The Road Home

I sat in on a lunch meeting of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana's Office of Disaster Response (ODR) last Thursday. The folks who attended are each in charge of directing some aspect of the Office's business, and each person reported on the work being done in their area. When Mr. Anthony Johnson, Director of Case Management, had his time to speak he informed the group that he had a new addition to the Case Management Department: a waiting list. As of June 14 the case workers of the ODR were averaging over 100 active cases, twice their normal load. When they received over 100 calls asking for help on Monday, June 10, the waiting list had to be started. The summer rush was on.

Many of the people who evacuated New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina have been looking for an opportune time to make their return. Folks I have spoken to have given two reasons for this summer being particularly auspicious. First, it is difficult for families that have children in school to move during the middle of the academic year. The summer months are much more attractive, since their children can start at a new school in a new grade, rather than having to change schools in the middle of a course of study.

Second, more and more people are closing on their settlements from the beleaguered Road Home program. When a Road Home application is submitted the applicant can choose one of three options:

1. Stay in your home.
2. Purchase another home in Louisiana
3. Sell your home and choose not to remain a homeowner in the state.

Of the 48,970 applicants that have chosen an option, 96.9% have chosen to remain a homeowner in the State of Louisiana and 85.7% have chosen to return to their homes. As of June 11, 2007 Road Home has 3,133 closings scheduled. This means that a lot of people are ready to get back and start rebuilding. A lot of people getting ready to rebuild also means that there are a lot of people coming back to New Orleans who will need help getting their road home cleared. As I mentioned above, many of the resources available to folks on the road home are stretched to the limit with no sign of demand for the services decreasing any time soon.

So what can the Church do to help? While it may be our instinct to try to tend to the spiritual needs of those coming home to rebuild, we need to realize that root of their problems lie elsewhere. When we only address an individual's spiritual issues we are perceived as irrelevant or unhelpful. A Lakeview resident that I spoke to yesterday summed this point up nicely: "When I first came back I would go to the Church for help and they would pray over me. After going to them a couple of times, I got tired of just getting prayed over. I lost everything in the storm. I need some help with that. I lost my house, not my soul." This present day New Orleanian echoes the writings of St. James, "If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,' and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead." (James 2:15-17, NRSV)

So what, then, are we to do? Are we destined to become a club for spiritual people, seen as ineffective by those outside of our circle? Certainly not! Rather, we should take the advice that St. James offers to the recipients of his epistle, "I by my works will show you my faith." (James 2:18, NRSV) We are stirred from complacency by the compassion shown to us by a loving God. We are empowered to go out and help people travel the road home by the Holy Spirit. We are transformed from social activists into kingdom agents by the One who is the Kingdom come near to us. In short, the only reason that we are able to do works is by faith.

I would like to issue an appeal to those of you who might want to help, particularly those who have those specialized skills so desperately needed: electricians, plumbers, social workers, mental health professional. Take time in prayer and ask God how He can use you to help your brothers and sisters in New Orleans. Pray on it. Pray for guidance on how you can make a difference. As for me, it is my prayer that God will continue to kindle our hearts and empower our works. I pray that God's work may continue in New Orleans and all of the Gulf Coast until the road home is made clear and all who wander are able to make their return.