Pastor Earl Lane Welcomes American Red Cross to Pateros Community Church<\/strong> After only eight weeks as the new Pastor of the Pateros Community Church, Pastor Earl Lane found his community in disaster mode for the second time in a little more than a year. Last year wildfires devastated the town, wiping out the church parsonage and 43 additional homes, according to Lane. Now, wildfires have again rampaged through the community, once more destroying or damaging numerous buildings, and causing the evacuation of many from their homes during the height of the danger. <\/p>\n \u201cPeople are angry. Some have no insurance. They want to get back to normal, but it\u2019s never going to be \u2018normal\u2019 again,\u201d said Lane. This past Sunday, Lane\u2019s church was packed, and he talked about displaced anger. \u201cPeople are mad and don\u2019t know who to be mad at.\u201d They were still talking about, processing the fire from last year when this one came along,\u201d noted Lane. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n When the American Red Cross asked if the church would open its facilities as a shelter, Lane readily agreed, even though the Red Cross has been a target of some of his church community\u2019s anger. \u201cThis past weekend we were serving 75 meals a day,\u201d noted Lane, but now there has been an exodus as people have been able to go home and school is about to start. \u201cIt\u2019s the first time the church has agreed to serve as a shelter\u2026 The Red Cross workers have been wonderful. They care about the people. We\u2019ve enjoyed their staff and have worked well with them\u2026 It shows we can work together\u2026 We welcome you to stay as long as you need to.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Red Cross shelters do not allow pets to reside in shelters, the church made arrangements for an additional facility where twelve dogs and three cats found respite. <\/p>\n When the Bishop of the United Methodist Church asked Lane to move to the Pateros Community and assume the role of new church Pastor, the first thing Lane did was to take a look at the videos of last year\u2019s wildfires and talk with some of the people who were affected. \u201cI found people who were hurt, who were still processing that disaster, but many people who had stepped up to help their neighbors,\u201d said Lane. \u201cYou can\u2019t have better people than that\u2026 I had to come, and it\u2019s been a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people here need help but when they are paralyzed by fear you almost have to hold their hand\u2026 The biggest obstacle is pride\u2026 Listening is what I do most. I do what I can to restore dignity.\u201d We have to remember that \u201cthere is never a wrong time to do the right thing\u2026 We have to be patient. People are still processing,\u201d but we\u2019ve learned from all of this that \u201cwe have the ability to put our differences aside, do what\u2019s right, and take care of one another,\u201d Lane concluded. <\/p>\n Pastor Earl Lane talks with Red Cross disaster worker Lloyd Ziel in his office at the Pateros Community Church. Photo by Robert W. Wallace\/American Red Cross Pastor Earl Lane Welcomes American Red Cross to Pateros Community Church By Robert W. Wallace\/American Red Cross After only eight weeks as the new Pastor of the Pateros Community […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":10787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[111,125],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-channels","8":"category-emergency-response"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/NEWS_UMVIM_Fire_cover4.png?fit=700%2C357&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-2NY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10786"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10789,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10786\/revisions\/10789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBy Robert W. Wallace\/American Red Cross<\/em><\/p>\n
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\nYou can also read this article at redcrossnw.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"