Get an inside look at how volunteers can help in Steinhatch

This week, a team of friends and members of my church traveled to Steinhatch to help a small church prepare and serve food and sort donations for a community affected by the effects of hurricanes and storms in too quick succession.

We left Tallahassee while it was still dark and arrived at dawn. The miles of debris and the extent of the destruction of buildings and forests were shrouded in darkness as we traveled to the Friendship Chapel Church of God in Stainhatch. But when we returned home late in the afternoon, we were shocked and deeply saddened by what we saw.

On the way from Tallahassee we discussed what our impressions might be. We could only imagine that the people in the kitchen would be traumatized, tired from more than three weeks of serving food and sorting donations, and caring about the damage to their own premises.

But upon arrival, we were greeted by a cheerful retired pastor who retired to become kitchen manager, a mother and daughter living in the fellowship hall since their house had the roof blown off, and a friendly, energetic woman who helps the pastor.

Communication hall as a distribution center

Having become the designated distribution center for the district, the fellowship hall looked more like a warehouse filled with canned goods, diapers, detergents, personal care products, bottled water and more.

The church had two large storage sheds that were brought in to store the overflow, but they were not enough, and some items had to be covered with a tarp or left under the roof adjoining the fellowship hall, which was not well protected from the elements. .

It soon became clear that the inundation of the storm, which these men had braved admirably, was not the only prevailing factor. Organizing the generous supplies and clothing that were donated to help others and finding a way to get them into the hands of those in need was also a huge responsibility for this little congregation.

Our team eagerly got to work, some of us in the kitchen and some of us organizing donations.

The gift of volunteering

And at the end of the day, we saw that we made a difference, in the ease with which people could find what they needed through donations, in feeding people a menu of comfort food that was a little different from what they were grateful to eat every day for three weeks, and gave church volunteers a chance to step away from the kitchen and sort, if only for a little while.

Helping others is almost always a gift for a volunteer.

And this has certainly been true in our experience. We all marveled at the resilience of the human spirit, which endured untold hardships. During our day we learned that a retired pastor is dealing with knees that are in dire need of replacement and has postponed this much needed surgery until January to help with this crisis.

It’s not in his best interest to cook for hours a day, but as those who came to eat said without any prompting, “Pastor” is here because he loves us. It confirmed for me how important it is for ministers to love and lift up those they serve.

Disaster management

A senior pastor shared his concerns about learning how to make so many decisions on the job and handle so many needs at the same time. I know that my own training in seminary did not include how to deal with adversity in the way it is called for.

Despite some health issues, he remains positive and intends to do whatever he can to help his community, and they are grateful.

A friendly and efficient woman who helped in the kitchen, she had already experienced floods when she lived in New Orleans. I was stunned to learn that even though her house was completely destroyed by Helen, she was in the kitchen of a church that isn’t even her own church, cooking and serving as often as possible.

Her bright spirit and the beautiful voice she sang while working were not fake, but deep inside, and were a deep inspiration to me and others on our team.

Hot meals, accommodation in cars

Many of the community residents who came to eat a hot meal lived in their cars or, at best, in campers, but most had no cooking facilities or refrigerators to store food.

The church has an ice trailer to supply people with ice for their coolers, which has been extremely helpful, but with the electricity still being upgraded and a long waiting list, even those with a stove left can’t use it.

One woman said she had a small trailer in which she could store either food or clothing, but not both. She and her mother decided to keep the food safe because the animals were attracted to the food at night in their camp.

Another woman said she lost her home when Helen hit Florida and later learned her second home in Georgia was also destroyed by the same storm. With a confidence that belied such a tragedy, she expressed gratitude for another day and a hot meal and hope for the future.

An elderly gentleman talked about sleeping in his chair under a canopy instead of in a motorhome where the mattress is so uncomfortable because of his arthritis. He asked me if he could take some of the pecan pie cupcakes we made with him and it was so nice to picture him under the stars in his chair enjoying a cupcake.

Lessons on how to give

I learned so much about how you and I can donate more effectively. Sorting and identifying items before donating them to any charity is of the utmost importance.

Getting that much-needed box of bedding and taking the time and space to sort it by sheet size can be a daunting task. Assembling sets of sheets (even if the patterns don’t match) with the size clearly marked before donation makes distribution much easier.

I worked through a huge box of clothes that contained at least six different sizes of clothing for men, women, and children, which turned it into a logistical nightmare. Receiving a gift box labeled “Large Men’s T-Shirts” would be an eyesore.

People who are traumatized but trying to help others, like the kind people at Friendship Chapel, don’t have to go through this extraordinary sorting process that seems overwhelming at best.

More ways to help

The next big step for Friendship Chapel is to determine how best to distribute the wonderful accumulation of goods the church has acquired. I know the team coming this week from First Baptist Church of Fort Walton Beach, including Kenny Phillips of Give Me Shelter Ministries, an organization that works with poor communities around the world to provide disaster relief , will significantly change the situation.

If you are interested in changing the situation, I hope you will contact me at [email protected] for more information.

Steinhatchee and Keaton Beach are old Florida charms that are out of the way for those who have never visited or known about these communities. They are certainly well on their way to recovery and would benefit from our prayers, well wishes, donations and if possible time and energy.

Reverend Candace McKibben is a priest and pastor of the Tallahassee Fellowship.

This article originally appeared on the Tallahassee Democrat: Learning from the inside how to help in Steinhatchee