PlainViews

Daniel Coleman on religious care in a disaster area

Care for the Caregivers

In May, I had the privilege of participating in a week-long mission based in Biloxi and Gulfport on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. The mission involved 23 representatives of our country's largest social service agencies and networks. Our primary task was to assess whether - and how - some of the support services provided in New York could be transplanted to Mississippi to assist in the long-term recovery of the region. Additionally, our group will soon be visiting Washington DC to advocate for the unmet needs that we identified during meetings with social service providers, city administrators, and interfaith disaster forces.

Everyone we encountered thanked us for bearing witness to the devastation that Katrina and its aftermath continues to wreak over hundreds of miles of land, thousands of businesses and tens of thousands of homes. Everyone we met inspired us by their individual and collective attempts to rebuild their fragmented homes, lives and hopes - even with this year's hurricane season right around the corner.

One day of our visit, we teamed up with Americorps volunteers who have spent much of the last nine months collecting data from every household along the Coast. At the end of each day, every survey we collected was entered into a computer, triaged to determine the urgency of unmet needs, and assigned to a case-manager who worked to connect each household with organizations that could help to fill those needs.

Prior to this assignment, we were given an orientation by the chair of the Long-Term Recovery Committee for the County. Among the instructions that we received was "no religion." As a chaplain, I did not agree with this policy; nevertheless, I realized and respected that I was a visitor working within an "alien" system. Before pairing off to conduct our house-to-house surveys, I approached the Chair and explained to her that my chaplaincy training included the ability to discuss faith in non-proselytizing and unthreatening ways and to offer spontaneous custom-made prayers that were designed to alleviate spiritual distress. She did not relent from her original position.

However, she grasped the importance of prayer and told me that "my staff could really use your prayers right here." I asked her what she would like to pray for, knowing that the majority of relief coordinators and case managers that we had spoken to thus far were overwhelmed with the burdens of those they provided for and that they came home each night to rebuild their own homes, families and lives. As she talked of her concerns, we were joined by a newly pregnant social worker and another senior member of her team who needed no invitation to join us in prayer. In turn, they asked for strength and courage to help others, the health of her unborn baby, compassion, and renewed hope. We wrapped our arms around each other and stood in a tight circle as I asked the Divine Source of Life to grant us each our requests along with continued help in facing the personal and communal challenges that lay on the long road ahead. I concluded by asking the Divine Presence to manifest in the work of our hands. We parted company in silence as we turned back to engage our individual tasks of rebuilding life in Mississippi.