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Louisiana’s United Methodists offer shelter from storm

 


Louisiana’s United Methodists offer shelter from storm

Oct. 4, 2004

By Betty Backstrom*

When millions of people were forced to evacuate coastal cities in the wake of Hurricane Ivan, United Methodists in Louisiana were there to help.

About 200 people seeking shelter wound up in Woodworth, La., at the denomination’s Louisiana Conference Center. The center has two residential lodges, a main facility with meeting rooms and dining services, and a chapel.

"We had folks from all over," said the Rev. Richard Bushnell, the center’s executive director. "They came from Mobile (Ala.), Pensacola (Fla.), Gulf Shores (Ala.), New Orleans and cities in the New Orleans area."

Evacuees whose homes were spared stayed for one night. Others stayed as along as three days and nights, until they could return home safely and assess the damages.

The phone rang continuously for several days, as the conference center staff made room for hundreds of people who had no hotel reservations or family to go to. "We never stopped trying to help people, even though sometimes we had to send them to other shelters," he said. "But we made sure that everyone found a place to stay."

The center even wound up housing a number of soldiers who had been displaced from Camp Beauregard, a National Guard base in Alexandria, La. While taking in storm evacuees, the camp had to find other shelter for some of its personnel.

"One woman told me that she couldn’t believe a center like ours existed," Bushnell said. "She called us her ‘refuge in the storm, a haven.’"

The woman told him she felt like she had been on vacation "‘instead of running away from Hurricane Ivan. I think winding up here was God’s way of telling me that things will be OK.’"

In Shreveport, La., Centenary College welcomed 33 students, staff, and faculty from Dillard University in New Orleans to wait out Hurricane Ivan. Both Dillard and Centenary are United Methodist colleges.

Centenary’s fitness center became a shelter with mattresses, couches and televisions. "The outpouring of kindness from the Centenary community and some local businesses was overwhelming," said Lori Bradshaw, dean of student life at the college. "Faculty, staff and students donated items, as well as time and energy, for these evacuees.

"The generosity was well received by the Dillard students," she added. "They were delighted to be able to attend classes while away from their own campus. It was heartwarming to see both institutions work together to make the situation bearable for those students evacuated."

In Woodworth, the conference center staff also made visitors comfortable. Bushnell cautioned staffers that the travelers would be arriving in anxious moods. "They were all exhausted, some traveling for 10 hours or more," he said. "They didn’t know what would be waiting for them when they got back home. I just reminded the staff to use a healthy measure of patience and to go that extra mile to meet our guests’ needs."

Although a number of the rooms had been booked by the Louisiana Conference’s Academy for Spiritual Leadership for the days the hurricane hit, the group was gracious about canceling its event so evacuees could use the facilities.

"This was a wonderful, uplifting experience for the staff. It provided an opportunity to extend our ministry to people we may probably never see again," Bushnell said. "It became a time of spiritual revival and renewal for each of us that worked here."

The United Methodist Committee on Relief is responding to storm-related needs along the Gulf Coast and elsewhere. Donations can be made in several ways to UMCOR’s appeal, "Hurricanes 2004," Advance #982410. Online, donors can go to www.MethodistRelief.org. Checks written to UMCOR can be placed in church offering plates or mailed directly to UMCOR, 475 Riverside Drive, Room 330, New York, N.Y. 10115. Donations by credit card can be made by calling, toll free, (800) 554-8583.

UMCOR continues to need flood buckets containing supplies that volunteers use in post-hurricane cleanup. For details, go to http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor/print/kits/. Completed flood buckets-with $1.50 per bucket to cover reshipping-should be sent to UMCOR Sager Brown, 101 Sager Brown Road, Baldwin, La. 70514.

*Backstrom is director of communications for the United Methodist Church’s Louisiana Annual (regional) Conference.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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