Faith in Action: A Balancing Act

By Jesse N. Love
Editorial Leader

     Among those helping to feed starving volunteers at the Command Center are two United Methodist Reverends: Reverend Carolyn Peterson of First UMC, Olympia, Washington and Reverend Richard “Dick” McPherson of St. Andrews UMC, Lacey, Washington. Both seem like a pastoral team, dedicated to making sure the needs of the community in Doty-Dryad are served, especially in this time of need. They have taken time away from their own church communities to assist in the effort the best they can. Pastor Carolyn and Pastor Dick are serving meals to volunteers who are hungry after a long morning of shoveling mud or laying out sheetrock. During the holiday season, both Reverends share how ministering to their own communities, participating in flood relief, and celebrating Christmas is a lesson in balancing priorities.

CHANNELS: As ministers, what do you need to accomplish for the community, today?

Dick McPherson: Well, our job basically is feeding people. Carolyn and her congregation are in charge of this project today.

Carolyn Peterson: We’ll be here all day today with lunch and dinner.

DM: They’ve been here since 11 a.m., we’ll be here until 5 p.m. or so.

CHANNELS: Are you going to minister to anyone here?

DM: Ministering with food.

CP: We’re always ministering. Talking to the people is ministering. People want to be heard. They want to tell you their story. It just helps.

CHANNELS: How many hours have you put into a week in helping the community deal with the flood matters?

CP: Probably both of our churches are doing other things at the same time we’re doing this. We have “tent city” at our church. We’ve been focusing on that, and then suddenly have to swing to help the flood victims.

DM: We had charge conference last Tuesday. We had a dinner on Monday. It’s a full schedule at our churches. So coming down here, it’s kind of hard to say how many hours I’ve (helped). I know I haven’t gotten much sleep lately.

CP: Yeah, I know I think I’ve only gotten 4 and a half (hours of sleep). I think it’s because it’s Christmas, I’ve really had a tough time. I have Children’s programs and Christmas Eve Program.

DM: All that is ongoing.

CP: Yeah, and that has to keep on going. And really, I wanted to stop doing that because I thought (helping in flood related matters) was more important. But, there are people back in Olympia who need to hear the Christmas Story. There are children who need to learn through doing it. This week, we have to do it all.

DM: This is the Saturday before Christmas Eve and Christmas. She has 15 people from her church, here. That’s faith in action.

CP: Absolutely. Yeah, like you said, there could be people out, Christmas shopping.

DM: That’s faith in the saddle: going out to where the needs are. I guess, I’m glad I’m not Christmas shopping. On the other hand, there are a billion things I could be doing, but this is important.

CHANNELS: What do you think this community needs in terms of spirituality? Morale?

DM: Well, it seems to me their spiritual health is better than most in our society right now. I’ve seen very deeply spiritual acts of love in the days I’ve been around here. Their spiritual health has a lot to say to the rest of us, I would say. What they need is an awareness that there are other people in the world that care about them and about their plight and what’s going on in their lives. And they need people here to feed the volunteers. They need professional help in rebuilding these houses. Today, they’ve got somewhere between 200-300 volunteer union carpenters, literally, from all over the country. They will need electricians. They will ultimately need appliances, furniture, and all that stuff. So, it’s an ongoing task to rebuild this community. And it’s not just this isolated community; it’s really all over this valley, up in Boistfort Valley and Adna, and all the way up to Pe Ell. It’s kind of like universal devastation up here.

CP: I just want to repeat that they just need support. And even the physical support of feeding people ends up being spiritual. (The community needs to know,) “Somebody cares about you.”

DM: (People here) don’t have the means to cook. Their houses are destroyed so they can’t cook. They spend all day working and to come here and get a hot meal, a good, hot meal, there’s a real benefit to that.

CHANNELS: What is the toughest challenge over the last few weeks?

DM: For me the toughest thing for me is dealing with the lack of coordination and having to sort of start from scratch.

CP: I said the same thing. It was frustrating not to have…

DM: …a pre-existing network, so to speak.

CP: Yeah, not having a network built, an emergency network built (is a challenge) because our people were ready to go, immediately.

DM: …and not to go talk to somebody on the phone, but to come up here and run a food line or something.

CP: Yes. The other challenge is, we’re in the holiday season and we have all this stuff we have planned, which takes second seat to this (flood situation), but yet has to go on anyway and so we’re just trying to get it all done because there is no choice; we’re going to do it all.

DM: Balancing the needs of the local church and the relief effort’s needs and then in addition to that, just plain ol’ family stuff. My son is in the Air Force and few in last night and I brought him out here to help. (Laughing) I hardly have time to talk to him, yet.

CP: (Laughing)

DM: You know we hardly have time to have our Christmas tree up! (Laughing)

CP: (Laughing)

DM: I suppose maybe sometime in the next couple of days we might do that, but it’s more important to feed people.

CP: You suddenly became very aware of what’s important and what wasn’t. Maybe even giving gifts is not that important. I said to my kids, “We may have to go Christmas shopping AFTER Christmas.” Priorities change.

CHANNELS: What’s been the most rewarding out of all this whole experience for you?

DM: It’s truly been a gift to watch this community and the others around here come together. This is the Christmas story reenacted. At the end of the meal last night, they concluded it with a community gathering. Everyone was setting up the tables and we went from person to person, checked in, asked “Is your house dry? What’s the status of your house? Is all the sheetrock and insulation out of it? Do you have sheetrock yet to be installed?” Just touching base with everybody and networking, letting them know that they are not doing this alone. To watch the community effort here has been nothing but remarkable.

CP: And it’s good for the volunteers that have come from church to see that, too. It’s an honor to be a part of it. It’s a privilege to be here and witness. We do a silent witness ourselves. We don’t have anything on us that says we’re United Methodists. And it doesn’t make any difference really. I mean, I would have liked to have UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) here with their flood buckets and all that kind of stuff. That would have been good, but in the end, the flood buckets came from someone else. And they’re here.

DM: I’ve heard it said many times, that of all the work that is getting done, 95% of it is getting done by church people. It is very satisfying to realize that it’s not just the Mormons or the United Methodist Church; it’s also the Mennonites, Lutherans. There has been an outpouring of church people, not wearing their “badges.” It’s not important to come here with a Methodist badge on my chest. It’s more important to come here and be a representative of Jesus Christ. That’s what we are about.

CP: Absolutely. That’s important. Quote him on that! (Laughter)

DM: (Laughter)

How has God spoken to you over the last few weeks?

DM: Well, I’ve got a little red telephone, and it’s rung a few times. (Laughter)

CP: (Laughter) God’s asking, “Why are you still standing by the phone?” If anything, God’s saying, “Don’t worry about getting everything done. Just go with what’s more important.” What’s important is always serving people. Serving people has to be top priority.

DM: We’re getting people who want to come here and help. There’s any number of people who would like to come here and help, but can’t, for whatever reason. Maybe they are too elderly, or maybe they have too many family commitments, who knows what? But, the point is, the fact that people and their congregations are helping others, is satisfying. We have people from all congregations coming up here and helping people.

CP: And I want to add to that, there are a number of people that physically couldn’t do certain things, like me personally I could not do the shoveling of the mud. But, everybody is doing whatever they could do. So there are people who could make cakes or make cookies that have done that. For instance, we had someone came in and say, “I will donate money to buy all the stuff (to help).” And they said, “No.” These people need a chance to be able to give something. They are just dying to do something. It is much more important to allow them to do that than just go out and save the money for buying sheetrock.

DM: On the other hand, one of the best gifts that these Command Centers like this can get is the gift of money. Because, with all the stuff that is brought up here, whether it’s gifts or clothing, they are discouraging that kind of thing because it takes volunteers to sort all that stuff. At this point in the reconstruction, they need all their volunteers doing different things. And the gift of dollars, means if they need a little sheetrock or if they need propane for the stoves, they can order it. Last night when I was here, they were stressed out because they had been told that the shower facilities had been taken away, Sunday evening. When I came home I called, George Abrams (Disaster Coordinator, Pacific Northwest Conference of the United Methodist Church), to see if there was any way UMCOR dollars could cover that. George talked to various people and found out that it was the county that had been paying for it so far. By today, the decision had been made that the showers will be here at least until January 4. I don’t know who’s leverage on who accomplished that, but now they have showers. It’s hard to do muddy work and not have a place to clean up! (Laughter)

CHANNELS: Were there any last comments?

CP: I just want to tell everybody to get involved. Do what you can.

DM: Whether it’s taking collections. George (Abrams) has said it several times, they don’t need a whole bunch of people with no sense of direction, but if you are coordinating with some of the local coordinators here, and they tell you what their needs are, it’s okay to respond to those needs. That’s my opinion.