MEMORIES OF KATRINA

It has been ten years since the Gulf Coast took the full attack of Hurricane Katrina.  Much of the focus was on the City of New Orleans, Louisiana.  That is a city I had visited on numerous occasions, having been involved three youth gatherings and a couple of conferences there.  I grieved as I saw the city destroyed and so many lives impacted.

The reality of the tragedy impacted our lives here in Dallas.  I was serving as the school counselor at Lutheran High School of Dallas at that time.  Within a week of the tragedy we accepted our first Katrina refuge.  In time, we would take in four students.  Two of those students were with us for only a matter of weeks, as their families moved back to Louisiana.  Another finished the semester with us an then moved to be with family in another part of the country.  The fourth student finished the year with us.  That student and the struggles of his family still bother me ten years later. 

Within weeks, the decision was made to send a team of students and other volunteers to New Orleans.  Our principal and several faculty members accompanied them.  I was the varsity basketball coach and the trip would have conflicted with our practice schedule so I was not able to go. It did create a dilemma for me because two of my players wanted to go.  I had penciled in both players to have significant roles.  One even served as captain.  The mercy mission was scheduled for just days before our first game.  The athletic director left the decision up to me.  It was easy; the needs of others always take precedent. 

National tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina make headlines, and always arouse a response of mercy and compassion.  When the pastor of our church at the time put out an appeal for blankets for  the hundreds of refugees who were housed at Reunion Arena in Dallas, we had filled a trailer with new blankets by two that afternoon.   Donating goods and money is easy.  We can even donate on line or by using a phone app.  When lives are disrupted or even threatened, a response of mercy is the thing to do, but what about the day to day heartbreaking tragedies?  Thousands of children In our city go to bed hungry each night.  There are hundreds of homeless people in our city.  Almost every neighborhood has senior citizens who might be lonely or in need for friendship.  The manner in which we respond to all needs send a message to our children and teens.  Believe me, they see the needs and are waiting to see how we react.. 

Friendships: From the Well to the Drive-In to Facebook

I recently spent time visiting my family in Michigan.  I cannot go back to Detroit this time of year without getting a little melancholy.  I have a lot of memories from growing up in Motown in the sixties.  Many of those recollections surround summers when I was a teenager, especially those years after my friends and I had the freedom of being able to drive.  Our favorite hangout was a drive-in called Dunkin’ Burger.  If you have seen the movie American Graffiti you get the picture.  Dunkin’ Burger or the local Big Boy was our Mel’s Drive-In.  The atmosphere was always festive in the summer, especially on weekends.  The local drive-ins always featured hot cars and cute girls.  Someone always had a radio playing loud through the speakers in their car.  WXYZ was the station of choice.  The local drive-in was a place to see old friends and make new ones. 

Another gathering place was our front porch.  On week nights my friends from the neighborhood would stop by for conversation, a cold soda and some of my mom’s chocolate chip cookies.  Usually the baseball game played somewhere in the background.  Again the sense of community was what brought us together.  People have always looked for a central spot that could serve as a place where community could be nurtured.  In Jesus’ day, I sense it was the town well.  Everyone needed water, and with it came some friendly conversation.  Like the 60’s drive-in, you could hear the latest gossip and always find a listening ear. 

Today, social media and texting has replaced the town well and the local drive-in as the favorite gathering spot for teens.  It is easy to find fault with what we might see as “virtual friendship.”  How can you have a conversation with someone without eye contact?  The reality is that the needs are the same.  According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the need for community comes right behind the basic need for air, food, water and security.  Times change and so has the way we meet that basic need for companionship.

Yes, I also recall some of those discussions with my parents.  Somehow, they could not understand the reason I needed the car to hang out at a hamburger joint.  Or why when I got home from a night of “cruising” my response to their question of what I had been doing was, “nothing.”   Today’s teens and young adults should never have to explain why they spend so much time texting and checking social media; they are just doing what comes naturally.

Time to Break Out of the Lutheran Bubble

I try to avoid creating debates on Facebook, but I inadvertently started one last week.  I shared a report from Pew Research on racial diversity among various church bodies in the United States.  In reality, it probably should be stated “lack of diversity among religious groups because that is what exist.  In a sad statement the denomination that I am affiliated with, The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, was near the bottom.  The LCMS is 95% white, with Blacks (2%) and Hispanics (2%) making up most of the balance.  One of the two religious groups to fall below the LCMS was the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) which is 96% Angelo.

When it came to be being racially diverse, The Seventh Day Adventists led the way; 37% Angelo, 32% Black and 15% Hispanic.  Surprisingly, Muslims are more diverse than they appear.  Whites make up the largest percentage of Muslims (38%), with an equal percentage of Asians and Blacks (28%).   There is a strong Hispanic presence in the Catholic Church (34%), compared to 59% of Whites.  The United Methodist Church was rank just a little about Lutherans, being 94% White.

None of this surprised me.  If I walked into any Lutheran Church in the country I would expect to be greeted by a congregation of white people.  It has always been that way, after all “Bird of a feather, flock together.”   The church where I grew up in Detroit was that way.  For many years I could go back and even see the same familiar face.  It felt very comfortable, but is also very unlike the rest of our country.

We live in Texas, perhaps one of the most racially diverse states in the country.  Hispanics make up 38% of our population.  Whites are still the majority 44%, but the prediction is that within fifteen to twenty years we will be the minority.  Blacks make up 12.4% of the Texas population, with 4.3% being Asian.  If you visit the Rio Grande Valley, you will discover that it feels like Mexico.  Spanish is the dominant language and that culture is pretty ingrained.

 

On another note, the church I currently attend worships in the fine arts building at Dallas Lutheran School.  Ironically, the Buddhist Temple of Dallas is located right next store.  Because their parking is limited, we have to share a parking lot.  Observation: they have better attendance than we do (probably more than any Lutheran Church in the Dallas area) and they are very racially diverse.  Our pastor is constantly reminding us that we need to be good neighbors.

Jesus’ command was to “make disciples of all nations.”  It was not to “gather behind locked door with people who are like us.”  I am not worried about the church surviving, but I am worried about our future growth.  I am also concerned about our image.  How does the rest of the world view us? 

We are called to be the Christ representative in the world, and the reality is that world is becoming more diverse.    In some ways the millennials are a step ahead of us one this one.  Most of them have gone to school with people from a variety of cultures.  If they attend, or have attended, a major university there is a good chance they have experienced a “global community” without leaving campus.  Maybe, in this case we can learn something from millennials.  We need to think and live globally.

Kortni's Last Request

It's been four years since the death of Kortni Marshall.  I thought it was time to again honor her last request.  This is a blog that first was posted on August 4, 2011.

The realities of our sinful world have hit me hard over the last week.  On Friday night my brother, Jim, called to tell me of the death of his wife's nephew.  Jason was only thirty, but had a hard life.  His mother deserted the family when he was a child and he struggled with a bi-polar like disorder.  Jason also battled the demons of addiction.  He spent time in prison, but was finally putting things back together.  He was in a halfway house and had even reconnected with his family.  They found him dead Friday afternoon.

On Saturday I got news of the sudden death of one of my former Lutheran High students. Kortni Marshall and her twin sister, Kimberly, were in our daughter Katie's class.  My memories are of a smiling, pixie-like face.  Kortni was too innocent, almost naïve, but always full of life.  There was another side to Kortni.  Like Jason, she fought the demons of addiction.  Her last requested is posted on the Dallas Lutheran Alumni page on Facebook.  "Tell everyone.  Addiction is real, and it's a disease that can kill you."

Drugs and alcohol are a reality in the teenage world.  The choices kids make can lead to tragedy and heartbreak later on.

Two realities:

The average teenager has their first experience with alcohol during the middle school years.  Most of the time it takes place in an unchaperoned home environment. Alcohol is considered to be a "gateway drug."  Kids who try alcohol in any form are at risk for trying other drugs..

While drugs have been an issue since I was in college, the culture is much different today.  The marijuana available today is twenty times stronger than the stuff smoked in the sixties and seventies.  It's also usually laced with other drugs that are designed to create dependence.

Kortni was a baptized and redeemed child of God.  She now rests in Jesus strong arms.  The demons can harm her no more.  Just remember her last request.  Please talk about this issue with your teens.  "Addiction is real and it's a disease that can kill you."  I only wish Kortni was still here to deliver the message personally.