Mormon Helping Hands in NJ

[Anonymous]

I spent the weekend in New Jersey, where there were still areas without power and so many powerlines and trees down roads were blocked and traffic detoured.

Only just a few days ago the gasoline situation stabilized, so the 3 hour lines to the gas station have disappeared.

Early Saturday morning, groups gathered in the Church parking lot, received yellow “Helping Hands” vests, were given routes of people in the ward boundaries that needed clean up help, and timesheets and Church flyers were passed out as the teams organized for deployment.

I was pretty impressed with the organization levels. One great thing about the church was that people are called, people show up, and people are organized so they can go do good work…and they all volunteer to do it. It really was good to see.

I wondered about the timesheets though…was this something the church wanted a count of service hours to try to publicize their help in the neighborhood? Were they giving pamphlets out so that while we were doing service, we were also trying to play on people’s heart strings to capitalize on a disaster to do missionary work?

Not at all. Because the church is organized and plugged into the Red Cross and other state government channels who know the church will be organized and be helping, they are asking for number of man hours the church is providing with service because they submit those to FEMA, and the federal government reimburses the state…further helping the community. The pamphlets they were told to hand out were to solicit the elderly or disabled in the neighborhood, whether of our faith or not, that would be a priority to help.

We worked most of the day Saturday with chain saws and cleared gigantic hundred year old trees from the properties of elderly people in the ward. When large teams showed up, we were able to get a lot done in a relatively short amount of time.

They were still unsure if their chapel would get power, so the stake planned to cancel normal 3hr blocks of meetings, and instead, organized more clean up crews to head into Staten Island on Sunday to clean out flooded basements and provide clothes and clean underwear to families that were still stuck unable to do laundry or lost clothes in the damage. There was a buzz among those I talked to that this kind of help while people’s houses were in the mire…was a great sabbath day activity.

Having also help some clean up crews years ago in Louisana after Katrina, I saw the same level of service and cheery attitudes among members organized to help after Hurricane Sandy.

There are times on Sunday I get frustrated with church and the things people do and say…but one thing is for sure, the church is pretty dang good at being prepared for disasters and helping to organize service after the crisis. As one of my good friends used to say, “The Church frickin’ delivers, man!” :thumbup:

[Anonymous]

I agree, I have helped out with both Hurricane Irene and Hurricane Sandy. I think the church does such an excellent job in this kind of situation, and seeing the gratitude from the people is heart warming. It is really a memorable experience to be able to help in a little way to ease their suffering.

One experience from yesterday. We had a crew of 10 people sent to clear a tree from a yard. It really was no more than a couple of branches down, and raking leaves, which would have had to been done at some point in the fall anyway. I was feeling a little bit under-utilized, and thought that this was really a work that the homeowner could have done himself. Afterwards, I was talking to the homeowner, and with he said, “I know it doesn’t seem like a big thing, but I cleaned out my whole basement and garage all by myself, and when I saw the mess in the backyard, I just couldn’t even think about doing it.” Reminded me about meeting people where there are with service, and sometimes things that seem simple to one person are a huge deal to someone else.

[Anonymous]

Heber13 wrote:

Early Saturday morning, groups gathered in the Church parking lot, received yellow “Helping Hands” vests, were given routes of people in the ward boundaries that needed clean up help, and timesheets and Church flyers were passed out as the teams organized for deployment.

I was pretty impressed with the organization levels. One great thing about the church was that people are called, people show up, and people are organized so they can go do good work…and they all volunteer to do it. It really was good to see.

I really love this. Sometimes I wish we would get more involved in soup kitchens and the like. But we really have the disaster relief thing figured out. It’s a good niche for us, and I guess, everyone can’t be everything to everybody in this world when it comes to helping those who need it.

Heber13 wrote:

They were still unsure if their chapel would get power, so the stake planned to cancel normal 3hr blocks of meetings, and instead, organized more clean up crews to head into Staten Island on Sunday to clean out flooded basements and provide clothes and clean underwear to families that were still stuck unable to do laundry or lost clothes in the damage. There was a buzz among those I talked to that this kind of help while people’s houses were in the mire…was a great sabbath day activity.

This is “pure religion”. I love it. :clap:

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing that. It’s easy to get so caught up in the theoretical that the big picture gets obscured.

I was able to go to Mississippi with a friend about two years after New Orleans and that region were devastated. The Church still was sending people in long after the initial disaster, and it was one of the highlights of my life.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for posting this, Heber. While we all may have theological issues with the Church, it’s awesome to see when the latter-day saints come out in force during times of emergency. I can clearly remember sitting in my deacon’s quorum when the bishop of the ward came in and told us all to head to the chapel. All of the priesthood quorums had been called in there, and in walked the stake president. He went up to the pulpit and said “Bretheren, the creek is coming out of its banks and flooding homes in the stake. We need you there filling sandbags to save these people’s homes. You’ve got 30 minutes to go home, change your clothes and get your gloves and shovels and report to Brother Cox’s house. Now go.” It was amazing – about a hundred men and boys got up and walked out. 25 minutes later I was standing in Brother Cox’s front yard with my dad when dump trucks started rolling in, dumping sand in the road, and we started sandbagging. Three hours later we’d sandbagged 12 dump loads of sand and created a channel for the water right down the middle of the road until it could be turned back into an irrigation canal. Still gives me goose bumps.

[Anonymous]

I too love how the church gets involved in helping others through natural disasters. I too wish they would get more involved with soup kitchens.

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

I think there are those that are making it a PR campaign, but by and large most people don’t care about PR, they just want to help.

This is my current frustration. Our stake was very hard hit by Hurricane Irene last year. I and many other stake members spent every weekend for a month cleaning up after Irene. There are certain skills that we learned in that time: how to help people cope with losing all their belonings, how to organize a house clean-out, how to cleanly and effectively take down drywall, etc. Skills that you just have to learn by experience, we had a lot of experience. However for some reason the leadership around here is refusing to let us leave our stake to serve. There was some damage in our stake, but it is far from the worst hit. So while others from far away and coming and are sent to the worst hit areas, (and bless them for it) we are stuck doing relatively light work.

On Saturday we had a crew of 10 people helping someone move. On Sunday we were raking leaves and moving branches in someone’s backyard, then the 10 of us were sweeping a basement. These were a valuable service, but given our experience and the relative needs elsewhere, we were being underutilized. Dozens of experienced people were going door to door looking for work, when just across the river there were hundreds of people who still desperately need help. The stake presidents in Staten Island and elsewhere are asking for anyone that can come, but we are not being sent.

If you have thoughts and prayers to spare, can you lend a couple to soften the hearts of the leadership to let us go where we are most needed?

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

cwald, as a friend and not as an admin, I will call you to repentance (a change of view) about your cynicism in these comments. It’s not a PR move for which the Church should be cursed, even if some are using it for PR purposes; it’s a sincere effort. Shame on you for sullying it by cursing it, even with the use of symbols to obscure the curse words.

Personal crises and struggles I can understand and accept; vitriolic attacks on the Church itself are different, especially with regard to this situation and in this particular thread. The attitude in your comments about something like this isn’t the fault of the Church; this is something you have to tackle on your own. Fix it, or it will canker your soul.

I would have said that privately, but it needed to be public to mirror the public comments.

[Admin hat on now]:

This is a post celebrating people who are sacrificing to help others. Any additional insults will be deleted. If anyone wants to go that direction, write a post about it, so we can talk about it outside this post.

[Anonymous]

Quote:

However for some reason the leadership around here is refusing to let us leave our stake to serve.

rebeccad, two things:

1) Nobody can keep you in your stake. Where you serve is up to you.

Having said that:

2) Have you considered that there might be a reason local people are being asked to clean up their own areas first and let those not affected serve in the harder hit areas? I don’t know if that’s the case or if your leaders are being selfish, but I have to think there might be some higher level coordination of relief effort going on to try to make sure less hard hit areas don’t get neglected in the rush to send everyone into the worst areas. Once your areas are finished, I hope you and others will be assigned to those other areas – but until your areas are finished please remember this:

For some, especially the elderly, raking leaves and branches that would sit unattended for weeks or months if not done now is just as valuable and meaningful a service as what is happening in the worst hit areas.

[Anonymous]

Old-Timer wrote:

Quote:

However for some reason the leadership around here is refusing to let us leave our stake to serve.

rebeccad, two things:

1) Nobody can keep you in your stake. Where you serve is up to you.

Having said that:

2) Have you considered that there might be a reason local people are being asked to clean up their own areas first and let those not affected serve in the harder hit areas? I don’t know if that’s the case or if your leaders are being selfish, but I have to think there might be some higher level coordination of relief effort going on to try to make sure less hard hit areas don’t get neglected in the rush to send everyone into the worst areas. Once your areas are finished, I hope you and others will be assigned to those other areas – but until your areas are finished please remember this:

For some, especially the elderly, raking leaves and branches that would sit unattended for weeks or months if not done now is just as valuable and meaningful a service as what is happening in the worst hit areas.

I appreciate your thoughts, and your attitude of seeing the best in people. That is something I need to work on.

No one is forcing us to stay in the stake, but if we leave it, we would need to step outside the church’s relief effort structure, and probably have to volunteer with another group. (Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc.)

I didn’t mean to imply that our service wasn’t valuable, the people whom we served were all very grateful, and it was a blessing to serve them. But there are a lot of man hours that are going to waste: 10 people doing a job that could easily be done by 3, and by people going around looking for work in an area where there are clearly more workers than jobs to do.

Overall, the work has been a positive experience, and I am grateful that the church is doing it, and that I can be a part of it.

[Anonymous]

Call to repentance accepted and thanks for deleting my expletive.

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[Anonymous]

I am embarrassed by my remarks.

.

please don’t hesitate to call me out if I post things that don’t further the goals of the board.

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