This past Saturday and Sunday, August 29th-30th, I preached on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. After each service, I held a forum where I showed video slideshows and talked about that experience. I felt wonderfully supported by the people of St. Paul’s in Delray Beach and have been encouraged to share with those who could not be there. The links below include my sermon (a video); a slideshow of St. Patrick’s in Long Beach, MS before Katrina; a slideshow of the aftermath of Katrina, starting with the church site itself; a slideshow of the beginnings of our relief efforts at Camp Coast Care and St. Patrick’s finding a temporary home; and lastly the rebuilt St. Patrick’s.
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I have not neglected my prayer time, just my prayer blog. I apologize for not posting for a couple of days. But instead of posts on the Daily Office readings, for a few days going forward I am going to post some thoughts about Katrina, with the 10th anniversary looming on Saturday and a named storm out THERE with my current location right dead center of the “cone of uncertainty”, I think it’s appropriate.
For those of you who weren’t part of St. Patrick’s, I want you, REALLY WANT YOU, to read the words I am linking to below. It is a reflection by my friend Bruce Colville, who discovered us at Camp Coast Care and moved from volunteer to staff, lending his heart to us in life changing ways. Bruce, as you will see, is a brilliant writer and captures our first anniversary of Katrina service so well, far better than I could.
Let me set the stage, then encourage you to follow the link. Our church sat right on the beach highway (Beach Blvd or Highway 90), four lanes of concrete that seperated the church building from the man-made sand beach and the Gulf of Mexico. The church occupied the front part of about 8 beautiful acres of land. Behind the church was a creek and across the creek was St. Patrick’s Park, which the church had allowed the city to maintain as a green space. There was a walking track and a baseball practice field, and at the north end were two buildings where we housed our youth ministers and where our youth group met. The park was shady and beautiful and included an outdoor chapel – a few benches (pews) and an altar under the trees.
On the first anniversary we gathered at the outdoor chapel. Across the creek, we could see where the church buildings once stood, now covered in nature’s green, only the footings remianing. Sunday the 27th we gathered there, joined by our Bishop, Duncan Gray III, my deacon, Lynne Hough, and I led worship which included baptism of two children (as Bruce says, of course, baptism – let’s reclaim water as a sacrament instead of a destructive force) and Eucharist and also healing prayers with the laying on of hands and annointing with oil by myself and the Bishop. It is a day I will never forget.
Would you do me the favor of clicking the link and reading Bruce’s words? Then let me know in the comments what thoughts are triggered by them.
God bless and thank you. Here is the LINK.
It’s coming, like it or not….Katrina +10
It has a mind of its own. A heartbeat. Some sort of weird DNA, a double helix of despair and hope. It’s inside you. Most of the time, you tamp it down, you ignore it, or perhaps you treat the symptoms. Yet it is a part of you, always will be. And at certain times it rears its ugly head, no matter how much you prefer it not to, no matter how quickly you duck, how stubbornly you refuse to acknowledge it.
There are different triggers. Whenever new storms pop up, especially if they are in the Gulf of Mexico, you get that feeling, you look over your shoulder, you try not to fixate but still you remember. And of course as anniversaries approach there is no hiding. Here they come, bombarding you. Articles are written and photos are published and news segments are aired and memorials are revisited. It seems like a dream. It’s not a good one.
The 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is August 29th. I have been preparing a presentation for the good people of St. Paul’s in Delray Beach, so I have been digging into the pictures, the videos, the interviews, the blog posts (which you can still read on here – click the month for archives from August, September, October of 2005 and beyond). The after story is different of course. I cling to those like a life preserver. There is so much that changed in my life because of that storm-that-should-not-be-named. So many really fantastic people I got to meet, so much goodness I got to see and feel and taste and hear from so many saints of God. There are sweet stories of revival and renewal, of relationships begun, of friendships forged by fire and water.
But we can’t go there yet. The 29th must come first. The howling of the wind. The unknown. The fear you could taste. The foolish decisions. The this-cannot-be-real sense when you venture out for the first time….and the next and the next and the next. The pictures bring it all flooding back, flood being the opportune word, the power of water, the utter destruction, the vastness of it all, our minds truly still cannot comprehend, or just simply refuse to.
The folks here in South Florida have suffered hurricanes. In 2005, Wilma did a lot of damage in this area, including to the roof of St. Paul’s. They tell me stories of that time, of no electricity and blue tarps. I know it was scary and challenging. I know they have no idea. It’s not their fault. There had never been one like her, I pray there will never be one worse. I hope I can honor the memories of those who didn’t make it, celebrate the witness of those champions who came to help and also give thanks for those who stuck it out, determined the coast of Mississippi will come back, again, stronger than ever. And in many ways, it has.
But first comes that day. August 29th. So I have to buck up, stand up, straighten up, face it, take it back in again. I know some weird kind of muscle memory will kick in, as painful as can be, so we push through by remembering and telling our tales and giving thanks to God we are here to tell them.
It’s getting closer. I can feel it. I can almost sense the barometric pressure dropping, see the line of cars evacuating, live again the feeling when the roof right behind us blew off and I woke my son up so he could put on his shoes when it became time to run. And in all that, I recognize the importance of marking the day, of letting the memory of her winds peel back the shelter we built around it, knowing it will hurt and understanding we must do this. We must. For we are here, thanks be to God and an army of angels. Every day a gift, every helping hand a way through, we face forward, but first, because it’s almost here, we look back. And we weep.
Prayer, Saturday August 1, 2015 – A Hall of Fame Day
Saturday – for the Green Team and for all Creation, for our ministries to Seniors, and for all on our Parish prayer list.
Today’s readings include more of Acts 17. We hear the amazing sermon of St. Paul in Athens, connecting their altar to an “unknown God” to the Lord God Almighty. It is a brilliant sermon and wonderful example of connecting the gospel to the culture it is being preached in. This portion stood out for me: 27so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him-though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28For “In him we live and move and have our being”;”
That humans would search for God, grope for God, even if they don’t know God, and even though God is always near is a fundamental truth of our created nature.
Groping for God. Could be a reality TV show, or a way of life for us all….
On a personal note, today is a special day for my family. My older brother (I have 4 brothers), Steve, is being inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, alongside Brett Favre and Clarence Weatherspoon and others. My mother and brothers and most of their families will be present (my father is unable to travel but will watch it online). I am so grateful for my family, my brothers are amazing men and my mother – well she raised 5 boys, nuff said! Today is a tribute to my father also, he was a coach himself and instilled so many great characteristics of manhood into his boys. Steve is the all time winningest college basketball coach in the history of Mississippi, and he’s not done yet. But more than that, he is a shaper of men, you are a better person when you leave his team than when you got there. I am so proud of him, and so grateful for the family that formed all of us and continues to do so. My prayers today are of thanksgiving.
Prayer, Wednesday July 29, 2015 – on BFFs
St. Paul’s Cycle of Prayer – Wednesday – Paul’s Place after school program and the St. Paul’s Day School
(click Prayer Instructions for links to Morning or Evening Prayer for today)
I was so touched this morning in my prayer time, thinking of Mary and Martha (whose feast day is today) and their brother, Lazarus. I don’t know about you, but I rarely think of Jesus having BFFs – but surely these three were that for him. Their home in Bethany was a source of rest and preparation. Being situated on the other side of the Mt. of Olives can’t you see Jesus and his gang hanging out there before heading over the hill to Jerusalem, where he faced the cross? Mary and Martha and their various roles have often been discussed, but today I was just thinking of their friendship, of how Jesus wept when he heard of Lazarus’ death, even knowing he would raise Lazarus.
In ministry, no matter if you are ordained or not, the importance of friendships cannot be under emphasized. It can be a very lonely vocation. I think in a lot of ways that may be the hardest part of being a clergy person. It is difficult to have true friendship with parishioners (and I have been deeply wounded when I ventured down that road), and although most of my friends are also clergy, our busy lives and conflicting schedules make finding time for each other so difficult. It’s one main reason I love going to General Convention, for there I get to catch up with a lot of friends and spend some time with them.
Today I want to encourage you to pray for all leaders in ministry and for good friends to help them along the path God has chosen for them.