The View From Kalamazoo

There’s a lot being said about Katrina all over. I have nothing more to add there.

I suppose this should be obvious, but I encourage y’all to check in with your houses of worship (or a local if you are not otherwise attached) to see if there are efforts under way for their sister churches in Katrina affected areas. I hope there are many who are able to donate much-needed funds to the Red Cross or other agencies of choice, but I know many are scraping by (lord knows I am) but still would like to offer some help. My solution is to run a clothing drive in my department (and the information is going through a neighboring, very large, department as well) for a church in the Biloxi area. My sister’s MiL and FiL are ministers (ELCA) and had for some time been assigned to a church down there (Ocean Springs). They are now (since last month) at a church in TN, but will be driving down to help – while the church made it through the storm (good thing – it’s a local designated shelter) upwards of 75% (or more, information still coming in) are homeless. I’m sending the clothing to my sister in TN, and it will be personally transported by her MiL (since no mail is getting to the affected areas, and who knows when it will) – it’s one church, one shelter, group of people suffering among so many thousands upon thousands…but it’s something I can do.

So I hope you’re doing what you can do, whatever that is.

And if you’re a victim of Katrina – my heart goes out to you. I wish I could do more.

These are the days I hug my children extra tight. I’m overwhelmed with sadness.