the thing to do

I've started this entry a half-dozen times today. And had actually thought I'd be starting it a few days before now ... but as has been the case with so much in the last 10 days, things change with a moment's notice.

Tuesday afternoon I'll be on my way to Tyler, Texas for two weeks. Two hours east of Dallas, six hours (and change) northwest of New Orleans. One of our sister congregations there has a Family Life Center ... that is giving new meaning to each of those words, each day.

We're serving 300 to 500 people three meals a day, Jeff said. 150 - 200 are staying the night. We've had to give armbands to our residents, and to our people, our volunteers, for security. It's just chaos. There are people doing meals, and we have clothing to distribute, and people getting medical attention. I have a feeling that Red Cross will be gone in a week, at the end of their '21 day' policy. Plus we have our own congregation to care for, and we're already down two staff as it is.

Jeff was a member here at Geist ten or more years ago (before I got here), and was on denominational staff when Ann was the national executive in our domestic ministries office. He was somewhere else between here and there, but has been at Tyler several years. So not only is this a ministry that's in need of some dedicated labor, it's a great connection for us ... a sister congregation in which we have some deep family ties.

At midnight Tuesday I had an email asking me to come to Austin, to be Red Cross trained and certified as a caseworker, and spend a few weeks with a clergy group there processing evacuees in Austin shelters, helping them connect to social services, and then helping to replicate the program in San Antonio, Houston, Dallas. By Wednesday morning, I had the go-ahead from my sr min, and then (due to federal agencies coming in to the four major TX towns and making it priority to hand out vouchers and clear the shelters, regardless of available options from there -- or lack of) by Thursday morning had been off-again, on-again, off-again.

Being in daily contact with Johnny and the Week of Compassion office in the last week, I said I had the go-ahead and was ready to do what I could, so if I was needed somewhere else say so. Nothing nothing nothing then ... last night two quick contacts.

This morning a phone call from Jeff: If you can come, we can use you.

By 6:00 tonight, I had two conversations with my sr min, a plane ticket, a personnel committee chair saying he thinks it's great, colleagues who've said tell me what I can do while you're gone, a lay leader who's taking on the start up of a study group saying sure that will work fine and (most significantly) we'll be praying for you, and my mother saying (and meaning, even amid worrying, which is her job!) I'm so glad you're getting to do this, I'm so proud of you, let me know if there's anything I can do from here.

It's weird -- I have NO. IDEA. what I'll be doing when I get there. The intent at present is for me to be the liaison between the 'daytime' pieces ... meals, clothes, meds, jobs, housing. There are volunteers doing each of those things ... or city agencies coming in and connecting to the people there (since that makes more sense, what with folks being AT the shelter and all). But if you're there doing meals all day, you don't necessarily know (or need to, or find/make the time to) what's going on in the other pieces of relief and support. But SOMEONE needs to know what all the pieces are doing. Maybe that someone is going to be me.

And if Red Cross is pulling out a week from today, that would give me a week to shadow that person -- which, apparently, is no longer the primary RC guy who's been there.. (Jeff said, 'the good one was pulled back to hq to work the bureaucracy, of course, since he's the one who knows what he was DOING.') And then another week to "be" that person. By which point, either enough folks will be processed OUT of the shelter that it will be more manageable given the volunteers and staff the church has, OR the church will be at the point of having someone else moving into the liaison role. So I'll be the interim, I guess.

ALL OF WHICH, of course, could change the moment I hit the ground. Which both scares the living bejeebers outta me ... and really really excites me. As long as it's more of the latter and less of the former, I guess I'm in good shape!

This is one of those things where everyone ... everyone ... I know has said, 'I hate sitting here and watching. I want to do something, anything.' And where I've actually been asked TO do something that I CAN do.

At least I hope I can.