Alabama churches reach out to evacuees

With residents of the flooded Mobile area and refugees from the battered Mississippi and Louisiana coasts fleeing to higher and safer ground, many Alabama Baptist churches were ready and willing to help those looking to have their basic needs met. Evacuees were merely seeking a roof over their heads, a bed to sleep in and a meal or two, and countless Baptists across the state have since jumped at the opportunity to provide for them.
   
A welcome center in Monroeville directed those looking for shelter to First Baptist Church, Monroeville, in Bethlehem Baptist Association. After hosting only two people in the first days following Hurricane Katrina’s landfalls Aug. 29, the shelter had as many as 50 by Sept. 1.
   
Kevin Castleberry, minister of discipleship and missions for First, Monroeville, said, “These people not only don’t have a home to go to, they don’t have a town to go to.”
   
In response, members of the church want to be a part of creating a structure of help. More than just housing and feeding stranded victims, this structure could provide long-term care, even helping families enroll their children in local schools.
   
In Baldwin Baptist Association, First Baptist Church, Robertsdale, and First Baptist Church, Bay Minette — serving temporarily as Red Cross shelters — took in 35 and 85 people, respectively, the night of Aug. 30. 
   
The next day, those staying at First, Robertsdale, and First, Bay Minette, were moved to the Red Cross shelter at the Nicholson Center in Daphne. Henry Cox, pastor of First, Bay Minette, and president of the Alabama Baptist State Convention, said his church was doing what most churches were doing — everything they could to help.
   
First, Robertsdale, was pressed into service again Sept. 1 as evacuees from Louisiana flocked to the area, and 115 of them took shelter indefinitely at the church.
   
On the eastern side of the state, 60 guests arriving Aug. 30 quickly swelled to 140 the next day for First Baptist Church, Opelika. The bulk of people hailed from Louisiana, and as shelters in south Alabama filled up, they were forced to travel north and — in this case,  east — finding the doors of First, Opelika, open to them.
   
After being activated as a Red Cross shelter Aug. 29, First, Opelika, could only stay open to evacuees for 10 days. In addition to Sunday School rooms-turned bedrooms, the church provided shower facilities, towels, toiletries and diapers for infants and opened its playground and gym to the children.
   
As the number of people seeking shelter was expected to increase, other churches, prepared to open as shelters, were placed on standby. In addition, church members like some at Catawba Springs Baptist Church, Brewton, offered their homes as shelter for displaced families.
   
Coffee Baptist Association’s The Vineyard Christian Retreat in Ariton opened as a Red Cross shelter because there was not one for the city’s 116 refugees. Steve Tipton, director of The Vineyard, said he believes the Red Cross is excited about this opportunity because it is different from other shelters. Offering organized games and worship services, refugees can also retreat with the camp’s swimming pools, hiking trails and lakes.
   
Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center in Talladega has also opened its doors, housing a 30-person disaster relief team from Virginia and a 50-person team from North Carolina who were en route to their designated posts in damaged areas. 
   
Two families from Wiggins, Miss., also took shelter at the conference center after their home and place of employment was severely damaged, said Buster Taylor, Shocco’s executive director. The three adults are seeking employment in the area, and the camp remains on standby for others in need.
   
Fifty-five adults from Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, New Orleans, arrived on church buses at Baldwin Association’s Camp Baldwin in Elberta for an ushers retreat Aug. 26, thinking that the latest hurricane was headed for another area of Florida. She headed west toward their homes instead. 
   
Once the hurricane hit, they stayed longer than anticipated as they awaited transportation back home. “It is difficult for them, but as Christians, they are accepting [the situation],” Director David Payne said. The night of the storm, they held a midnight worship service.
   
The churches of Baldwin Association have undertaken Project Care, an ongoing project to collect and distribute relief supplies to areas affected by the hurricane, starting in the Hattiesburg, Miss., area and moving south toward the coast. The first load of donations was delivered to Slidell, La., Sept. 1, with other loads to follow as soon as contacts could be established with people in the affected areas to help with distribution.
   
Other associational ministries, such as Tuscaloosa Baptist Association’s Christian Ministry Center and Bethlehem Association’s sharing ministry, are providing fresh clothing for evacuees. 
   
In Birmingham, the Birmingham Baptist Association set up a shower facility and meal preparation facility at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex to service evacuees taking shelter there. 
   
According to Mark Lawley, disaster consultant for the association, those units can stay at the convention complex until Sept. 9, but the association is prepared to provide the units for 30 days or more, if necessary, in another location. Local Baptist volunteers such as those from Dawson Memorial Baptist Church, Birmingham, are manning shifts at the shelter.
   
After a call from the Department of Human Resources, Barbour Baptist Association and its Clayton Baptist Church practically cleaned out their food pantries to feed about 150 evacuees in motels in Eufaula. Churches like some in the Tallapoosa Baptist Association are adopting motels where large numbers of evacuees are staying and providing hot meals for them.
   
Amid reports that evacuees in Tuscaloosa hotels were being forced out in favor of University of Alabama football fans, the Tuscaloosa Association decided to turn game day into a way to help the hurricane victims. Volunteers were posted at the stadium before kickoff with Middle Tennessee State University to collect money to be used by the Red Cross for lodging, shelters and food.
   
Hunger funds are available from the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) to assist with feeding evacuees. To apply, send an e-mail with a brief description of the number of victims in the area, what is being done to help them and a request for a specific dollar amount to Richard Alford at ralford@alsbom.org.