Calhoun Association helps prepare Fort McClellan for long-term housing

Calhoun Association helps prepare Fort McClellan for long-term housing

Govenor Bob Riley’s Operation Golden Rule may increase outreach opportunities for Alabama Baptists as a growing number of evacuees seek long-term shelter outside areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.
   
Riley announced Sept. 2 that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved his plan to house victims by opening dormitories and other facilities at Fort McClellan, a former military base in Anniston.
   
“This will allow us to provide long-term shelter to about 1,000 hurricane victims,” he said in a press release. “Our goal with Operation Golden Rule is to find housing for 10,000 evacuees and this approval from FEMA is great news. I appreciate FEMA’s assistance and especially the community’s help. The community has opened their hearts to these storm victims and really made this possible.”
   
According to Calhoun Baptist Association Director of Missions Sid Nichols, the fort requires professional services to remove mold in the dorms, which may take one week or more to correct, and then FEMA has to grant a final approval before the base opens to house evacuees. Yet he and other churches in the area look forward to serving when the opportunity arises.
   
Sensing community members’ eagerness to help, Anniston Mayor Chip Howell organized the Labor of Love workday in preparation for the facility’s opening. On Labor Day, more than 2,500 community residents mowed grass, trimmed trees and planted flowers to give the former military installation a new inviting look. 
   
“The Labor of Love was a burden that I felt and an opportunity for people to release some of that willingness to help,” said Howell. “With that Monday being a holiday, I thought it appropriate to be able to give people an opportunity to assist the effort.”
   
Howell, a member of Parker Memorial Baptist Church, Anniston, said many Alabama Baptist churches had a very visible presence at the event. 
   
“First Baptist Church, Jacksonville, cooked hotdogs,” he said. “First Baptist Church, Anniston provided water. Golden Springs (Anniston) pastor Roland Brown gave our invocation and many, many other churches from all over the county were represented. It makes me very proud to be a Christian first and to be a Baptist second.”
   
First, Jacksonville, member Kelly Ryan worked with his Sunday School class and their children to serve hotdogs, chips, cookies, water and drinks to about 800 volunteers during the work day.
   
“We felt that this was a way that we could make an impact and do some witnessing too,” he said.
   
Once Fort McClellan is ready for occupation, it will include space for a cafeteria, classrooms, service agencies for counseling and job placement, a medical facility, softball field and gymnasium, according to Howell. 
   
“The goal is to integrate the displaced people into our community or give them time to move back to their community, up to two years.”
   
He added, “A lot of the people are choosing to stay in the community. They have nothing to go back to.”
   
In the meantime, churches have plenty of relief work to keep them busy, said Nichols, who coordinates the area’s feeding program.
   
“We’re swamped trying to take care of present needs,” he said. “We all are thinking about the missions opportunities that are going to be there. We need to get these people immediately involved in our churches.”
  
Since the day after the hurricane, Nichols and other volunteers have provided daily breakfast, lunch and dinner to evacuees at Lakeview Baptist Church, Oxford.
   
“We were very pleased to have the opportunity to do the feeding program,” said Jerry Starling, Lakeview Baptist’s pastor. “I don’t know what (evacuees’) needs will be when they move to the fort but I’m sure there will be churches in that area that will try to reach out to them to help.”
   
Howell also believes current volunteer efforts will continue. “They’re already involved and they’ll continue to be,” he said. “They are bringing them (evacuees) into their services and their homes. I’ve been blessed (by working with the evacuees).”
   
Nichols hopes a ministry or church plant can be created to better relate to the ethnically diverse evacuees and meet them where they are spiritually. “That’s a big order, but we have a big God,” he said. “We’re just having opportunities opened to us that we’ve never had before and it’s fun to see God open doors for us in those situations.”