Ministering to your city after a disaster

As I write this, the southeast US is in the heart of hurricane season, and the bands of Hurricane Dorian are beginning to dump rain showers here in the Carolinas.  The storm has already claimed 20 lives in the Bahamas and devastated entire villages and communities.  My wife and I moved to Fayetteville to begin ministry at Grace Baptist on October 1, 2016.  Hurricane Matthew (“the most powerful storm of the 2016 Atlantic Hurricane season” according to weather.gov) made landfall on October 8 about 3.5 hours south of us in McClellanville, SC.  As it travelled northward, it washed out roadways, flooded homes, and impacted families who still to this day have not been able to rebound.  Then last year, Hurricane Florence made landfall in nearby Wrightsville Beach, NC on September 14.  Florence did over $300,000 in damage to our church.  We had a seven month old baby, so we evacuated to Charlotte with family.  (Experience with Matthew taught us that it is common to have power outages and boil water advisories in Fayetteville - not workable for an infant.)  There were mandatory evacuations in our city for a one-mile radius out from the Cape Fear River.  It was a significant storm. 
     Your church and community may have been devastated by a hurricane, a tornado, a fire, (God forbid) an active shooter situation, or some other tragic disaster.  It is in moments such as these that we can be the hands and feet of Jesus and love our neighbors for the glory of Christ.  Here are some ideas, and I’d love it if you would share some of your own in the comments.

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Before the disaster strikes:

1. Work with local agencies.  The first church I pastored was set up with the American Red Cross to be a designated shelter.  Thankfully, we never had a disaster, but we were prepared.  You can contact your local Red Cross and get some information on becoming a designated shelter in your area.  Back in 2017, Joel Osteen caught some flack for not readily opening his church during Hurricane Harvey. Grace Baptist was asked to do this during a storm, and we are glad we didn’t, just because we sustained so much damage, people would have been safer on the street than inside our church.  Know what your insurance will allow, and what risk you are comfortable accepting.  The Red Cross has standards for their shelters, and if you have a heart for this, they can guide you through the best way to get set up.  
2. Obtain some disaster relief training.  You can even host training at your church.  The North Carolina Baptists on Mission ministry offers this training, and there are places that offer certifications in it.
3. Stock up on supplies.  I have decided that next August, I want the church to stock up on the 16 fl oz water bottles for distribution.  There’s always a limit 2 per family during hurricane season at some point, and I see a great ministry opportunity here.  Another idea I just had this week (too late to enact it) is to buy boxes of those inexpensive LED flashlights.  Insert batteries if they don’t come with them.  And then just give these out to the neighborhoods surrounding your church in case of a power outage.

You may have some ideas of your own, so please share them in the comments.

After the disaster strikes:

1. Just love people.  Resist the temptation to preach to them forcefully.  Just love them.  Hug them.  Cry with them.  If they will let you, pray with them.  Assure them that God loves them.  But be painfully aware that if there was ever a time that words do not help - this is probably it.  Love them unselfishly.  Something that breaks my heart is that it can feel like no church can make a big enough impact in such a situation, but we can do some.  In time, you will probably have an opportunity to work with your denomination’s mission groups and Samaritan’s Purse to help people rebuild.  If you are qualified to talk with people during times of grief, use that gift.  Understand that people will show signs of resentment against God; they will ask why God did not intervene, why He allowed this.  This is all normal.  If you need to brush up on your theodicy (the theological term for the “problem of evil,”) do so in advance.
2. Take up a love offering, and direct it carefully to a responsible Christian group.
3. Host a food and clothing drive. Collect basics, such as pots, pans, and essentials for starting over when a family has lost everything.  
4. Host blood drives.  Blood banks need blood during these times of disaster.
5. Host prayer walks and focused prayer meetings.
6. With proper training and precautions, you can mobilize a volunteer group to help your community clean up.
7. If appropriate, weeks later, host a fun event.  Grace Baptist did our fall festival a month after Florence.  For a few hours, the free hot dogs and games got people’s minds off of the fresh effects of Florence.
8. We have never done this, but there’s probably a way to do it.  One of our men owns a trailer business, and he has offered to let us use a dump trailer in the past.  You could set it up on your property somewhere and allow people to dump debris there for free.  It can cost several hundred dollars to rent a dumpster, and they are scarce in a disaster.  But if you have access to one, the church can meet a need by absorbing the costs of having it dumped and so forth.  Add whatever parameters you feel are necessary. ​

What are some things that your church has done to love your neighbors in a time of disaster?