An evacuee of Hurricane Katrina took a telephone call early Thursday morning with the bad news from New Orleans – his brother had died.
The man, one of several hundred in a dormitory at the former Lowry Air Force Base, was distraught. His sorrow quickly turned to anger, and he began lashing out.
Police were called in, but ultimately he was calmed by Christian volunteers who are ministering to the spiritual, as well as practical, needs of evacuees from Katrina and the storm’s aftermath.
“We were able to minister to him and give him comfort,” said Anitha Jones, pastor of For His Glory Christian Fellowship. The man flew back south on Thursday to claim his brother’s body and make arrangements.
Jones and other Christian volunteers wore several hats as they tried to assist the evacuees. When you are helping people who have lost everything, restoring the faith is only part of the equation.
“We are here to meet the people’s needs in whatever way we can,” Jones said.
The volunteers spent most of the day Thursday in a stifling-hot canvas tent set up as a temporary “job fair” office.
Contral Williams, 19, was checking job postings on a bulletin board outside the tent, looking for work at a coffee shop, at a day-care center or as a secretary.
She fled her home in New Orleans and arrived in Denver about 2:30 a.m. Thursday. Before being plucked from a rooftop by a helicopter, Williams saw her cousin get swept away by raging floodwaters.
“I assume she probably drowned,” Williams said. “We didn’t see her get out.”
But like other evacuees, Williams is focused on surviving, not grieving. She is in Colorado with her grandparents and is determined to find work to help care for them, she said.
“One of the things we are really sensitive to is people being displaced,” said Friendship Baptist Church pastor Paul Burleson, who serves as president of the Greater Denver Ministerial Alliance.
The ministerial alliance is working with other church organizations to help fill a variety of roles at Lowry.
“It is really important, vital, that people know how much you care,” Burleson said.
Since evacuees first started arriving in Denver on Sunday, the alliance has helped arrange to take them to barber shops and beauty parlors and to put them in the comfort of a routine.
The Rev. Jim Ryan, an executive with the Colorado Council of Churches, said his organization will encourage members to donate gift cards to Katrina victims.
After a meeting with Gov. Bill Owens and about 30 nonprofit organizations Wednesday, Ryan said agencies already have more donated clothing for evacuees than they can handle.
Church officials should encourage members to donate gift cards from retail stores so evacuees will be able to go out and buy things to fit some of their personal needs, Ryan said.
Manual Johnson, an elder with For His Glory Christian Fellowship, spent the day Thursday at Lowry helping to see to needs of evacuees.
While most of the demands on their time were more about basic needs, the volunteers say they know they are in the service of a higher calling.
“It’s really about serving God and serving man,” he said. “I’m here for whatever is needed of me. It’s so important.”
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-820-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
