Cover Story for September 29, 2005
By Sue H. Poss
Monica Villacres and her 11-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, made it safely through Hurricane Katrina at their house in New Orleans. But two days later when the water was rising, there was no power and they had no way to get food or water, they decided to seek safety somewhere else.
They drove to Houston and Monica said she was just about at her wit's end when she pulled over to the side of the road. She looked up to the sign “South Main Baptist Church welcomes you.”
And welcome they have been. The Villacreses, natives of Ecuador, are among about 60 people housed in South Main's gym. The shelter includes sleeping quarters, living quarters, bath facilities and a kitchen. Computers with Internet connections are set up to help residents get in touch with lost family members.
Other churches in Houston are also sheltering evacuees. At Willow Meadows Baptist Church, 50 people are being housed at any one time. The goal there is to move evacuees into a more permanent situation, making room at the shelter for others who need help.
At Tallowood Baptist Church, church members quickly equipped a building in a strip shopping mall that it owns to house evacuees. And at University Baptist Church, church members have been working with the Red Cross and other shelters.
New Orleans residents at each shelter are thankful for what the churches have done for them. Clenord Pruitt said his family of five was received “with open arms” at South Main.
“It's been nothing but a blessing to be here,” he said. Pruitt added that he will wait to assess the damage to his house, which was underwater, before he decides what to do next.
Carolyn Evans and her husband, Izard, an older couple, made their way to South Main with their daughter, their son and his family.
“They didn't have to do all that they have done for us,” she said. “Anything you tell them you want, they provide.”
The members of South Main are grateful they were in a position to help.
“We are glad we had a place like this so that we can help these evacuees,” said Lydia Law, South Main's volunteer coordinator at the shelter.
Fifteen minutes away, Regina Jernigan, shelter manager at Willow Meadows, said their goal is find temporary housing in apartments and move people from the shelter to apartments.
As one is moved out, someone else, perhaps from the Astrodome or a hotel, can move in. In addition to providing shelter, the church has a food pantry and supply center, and a hotel/motel ministry to help people staying in hotels.
“It seems like we have had thousands of volunteers wanting to help,” Jernigan said.
Lawrence and Adrian Mayfield are preparing to leave the shelter to move into an apartment that will be paid for by the church for three months. After that, they want to go back to New Orleans.
“The living arrangements here were good, the food was good and they made us feel at home,” Mayfield said.
Tallowood has taken advantage of a building it owns in a strip shopping mall. Members moved quickly to reconfigure the building, adding showers and privacy cubicles so that evacuees could be housed there.
Forty-three people have been living in that space, said Eddy Hallock, minister of missions at Tallowood. They set up a medical center that has been staffed by qualified church members and provided tutors to children to help them with their school work.
University Baptist Church, located near the space center in Houston, did not house any evacuees because it did not have shower facilities available.
“We couldn't set up a center here,” said Pastor Robert Creech, “but our members have been volunteering at Red Cross shelters all over town, at the Astrodome and the George Brown Convention Center.”
On the first Sunday after the storm, a special offering for hurricane relief brought in $45,000. Some of that money will be used to help settle six families of evacuees now living with six church families.
“I have been impressed with how our people are finding different ways to get involved,” Creech said.
Creech said the church's intention is to next partner with a church in Louisiana or Mississippi, to help it rebuild and get back on its feet.
All of the churches have helped children get into Houston-area schools. Elizabeth Villacres, the 11-year-old that arrived at South Main with her mom, is just one of many children having to adapt to a new school.
“The first day was scary,” she said. “But the next day I went with a friend I met here in the shelter and it was better. Now I have adjusted.”
Associated Baptist Press
Sue Poss is a correspondent for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.