Mennonite Central Committee

Finding hope amid devastation

September 30, 2005

As the families of Amor Viviente, a Mennonite congregation in Metairie, La., begin to trickle back into their hurricane-ravaged neighborhoods, the damage they are finding is often severe. There are holes in the roof of a home purchased by a family in the church two months ago; a recently married couple's apartment had such severe damage they were only able to salvage a few items.

But even as church members count the costs of lost belongings and ravaged dwellings, they are turning to their faith and to each other. "As long as we don't lose our relationship with God, that's the important thing," one church member told Blanca Mackay at a Sept. 28 gathering.

"It was incredible," said Mackay, a member of the congregation who was hired by MCC to help facilitate the church's response to Hurricane Katrina.

Mackay was one of about 40 members of Amor Viviente who fled to Houston before Hurricane Katrina hit. Faced with the need to evacuate Houston before Hurricane Rita hit, Mackay and her family returned home to Kenner, La., which like Metairie is a suburb of New Orleans.

On Wednesday, Sept. 28, Mackay — who had served as an MCC Church Community Worker several years ago and has worked full-time for the church since then — called together members who had returned to meet at her home.

While the group was small — seven of the some 100 people who are part of the church — they poured out their stories and praised God together. "We have people that lost everything, but they're grateful to God in the midst of everything," she said.

As families return, Mackay is working to determine what they need. Eventually, she will be helping people connect to resources that are available and working with the church's outreach to the wider community.

Right now, she and her family, like other members of the church whose houses weren't damaged, are taking in fellow members who cannot return home. Mackay, who on Thursday was rearranging her pantry to hold all the food people have brought her, said she's reminded of the first-century church where members held all their possessions in common.

"Everybody is sharing. Everybody is thinking about everybody else," she said.

Often, she said, "We have been so wrapped in our own world we don't realize there are people next to us. This is making us realize the people next to us. We are really beginning to come together."

Neighbors on her street are trading tools back and forth, giving each other what they have. In line at Wal-Mart, she heard strangers sharing their stories with each other, breaking down the walls between separate, busy lives.

"We have gone through so much that really people are becoming more human. We are becoming more human. I hope we don't lose that. I hope we treasure that and we don't go back to our old self."