CHAPTER ONE: CopyrightBook published 2005 by Wanda Winters-Gutierrez
I abide quietly in the desert, where water is scarce and rain is an event. For the past year I have rarely ventured outside my comfort zone. I am at peace. I meet weekly with a close circle of friends. I have a wider circle in cyberspace with whom I connect when I feel the need to go global. I teach workshops on the inner life. I write poetry and I write books.
Furthermore, I am not overly connected to most of the world. I don’t have a cell phone (by choice) and I rarely watch television. Never do I choose to watch the news and if I want to know what the weather is doing I stick my head out the door. Katrina had already hit before I knew she was coming.
The first time I saw the news after the hurricane the levees had already broken and an American city was sitting in twenty feet of water. American citizens were swimming in the streets, wading through waist high water, clinging for life on their roofs clutching their babies and begging for help. There were also bodies floating under the debris, human hands sticking up, lifeless...yet lifted above the water for help that hadn’t come.
I watched almost non stop for the next thirty-six hours. The TV was off only long enough to get a few hours of fitful sleep each night, then at 4:30 or 5 A.M. I stumbled out of bed to vicariously experience another day of devastation. Wanting to help and not knowing how, other than writing a check to the Red Cross, I cried until I could cry no more.
Then I prayed.
The answer to that prayer set me on a journey into the very soul of America.
Just as the water flowed into the streets of New Orleans, compassion has broken the levees of race, creed, social standing, age and apathy. I have seen love flood across this great nation of ours into the hearts and lives of survivors everywhere. I have also witnessed a surging stream of unanswered questions as America’s well-hidden secrets were washed out into the streets for the whole world to see.
I tiptoed into the flood with an email, posted August 31, 2005, to “Family and Friends.” It was three days after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and what was first being called “refugee camps” were being set up across the south. I saw hundreds and thousands of people sitting around with nothing to do. I saw the hopelessness on their faces, I saw their souls dying. I launched Operation Soul Survival.
I asked my cyber-circle to send inspirational reading material to the evacuees. I also asked if anyone would be willing to set up a free web page to keep people informed about where they could send their books. Wilburta Arrowood, another Christian author, took my challenge.
Within a week her beautiful web site had listed 20 distribution sites that would deliver shipments of books to the survivors. We also had been contacted by librarians at the Library of Congress, writers, readers, teachers, students and companies all over the country seeking information. The senior vice president at Guidepost offered a contact where magazines, books and booklets could be requested.
From all over the country books were sent to Operation Soul Survival connections. Book drives took place. Libraries were set up in the survival centers. After two weeks, even large publishing houses saw the vision and began donating books.
Then I met some evacuees from Louisiana. Many were still dazed and unfocused, eyes restless, confused, unsure…lost. A simple “hello” and their stories poured out. I wept with them.
Not knowing what else to do, I offered each one a copy of my book, “The Search for Peace.” I had written it because I know something about surviving against all odds. When I explained that it was about moving out of a painful past and building a new future, a shadow of hope passed across weary faces. One after another replied, “That is exactly what I need.”
Without hesitation I can tell you that as long as I live, no matter how many book signings I may be able to do....nothing will ever be as meaningful as those hours of autographing copies of “The Search for Peace” and placing it into those eager, outreached hands. Hours later I was still brushing away tears.
Then I met Betty Jefferson. She had been through the hurricane, the flood, and the horrors of the Superdome. The media had reported the deplorable conditions. Filled with over 20,000 people, there was no food, no water, gangs were terrorizing the sick and the elderly. There were shootings, stabbings, no help anywhere and none was coming. After a week she was evacuated to Houston's Astrodome in a crowd of 25,000, then on to our smaller shelter in El Paso. Alone, in her late fifties, she was facing the reality of starting her life over with nothing...except her faith in God.
Betty has been a Christian for 30 years. The peace that sat upon her was tangible. She told me that once, in the dark hell of the Superdome, she stood and sung....
“Hush...now hush...dry your tears
Hush...now hush…He’s listening
Hush…now hush…He hears....”
As she quietly sang a verse to me her dusky face glowed in faith, while tears of sorrow and amazement streamed from my eyes. Betty reached out her hand to comfort me.
We talked for a short while. Right before I left I asked Betty if I could send a message to the world from her? This was her answer.
“Tell them that God is good...no matter what...He said,
‘Lo I am with you always...even to the end of the world. Tell them that He can use even this tragedy to help folks….”
Her voice trailed off and she looked past me as if into a distant land, then added,
“Many of our young people have never known nothing but the projects ...now maybe they be able to see something different.”
Then glancing back at me with a tired, brave smile she said, “Tell them to keep focus. Focus on Him...just focus on Him.”
I gave Betty Jefferson one last hug and my telephone number. I asked her to please get in touch when she was settled. She promised she would.
That was the last time I saw or heard from her.
TO BE CONTINUED:
THE BOOK CAN BE VIEWED HERE:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/after-the-storm--letters-to-betty-jefferson/231371?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/1
Wanda, beautiful perspective..
ReplyDelete