Tuesday after Ike

Well, actually, first the rest of Monday. We sat down as a staff and went through the entire list of people with connection to CTK. "Were they here at church yesterday?" If yes, consider them in contact. "Has anyone heard from or seen them, or know someone who has heard they're OK?" Scratch them. That left us with about 300 households from whom we had no info, and as we'd gone through the names we sorted them by neighborhood. We then sent staff and other volunteers to phone them and confirm they were OK or if they had needs they needed help with; and if we could not make phone contact we drove past their homes (it was quite a task to map out a plan to go these homes in sensible order so as not to burn up too much gas, which is a rare commodity - lines at open stations are 5 blocks long); if no one was home, we left notes. If they were home, we'd see how they and their home was; were there needs; if not, were they of a mind to help others? It was a good day of ministry in a hands-on way - people were touched to know that their church was reaching directly out to them.

Now Tuesday. We reviewed needs and prioritized them, and then assigned staff to meet needs, but not to do it alone - to recruit those who said they were available. So I went to the home of a single woman who actually is out of town - she ditched Houston before the storm - and with a crew of 10 adults and children, cleaned up her yard, raking debris and large branches from the lot and off the roof. Happily we had few people with huge pressing needs.

The church has power, being on the same grid as the Fire and Police station, and we have Wi-Fi, so that's being made available to anyone who needs it. Though this is not publicly announced - our strategy is to connect with the "person of peace" - the one who has connections to someone in our church or who approaches us because they see us in the community - i.e., the receptive person.

This afternoon after we cleared that yard, Alicia and I cleaned the last of the food out of our fridges and freezer. We've seen some power trucks around the area in the last day or two so we're hopeful that we'll have power before the week is out.