Being the Hope during the holidays

by Deborah White

“Is the cross still standing?”

That’s what a friend once asked the Rev. Kristin Sachen after a devastating earthquake in California. Her friend expressed concern about damage to high-tech equipment and then asked, “What about you? Is the cross still standing?”

United Methodists need to ask themselves the same question about the role of the church in the midst of disasters, said Sachen, now assistant general secretary of the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), the denomination’s humanitarian aid arm. “We have to recall for ourselves after a big disaster what was our role before, and what parts of that are still in place.”

The cross signifies “the worst loss, but it also signifies the best hope,” Sachen said. “Is the cross still standing? Of course it’s still standing. It’s our hope.”

This question is vital for churches as survivors of recent hurricanes grieve numerous losses. Among those soon will be the ways they usually celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas. As the holiday season approaches, evacuees living far from home will be physically exhausted, emotionally spent and spiritually empty.

The church can communicate a message of hope in powerful ways through the holidays and beyond, said clergy with extensive disaster response experience.

“We have the opportunity to not only show the world who Jesus says He is, but, as followers of Jesus Christ, who we say we are,” said the Rev. Cathy Felber, pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Seville, Fla. Her congregation distributed emergency food for several months to families after Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004.

It is important to understand how storm survivors feel during the holiday season, said the Rev. Paul Huntsman, pastor of the Hazelton United Methodist charge in southwest Indiana. He has responded to 13 disasters since 1989, including severe flooding last January in the Hazelton area.

Family is at the core of many Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations, Huntsman pointed out.

“You go back home. What do you do when there is no home to go back to? What the church does is gather up the people who are in need. We still have the meal. We have gifts. And the family takes on a different picture. For the moment those people are filled.”

Listening to disaster survivors is necessary and powerful, Huntsman said. “They have a story to tell. If they don’t get to tell their story, their story will consume them. Their story will just lay inside and eat them up.”

Recovering from a disaster includes a long process of grieving what was normal and discovering what the “new normal” is, Sachen said. “At Christmas time this year, people will still be grieving the old normal. There needs to be sensitivity to that,” she said.

Holidays will probably intensify their grieving, so don’t try to cheer them up or expect too much too soon, Felber said. “We can invite people to join us and love them, but we need to realize that our families, our homes, churches, traditions and communities can’t take the place of their families, homes, churches, memories and communities.”

When a guest’s cultural traditions and cherished customs are different from those of the host, Felber encourages incorporating them to “help foster cross-cultural understanding and reconciliation.”

Meeting practical needs is another powerful way to respond during the holidays.

During a cold snap last winter, a family in Central Florida sent its baby to live with relatives because the hurricane-damaged home had no insulation. Volunteers from Auburn University in Alabama completed repairs just in time to bring the baby home for Christmas.

“It was an incredible moment of seeing the work we could do truly make a difference for a family,” said the Rev. Marilyn Beecher. She is a church and community worker for the East Central District of the Florida Conference.

At the same time churches are reaching out to those displaced by disasters, it’s important also to remember local people at the holidays.

“We need to continue to be aware of our own communities that were there before and to do all we can,” Beecher said. The recent storms “give us a chance to do more than we thought we could.”

The Rev. Marilyn Swanson advises congregations to go outside the church into the community. “In this kind of situation people may not come into the doors and say they have needs,” said the Florida conference’s project director for storm recovery. “Churches need to go out and find out what are the most vulnerable populations.”

Swanson recommended that all churches plan ways to identify the most vulnerable people before a crisis arises. A disaster plan is on the Florida Conference Web site, www.flumc.org.

Churches bring hope by “being constant and being there,” Swanson emphasized. “We’re there until the end of the long-term recovery. God is always there for us. The church is always there for those who need us.”

—Deborah White, associate editor, Interpreter and Interpreter OnLine

Bible Study for use with
‘Being the Hope During the Holidays’

by Delia Halverson

Purpose: To consider ministry during the holidays to those experiencing loss.

Scripture: Matthew 2:13-15; 25:31-46

Possible Plan:

1. Ask participants to turn to a neighbor and share something or some event during the Thanksgiving or Christmas seasons that they would miss most if it were lost.

2. Ask who would like to describe some physical or spiritual exhaustion that they have experienced in the past. Ask each how he or she was helped. Ask if telling their story helped them in any way.

3. Ask someone to read the article to the group.

4. Read the scripture listed above. Ask each person to imagine how Joseph and Mary might have felt in that circumstance. What losses did such a move involve? How does that relate to those who have suffered loss today?

5. Discuss ways that your church can reach out to displaced people in the community during this holiday season.

6. Discuss ways that you normally reach out to others during this season. Are those needs still there?

7. Make plans, or affirm plans already made, to support those during the holidays who have suffered losses.

Brief worship:

Read Matthew 25:31-46.

Pray a prayer for those who are facing loss and for ways that you can help.

Sing or read “When the Church of Jesus,” (No. 592, The United Methodist Hymnal).

—Delia Halverson, Christian education consultant and author, Woodstock, Ga.