send money.  That was much too easy.

When the Atlanta floods started this year, I couldn’t watch it on TV or on the Internet because all of our services, including our phone service, were out.  We live very close to an area that was hard hit by the floods and I was having a heck of a time trying to find out what was going on.  My only communication with the outside world was via my cell phone.  Since I follow 11 Alive News and DJ, Rob Stadler on Twitter, they became my conduit to up-to-date flood information.  Still, I wanted to do something.

Bad Timing

As much as I wanted to do something, the timing was bad.  I was scheduled to go on vacation that same week. Everything was already paid for and non-refundable. So once again I sent a donation to HopeATL and then headed for the Bahamas.  I continued to keep up with what was going on with flood victims via Twitter.

It’s Time To Get Dirty

While I was on vacation, I signed up to work with HopeATL.  Sending a monetary donation just wasn’t enough for me.  It was time to get dirty.  I actually wanted to touch someone’s life by helping to move debris, getting rid of mold and delivering care packages.  It was something I had never done before and had no idea what I was getting into.

Once signed up to work, HopeATL sent daily updates.  So I knew to wear long sleeves, long pants, rubber gloves, work gloves and a mask.  Three days after getting home from vacation I was off to Ewing Baptist Church to get my assignment.

Faith at Work

When I arrived at the church there were Christian groups from Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa and Florida – all volunteering to help work on the homes of flood victims.  Some came with funds from their Missions budget, others just came.  They all came by faith – didn’t know where they would sleep or what adverse conditions they might encounter.  They braved Atlanta’s traffic, which is in itself a leap of faith, and spent several days working in mold saturated homes.

The home we were assigned to on Tuesday belonged to a handicapped woman.  The house had been closed up for two weeks and was full of mold. After about five hours the home had been cleared of debris and gutted.  Here’s a picture of my Tuesday work group taken before we actually got to work.  I guest they take the pictures before we get all dirty and exhausted.  Several other people joined us later in the day.

It was a wonderful experience.  Dirty and bone tired, I went home, took off my filthy sneakers and left them in the garage.  My work clothes went straight into the washer and I went straight into the shower.

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Tags: Atlanta floods, flood update, flood volunteers, HopeATL, ministry outside church