Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 6 October 2005 — Page 17

The Muncie Times • October 5, 2005 • Page 17

continued from page 13 into action when we piled out of our vehicles. We watched the load shared in a truly organized fashion. They unloaded the truck with machine precision and we sorted clothes and toys for everyone. Some of my students walked through the neighborhoods and met people whose families managed to stay in the ravaged area. Although we were hungry, our job was to have the shelter ready for the clients to get in early the next morning and start to pick out anything they needed. We tried to get stories from the ladies who helped us work to set these centers up.

Although it wasn’t proscribed, all the men did the lifting and delivering. All the women organized and sorted. The women had the stories; the men had the jokes. In the end, we all prayed together. My aunt tried to run us out of town because we had to get out of town before the military police arrested us for breaking curfew. We got back to Jackson too late to eat and had to beg the people at Popeye’s Fried Chicken to stay open longer to cook food for my students and me. I didn’t know how much we had worked until I checked the footage last week. That’s when I realized that I was 50 feet

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from the coast and never saw the water. I saw the work that needed to be done that hadn’t been done and I saw the resilience of the people. I couldn’t see the beauty of nature until I was back home. I saw the residents pull together. I talked to the principal who was determined to have her school back open and back in business. I saw her prepare flyers for parents in the community so that they would know that their school was a full service school. Their school motto, painted on their sign years ago said, “We’re all in this together.” They didn’t know how wise they were. I saw the beauty of God moving in his people as smoothly as the water in the gulf moved behind the school. Prayer was an important part of the experience. There was prayer before meals, prayer before trips, and prayer at the end of the day. Those who believed in prayer truly supported the shelters. After our trip to Gulfport, I got up the next morning to take a trip in a twoseater truck with three other people in search of an airplane filled with supplies. The first thing we lost was our photographer. Four people in a truck meant for two was more than he was prepared for. The three of us, my uncle, his driver and me, headed all through Mississippi and Louisiana until we reached Baton Rouge’s airport. We prepared a delegation of ministers to meet with dignitaries from Washington, DC who had supplies for us. As it turned out, we greeted three planes. One

plane did have a politician on it and several people affiliated with the A. M. E. Church. After fifteen minutes of hugging and shaking hands, the people from the Red Cross came to get their guests. Ooops. Then we greeted another delegation. They too had members of the A. M. E. Church in tow, but they weren’t our benefactors. As we tried to shake hands with the people in charge, a little old man came up to me to tell me we were taping their shipment of supplies that had arrived at the wrong time. Finally, an airbus arrived chocked full of food, supplies, designer clothes and a news team from ABC. They even brought the president of the airline, Independence Air, with them. The pastor and members of Metropolitan A. M. E. decided that they would not go to any funding agencies. They decided to take their own funds and fill the plane with things they felt the people would need most. They were not permitted to pack used clothes; they packed new clothes. Many of the clothes still had the price tags on them and were the top brands and the latest styles. This was a carefully orchestrated event that allowed us to hold a prayer service before and after the press conference. We heard from victims of the hurricane and met the church members who took the time to fly to Baton Rouge with their gifts. As one member said, we did not feel the effects of Katrina like the people in the south, but we felt the goodness of God when He allowed us to reach our goal and then sent an airline to take the supplies in

for us. My students gained a new perspective of Americans working together. Nick Geidner, Tomas Herzberger, Helen Kibby and Ashely Richardson joined me for this trip along with my son, Darryal Hawkins, Jr. They each focused on topics that caught their attention and will present those stories in a number of places. Nick, reared Catholic, found that faith was a significant factor in the people’s response to disaster. Tomas, a student from Germany, attended to the music that galvanized people to work. Helen, a cross-country runner went to Baton Rouge to get the story of her former coach who had taken on 40 runners from universities that had been flooded. He felt that he had become the father to 40 more children. He was responsible for them. Katrina affected several historically black colleges. Ashely is still working on her story. My story? It’s about the fact that my denomination did not drown. God was calling men and women into the ministry while the storm was hitting and two weeks later God was calling men and women into the ministry. My uncle, well, Katrina’s waters were almost pumped out when Rita replaced it in his neighborhood. He was on CNN recently and he had the same message, the AME Church is still in business. He and God will find a way to feed ministers who were fired by Katrina and Rita, but reassigned by God. The church is moving on with prayer after the storm.