Evacuees trust Huntsville church’s facilities and care

Posted: 9/09/05

Evacuees trust Huntsville
church's facilities and care

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

HUNTSVILLE—About 250 evacuees from New Orleans packed into the facilities of First Baptist Church in Huntsville, but they would not leave for another newly opened shelter because they felt safe and secure, said Pastor David Valentine.

“We’ve opened another shelter in town, but they won’t budge,” Valentine said. They want to stay because “they got burned so badly at the Superdome,” where they had sought shelter from Hurricane Katrina.

A total of 340 evacuees arrived at the church at 1:30 a.m. Friday, Sept. 2, after a 16-hour ride from New Orleans to Houston—where they were turned away from the Astrodome—to Huntsville. The church had 30 minutes advance notice.

Valentine boarded each bus and gave them a simple message. “I know you’ve been in hell; welcome to heaven,” he remembers telling them. “I can’t imagine what you’ve been through, but there’s a warm cot, hot meal and hot shower waiting for you here. You’re in the safest place in the United States.”

The church’s facilities are next door to a prison operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, and the congregation has regular, ongoing ministries with the prison and its workers.

The evacuees arrived in terrible condition. They wore clothes stained with blood and human waste, the pastor said. “It was the nastiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

First Baptist Church took the people in and made them feel welcome.

“Our people have been good,” Valentine said. Most of the evacuees now want to stay in Huntsville, he added.

The church expects to house evacuees for 12 to 16 weeks, but the building can handle no more than 150 people over such a long term.

Crowding is so great now that the people cannot sit at tables to eat, said Jerry Phillips, associate pastor for community ministry.

The church, however, has been aided in handling the evacuees. The prison is doing all of the laundry, and the TDCJ staff is partnering with the Huntsville Police in providing security.

The local telephone company provided five telephones for evacuees to contact family members; a university set up a computer room; and 12 portable showers were put in place. Also, First Baptist is a certified Red Cross shelter and thus has liability protection.

Valentine traced the church’s successful ministry in this situation back to a $5,000 gift from the Baptist General Convention of Texas that helped established the criminal justice ministries that are now in place. The church has taken that initial ministry investment and turned it into a variety of community ministries that served as the foundation for its hurricane response.