Help! RVs needed for Katrina Evacuees!
Dear Hertig:
Thanks for your response. I am Jesusfreak's husband, and have just reviewed all of the responses on this site. She is a lot nicer than I am; she would never respond to the misguided and in some cases hate-filled entries I have read above. But I will. First, so you'll know -
Jesusfreak has worked tirelessly, everyday, usually for 16-18 hours a day, since Katrina to help families displaced by Katrina. Working with the Red Cross and FEMA (which from my first hand observation and experience really is as inept, if not worse, than the media has shown), as well as coordinating with local churches and other people willing to help, she has helped provide almost 40 people longer term housing. This is after helping to obtain free or reduced cost housing at local motels for several weeks and helping to obtain local church support and other private sources to cover costs for simple every day things like a change of clothes, soap, etc. Additionally, all of the families with which she has had contact have children which have been removed from school - they now have had assistance to enroll in local schools. Some have stayed in our home for a night or two so that their parents - confined in a motel room, could have some time to themselves and the kids could play with our kids and in our neighborhood, go swimming, go to church, etc. - at least some sense of normalcy for even a night or two. Bottom line - I doubt anyone has worked any harder than she has to help others for no reason other than care and concern for her fellow man. (And in case you're wondering, it has all been as a volunteer -neither she nor I receive anything in return except the satisfaction of helping others).
I a vaguely familiar with the family for which she sought a camper, trailer, RV, or whatever you prefer to call your vehicles. They lost everything they owned. The lived in a small fishing village south of New Orleans, and the village is gone, too. You may have seen some media stories about it. The Father wants an opportunity to rebuild his small fishing business as well as to help rebuild his community. There is no place for him to stay, nor to take his wife and children. An RV will give him a chance to make a go at it while his children go to school until he can re-establish a livelihood. Not that I read anything remotely sounding like concern from anyone, but we have found a kind person who has agreed to assist the Family by loaning the use of their RV so this family will at least have a chance to start over. The family insists on providing compensation of some type as soon as they are able - they reluctantly accept the proverbial "hand up" and not the "hand out."
The position of some not to make available their RV doesn't bother me, and I don't think it bothered Jesusfreak. Everyone has to decide for themselves at what level he or she is comfortable in sharing of themselves. I have my own limits. What does bother me, however, and concerns me more generally than just in the context of the Hurricane relief effort, is the angry bitterness that shows through in so many cases today. The visceral response from some to a request for help and the wrong assumptions made about someone in need hit her pretty hard. She always looks for the good in people, not their limitations (and we all have limitations). Just because there are some bad folks in the world - felons, perverts, any other "types" that bother you or me - doesn't mean everyone is bad and that it should cause you to rail against helping anyone. Jesus spoke in terms of helping the stranger, the hungry, the homeless, etc. - I am not aware of any "safe harbor exception" for those people who are unlikable.
In this family's situation, mobile housing was needed. If you don't choose to help in the way that's needed, it's your deal - you live with it. If you feel insulted because you get called to task for your own bilious and inflammatory slams, maybe the questions are better directed internally. There are a lot of people in need of a hand up, and many of them are hard working, decent people whose only fault was living in an area that nature has destroyed.
To address your specific questions, I am confident that the Lord smiles brightly on the works of my wife. Christianity is a religion of ironies - we are called to do things that are in the best interests of others, not just ourselves and sometimes not ourselves at all. And usually that means helping people who are not then as well off - in a worldly sense - as ourselves. I prefer to call acts of unreasonable kindness something besides stupid, but I suppose helping others for no apparent reason might appear stupid to some. I do hope you are right that the people in this forum "have done more than even [she has]." As I started off above, however, I am not as nice as my wife and will say that unfortunately I am pretty confident that those who responded with the most venom have not - hate toward anyone takes a lot of time and energy, and I just don't think they have the time to really commit themselves at the level she has for many people before and after Hurricane Katrina. If we had an RV we would have already made it available, but we have made our home available, we have provided clothing, we have provided furniture, we have provided time, we have provided transportation, and we have provided money. You are correct that some people displaced by the storm are criminals; but many are not. For example, the 84 year old woman and 15 year old granddaughter that Jesusfreak helped get on a plane yesterday at an airport 100 miles away - neither of whom had ever flown - to meet extended family with whom to live on the east coast - didn't look like criminals, but who knows - maybe grandma was an escapee. But I know she and her granddaughter were scared, alone, and had all their possessions in a single bag. There are thousands and thousands of people in similar circumstances, and I doubt most of them are criminals, sex offenders, property vandals, or whatever else some would use as an excuse not to help anyone.
The sad thing to me is how serendipitously Jesusfreak ended up on this site with a simple search looking to help someone and how quickly some blasted her with zeal. Fortunately, the responses from most others have been positive; as such, I know she was shocked to get such strong negative feedback from this site. I know it's not a perfect world, but I am sure glad there are still some people in the world like my wife who keep working to move us in that direction. Somehow, in your own ways, I hope each person reading this will work toward that goal, too.
With no further response forthcoming,
Mr. Jesusfreak
