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Friday, Oct. 7, 2005 | ||
What do you think of this story? | A voice from New Orleans
By DAVID EPPS Sometimes, we ministers and columnists need to keep quiet and just listen to other voices. Dan Ahart of Fayetteville recently spent a week volunteering in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. While politicians engaged in finger-pointing, countless people, like Dan, gave of themselves without regard to reward or personal cost. He, and those he joined, slept on the hard floor of a school building and had a great deal of discomfort. Yet, you will find no mention of this personal hardship in his letter, which he sent to me midway through his service to the people of New Orleans: “Everything that came in contact with the water has to go. We cleaned one of the pastor's homes last night, removing all the carpet, hardwood floors, most of the furniture, doors, cabinets, everything. His walls have mold growing from the floor up to about 2 feet (his home had one foot of water). We removed all of the sheet rock up to four feet. “I asked Pastor Mel (Mel Rolls of Atlanta) this morning if I could get some experience street ministering. He assigned me to a veteran minister named Lance, whose primary concern is street ministry. We loaded three vans with water, food, diapers, ice, first-aid items, toilet paper, etc., and drove into the poorer neighborhoods. When we found someone outside, we stopped and asked if they needed any supplies. Most said, “Yes.” They all were so happy to see us. “We found an elderly man digging through garbage left on the street at a full dumpster. The stench was terrible. He took us to his apartment where we left food, ice, soap, toilet paper, etc. His apartment was unlivable yet he was staying there with three other families. In my opinion, the apartment should be condemned. He had no power and no water. “We helped a woman at another apartment who was outside drenched in sweat. She had an infant baby girl. We gave her food, ice, diapers, toilet paper, etc. Two small boys maybe age 5 or 6 came outside immediately, and asked for ice. He followed me back to the van where the ice was kept and accepted the bag and carried it off himself. The ice bag was about as big as him. The woman's aunt was there from another parish. She wanted to commit her life to Jesus! We asked her if she believed in Jesus and if she believed that Jesus died on the cross for her. She stated that she did. We asked her to pray. She accepted Christ today. “There is a group of about thirty volunteers here from California. While we were street ministering today, I learned that two of them wanted to be baptized. Well, there is no baptismal and they wanted to be immersed. The facilities engineer here at the church cut the top off of a 100 gallon plastic water tank and filled it with water. We gathered around the tank at about 6 pm central tonight and the two were baptized! The pastor asked if anyone else wanted to be baptized and another came forward. Three were baptized! “I will be assisting here at the church (distribution point) in the mornings and hitting the streets in the afternoon. I am doing well, although I admit there are times when it is hard to hold back tears. New Orleans seems to be trying to come back to life. I will be here through Friday or Saturday. Cell phone service is good but we cannot get out all the time due to demand. I am taking some photos to share later. I will see you soon. “Blessings, Dan Ahart” Dan Ahart, a Certified Public Accountant, is an aspirant for Holy Orders in the Charismatic Episcopal Church and is a Licensed Liturgical Minister at Christ the King Church
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