Shortly after hurricane Andrew struck South Florida, Associate Editor Mary Trammell visited the area. She attended a Sunday service at First Church of Christ, Scientist, Homestead, the main edifice of which had been devastated, and interviewed several people attending the service. She also interviewed Bud Park, who is coordinating relief efforts for the Episcopal diocese in the area, and spoke with several individuals active in relief work for The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston. Excerpts from these interviews follow.
Interviews at First Church
of Christ, Scientist,
Homestead
Mary Trammell: Cheryl, could you tell me what it was like last week when you first saw the Homestead church?
Cheryl Henderson: We came down Sunday morning very early It was discouraging. It was just such total devastation. We have located at present twenty-five homeless Christian Scientist families in the area, and there are many more families who have yet to be located. The hurricane was like having a bomb go off. See, out there? That pile? That's the church.
Trammell: Oh yes, it's incredible.
Henderson: There are not even big pieces of the church left. Last week we only had one or two members who came to church. Some visitors served as our Readers. The members were just so busy trying to put their lives and their homes back together. Now, this week I see two, three, four members, five. The members are coming. Visitors are coming, and helpers from the other churches.
Paulette Aufort: I live in a mobile home, and of course we had to evacuate. I went with my daughter out to a home in the Redlands area, which was very well built. Ten of us huddled in a closet there. My daughter and I prayed silently. It was as if there was a halo around us. I didn't get back to my own place for almost a week. But I just knew that—even with the big trees around it—my home was going to be there. And it was!
When people said we were lucky, I said "Oh, no! Oh, no! This is not luck. This is God's loving protection."
Malotte Thomson Miller: We were in Minnesota when the hurricane struck, and we flew in the next day. We came in the back door of our house and it looked pretty good. Then we went into the living room, and there were the stars and the moon and it was beautiful— except that there was no roof. I really didn't want a skylight that big!
It's kind of just been survival. Every day survival.
Trammell: But you felt love.
Miller: Yes we have, and we feel very fortunate. We are really grateful. We have a bedroom we can stay in. It's the one room that isn't leaking. That's exciting.
Trammell: So you've been praying your way.
Miller: Absolutely, step by step. We are sustained. God does sustain us through everything. But your heart does go out to the people in Homestead. This has been my community since 1950.
Trammell: How have you been praying about your community?
Miller: Well, just trying to know that everyone is protected, and they have been protected to a great extent as far as loss of life is concerned. I just feel so strongly that this area will come back better and stronger than ever. The human spirit is a wonderful thing. Through God all things are possible. The real spirit of man is love. It's amazing the strength that you have. The energy, it comes from Spirit. We'll be fine. ...
Sidney Robinson: The wife and I had known that the house we bought years ago, in fact twenty-five years ago, had gone through the '26 hurricane, and we figured if it could weather that hurricane, it should weather this one. We were just going to ride the storm out, and of course it got to be where we heard things flying in the air and banging into the house. We did a lot of praying. We sang hymns and got a sense of calmness and quietness, and we were really protected. We're so grateful.
Trammell: Kathy, tell us what happened to you during the hurricane.
Kathy Harper: It really was very clear to me that we should stay in the house. My fourteen-year-old son and I did everything that we should do. The thing that I'm so grateful for is my son's participation in this. He worked very hard to get the shutters up. There was one piece left at the end, and he figured out where it went and it was a pivotal part of the shutters. If it had not been there, they would have blown off.
But in the middle of the storm—and you have to picture the circumstances because it's pitch-black and there's water coming through the ceiling because I had lost part of my roof —I felt very impelled to try to keep the front door closed. It seemed as if the front door was going to blow in. I said to my son Doug, "You know, we've got to keep this front door closed." So he figured it out in the midst of all this chaos. An idea came to him as to how to brace the front door. That was also very pivotal, because once the wind got into the houses and the storm was in the house, there was no stopping it. So my house remained basically intact. I was really grateful for the divine intelligence that spoke to Doug. And he was able to listen in the midst of this chaos that was going on. That's really the thing that I am really deeply grateful for.
Trammell: How did you pray during the storm?
Harper: I had been working to know that there is no void in the expression of God's power and in the expression of Mind's intelligence. That there can't be any lapse in this divine expression. I really felt we had seen a manifestation of that truth coming to my son, and how this protected our home.
We clung to the fact that there is no void of that intelligence. It's constantly expressing itself. There can't be any power greater than God's power. We just were quiet, and it was almost peaceful in that little room where we were. We felt real grateful.
Interview with Dabney
(Bud) Park, coordinator
of hurricane relief efforts
for the Episcopal diocese
in South Florida
Mary Trammell: Could you describe to me some of the wonderful things the diocese is doing in the way of hurricane relief effort? I understand it's under your direction.
Bud Park: The first thing we did right after the hurricane was to get on the phone and call people in South Carolina, in the Episcopal Church, who had been through hurricane Hugo, to get some idea of what that experience was like—some reference point for what we might do. That was valuable.
Trammell: What kinds of things did they tip you off to?
Park: The first thing they said to us was that we'll be in a crisis mode helping people out who are in desperate circumstances for probably four to six months. The devastation here is much worse than it was in South Carolina. I can't say that it's worse but the area that it covered is more extensive than it was in Hugo. It's like a thirty-mile-wide tornado . . . that the eye passed through. It'll probably be two to three years before we're back to any significant normalcy in terms of the whole area. The folks in South Carolina said a lot of people will jump in and provide immediate relief and then be gone. But we need to be thinking of mechanisms and ways to sustain support. They also said that their experience had been that the churches are better at sustaining long-term support than government agencies.
Trammell: What specific kinds of programs did they recommend and do you think you will follow through on?
Park: What we've done is to develop and train and send ministry teams into the area. We've sent in teams from all over the country.
Trammell: Are these teams made up of volunteers?
Park: Oh, yes. Three from South Carolina and some from our own diocese. We send volunteer teams to go and actually stay and live in the parishes all week long. At St. John's in Homestead, which is in the high-impact zone, we've set up a camp. We have a commissary, a medical unit, some cleanup crews. We started by getting the church itself stabilized and then began to reach out into the immediate neighborhood and to reach other parishioners and help them clean up their area. The idea is to have the parishes be islands of sanity in the middle of this ravaged area. We're focusing very much on the community around the parishes and trying to meet their needs as well as those of our parishioners. At St. John's in Homestead, we have a lot of Haitians and Hispanics living in the immediate area of the parish.
Trammell: Have these Haitians and Hispanics felt free to come to you for help?
Park: We are having religious services in the migrant camps in Spanish. We had one Sunday with the bishop, and we've got another interfaith service that we're working on together with other churches, particularly the Methodist Church in Homestead. Also, we'll try to do a kitchen there, serving hot meals to people who come in.
Trammell: Do you feel that this experience of volunteering for this work has helped your church members?
Park: All the people who have gone down to Homestead have come back and said that it has been more profound for them than any other kind of retreat experience they have ever been on. We're real careful to make sure that we worship in the morning and in the evening as part of what we do. That's just been profound. It's a kind of service pilgrimage, a chance to come and see the church at work in the world in a real direct and raw way. Also, you're being part of a community.
Trammell: So, it's really kind of established and identified the community of faith?
Park: Absolutely. And brought it into action.
Trammell: And pulled down the walls between factions in the church?
Park: That's true. As the bishop said the other day, "I'm not getting any calls from people fussing about small-time stuff. The only issues that come to my attention now are the big ones." And that's the way it ought to be.
Trammell: Do you find that there is a need to minister to some of these people spiritually in addition to the absolutely essential human aid that you're giving?
Park: Well, we did have a service last week in the migrant camp, and we're going to have them again.
Trammell: Do you feel that this experience has left your church, our church, all of us, where it found us?
Park: I think it's brought us back to a sense of what the church really is and what it's about—reaching out to other people and making a difference for them. First, in terms of just basic survival but then beyond that to try to reach them personally and spiritually. The effort of doing that is very rewarding, and it makes the church itself more of a community. It really mobilizes the church to be what it's called to be, to be what it really is—kind of the original call.
We get complacent and we get into our own fights and issues, and it's really nice to be able to focus on the doing mission of the church.
Trammell: Bud, I really do thank you, and we wish you Godspeed with all of your wonderful relief activities.
Interview with Dee and
Ted Gutelius, cochairs of
South Florida relief effort by
Christian Science churches
Mary Trammell: How did your relief work get started?
Ted Gutelius: A phone call came in from The Mother Church, letting us know that someone in the North had started a relief fund. So that was the beginning of an ad hoc committee. Dee and I became the first members, and then we contacted other Christian Science churches in the area. The first thing we did was organize. Our work was spurred on by a local teacher of Christian Science. We decided that Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Miami, would be the recipient of funds. Then the ad hoc committee would have authority over the money. We have been sort of the linchpin here; not only on money but on supplies and needs. People in need call us, and we try to help them.
Dee Gutelius: We've been finding places for the homeless Christian Scientists to live, helping the damaged churches rebuild, and so on. Just one example: we know of someone who needs help—her home is gone and she needs a loan. The insurance had paid her some but she still needs more, so we are sending her some money.
T. Gutelius: Once you see the devastation, you realize how long it will take to rebuild. And while their houses are being rebuilt these people are having to pay rent and mortgages at the same time; as well as to buy new furniture and clothes.
Trammell: So, there's really been a kind of massive networking among Christian Scientists?
T. Gutelius: It's just been amazing. We have hundreds and hundreds of letters with lovely, lovely thoughts accompanying their checks; the support is just outstanding. There's great power and force and love in this support. Teachers and their students have sent us contributions. Church congregations have given the whole Sunday collection to the fund and have sent it in. It shows what support there is in the Field from Christian Scientists when there's a need.
D. Gutelius: The Mother Church has given us wonderful support. They call practically every day to see what's going on. You know, Christian Scientists have wanted to come down here and help. The people from the Boca Raton church have been down, and from the Winter Park church. They've just been so gracious. Most of us around here were not able to get the supplies that they were able to get up north—in Boca Raton and Winter Park. They filled up a truck and brought the things down and did the work needed in Homestead at that time. But the workers will be needed in South Dade County for a long time.
T. Gutelius: We love this work very much. Because of the response and this intercommunication we're having with other Christian Scientists, it's just been wonderful. It's unifying. I can't think of anything more unifying than this work. That's what it's all about.
Interview with Nat Harwood
of Boca Raton—ad hoc
committee member of
South Florida relief effort
by Christian Science churches
Mary Trammell: How did you get involved in the relief effort?
Nat Harwood: It really began because I remember Mrs. Eddy's words in the Manual of The Mother Church that we should not neglect our duty to all mankind. And when this catastrophe took place down there, I was concerned for all mankind.
Two days after the hurricane, my wife and I and another lady decided that we would go to the wholesale food place, fill up the car with as much as we could carry, and turn it in to our local fire station, where they were collecting food and emergency relief supplies. We wanted to get these things to the people in need down in Homestead. I spoke to The Mother Church, in Boston, and we thought we'd get started this way.
The very next day, through the efforts of a member of our church in Boca Raton who furnished a van and a trailer, we delivered more supplies to the fire station to have them taken down to Homestead for anybody in need. We finally located the chairman of the board of the Christian Science church in Homestead and figured that we'd get together with him and find out the needs of the Christian Scientists there. So that Saturday, some of our members loaded up a large truck with food, flashlights, batteries, plastic, all kinds of building materials that they might need. And we went down Sunday morning, leaving at five o'clock, to see what we could do to help. We went over to the church, or what was left of the church. We helped clean up the Sunday School so that actually they were able to hold a church service there the first Sunday after the hurricane.
Trammell: Did you attend the service?
Harwood: No. I was back here in our church in Boca Raton, telling our dear members all about it. We took up a collection after church. We had boxes in the foyer, and we took in quite a sum of money.
The Mother Church has directed our church along with First Church in Winter Park and Second Church in Miami to act as distribution centers for the collection of funds. The money has been pouring in all week from all over the country.
Trammell: Just a little bit of money but a lot of love, right?
Harwood: Yes. A lot of love in the letters. It was really beautiful to see. And we had a number of churches that sent in money, and there's more on the way.
Trammell: And you felt the love of The Mother Church through this?
Harwood: Oh yes, we certainly did, and felt the love of all these dear Christian Scientists all over the country. ...
Interview with
Arthur D. Pinkham, Jr.,
Assistant Treasurer of
The Mother Church
Mary Trammell: Could you tell me how you first became aware of a need for The Mother Church to provide some help and assistance to the people in South Florida.
Arthur Pinkham: Well, when the hurricane passed through, Mary, the first thing the Clerk's Office did was to get in touch with the churches in the area. The Treasurer's Office then mobilized an information clearinghouse to take care of calls, from all over the United States and overseas, directing inquiries and offers of assistance to the various relief efforts.
One day we received a call from a woman who we thought was calling to find out how she could support relief efforts and give funds. But she said, "No. The reason I'm calling is I've had my own home completely destroyed." At that point we said, "Let us just hold the line a minute. We're going to call Florida and get a conference call with someone there who can give you help." And we did.
When we reached the individual and the two of them identified each other, the man in Florida said, "We've been looking all over for you." He then informed the woman of ways that the church members in the area could help her with her immediate needs.
Mary, in addition to that kind of assistance, we have given funds to the ad hoc committee and to other churches. We gave money to help Daystar, which took some people in.
Trammell: Daystar is a Christian Science care facility?
Pinkham: Daystar is the care facility down in the area, and they took people in at the height of the hurricane. Our approach is that we want to give to community relief activities that are there, as well as to Science relief activities.
Trammell: In other words, not just to Christian Scientists but to anyone down there.
Pinkham: Yes, and we asked the branch churches to identify appropriate organizations for us. We have also provided funds for branch churches to give Christian Science lectures in the area.
Trammell: Will this be the end of The Mother Church's help?
Pinkham: No. Everyone feels that more is going to be needed.
Trammell: There's a long-term need?
Pinkham: Yes. It's yesterday's news to some people, but there's a long-term need to build back, and church members in Florida are continuing to do all they can. It's just wonderful to see the support. People pulling together is the wonderful thing.
