Nov 14, 2005 By Jenny Susa 6 min read

Shirley, a mother of three who lives on the Gulf Coast, no longer has a home or a job to go to. She is one of the many people in Louisiana whose life was shaken by Hurricane Katrina. Shirley had spent seven years putting together furniture for her home before all of it was lost. When she called her Wal-Mart manager to see if she still would have a job, she found out that the four-month-old store was filled with dead fish and spoiled food. Only a hazardous materials crew was permitted to enter it because of botulism, and Shirley’s manager said the store never would open its doors again.

People like Shirley are the reason that the Rev. Terry Collins, the pastor of three churches in Fayette County, took 18 local volunteers to Louisiana in October to try to put back together the lives that were devastated by loss.

Collins has traveled to many areas of the world, including Russia, where poverty runs rampant, to bring help and hope to those in need. And although he already has seen heartbreaking destitution and suffering, not even the national news coverage of the results of Hurricane Katrina could have prepared the group for what they would find in Louisiana.

“In all the trips I’ve taken to Europe, I’ve never seen anything that meets the devastation in the Gulf Coast,” said Collins.

The group saw so many needs along the Gulf Coast that Collins plans to return to the area with another team of volunteers the day after Christmas. They will remain in Louisiana until New Year’s Eve.

“We will go there and have a giant Christmas party and give gifts to the children who lost everything and will have no Christmas, as we share the love of Christ with them,” said Collins.

In October, volunteers stayed at St. Matthew’s Church in Metairie, La., just outside of New Orleans, where they slept on air mattresses and had only cold water available for showers, but, Collins said, they knew they had it better than most people in the area.

“At first, it felt like a sacrifice to leave our homes until we saw what everybody else was facing,” said Collins. “It made us thankful for what we had.”

Collins said it was late at night when they arrived, but even in darkness, the extensive damage was noticeable as uprooted signs and large trees that had cracked in half could be seen from their vehicles.

The volunteers stayed Oct. 7-15, and the pastor of St. Matthew’s Church assigned them to specific places each day where their assistance was most needed.

“Roger and Ellen were the first couple we met,” said Collins, explaining that the couple had evacuated and just returned to the area to discover that their home had been destroyed.

“The home was damaged from the hurricane, and the roof had blown off,” said Collins. “There was also serious flood damage and they found four feet of water in the house. They had to relocate with neighbors and when they did, their home was looted and part of it was burned. They could never even imagine going back into their house.”

Collins said that in addition to bringing the people in the area the hope of God, their main objective was to salvage some of the properties and clean them up so that the owners could be on their way to making the homes livable again.

They started at the home of a couple, where the volunteers found four feet of debris inside the home, and had to watch their steps to avoid injury.

“We all wondered at first what we could do,” said Collins. “So, our crew stood in a circle in the yard and prayed. We found hope in God and a day and a half later we had cleared all the debris from the house and put it outside. We took out the bad drywall and put tarps over the roof to keep the weather from getting in. When we had finished, the couple could walk back through the house and they had tears in their eyes because they saw that their house could be put back together.”

Collins recalled that every home on that block was devastated, and the assignment that followed was to repair the roof of another home nearby. He said there was a couple who watched them repairing the roof of that home, and they were inspired to get money together and help others whose homes were in need of repair.

Collins said the volunteers also visited Chalmet, La., where the Red Cross had set up a shelter for people who had no homes to go back to. They gave out three truckloads of nonperishable foods and baby supplies there.

Collins said everything was gone in about 20 minutes, leaving some people still hoping for more.

Although the volunteers wished they could do more, Collins said that their caring did not go unnoticed by the people to whom they were reaching out.

“The love we brought really touched people,” said Collins. “Many of them would hug us and cry on our shoulders.”

He told the story of Cynthia, a woman in her early 30s and the mother of a 10-month-old baby.

“She had just come out of an abusive relationship,” Collins explained. “The hurricane caused the destruction of her fishing business and she had no way to support her child. She was sobbing and one of our volunteers embraced her immediately. She shared with her about how God had picked her up, and said she believed that God would help her too. Right there in the tent, she asked God into her heart. So we know that our small trip was life changing for the people we came in contact with. We gave them the hope of Christ and the assurance that God would not let them be alone.”

Collins said they also were blessed during the trip because they got “the hope of the people” in the area to bring back with them. They saw that many people were optimistic and waiting to “see what God would do in their lives.”

“We saw proof that even after the worst storm we may ever face, God will be with us and get us through,” Collins said.

Collins said that anyone who would like to join him on the December trip may contact him at disciple@lcsys.net or 724-329-8414.

Any church or other group that would like to see a presentation and hear more about the volunteers’ October visit also can call Collins.

Collins is pastor of Chalk Hill United Methodist Church, Sansom Chapel in Farmington and Sugarloaf Church in Ohiopyle.