Draining me

Have you ever had an experience that made you feel like it just drained the life right out of you?

It happened to me tonight as I volunteered with an organization that was in my area to help with hurricane disaster relief.

I have been there all week. I have seen the big tent filled with people being fed breakfast, lunch and dinner. I have seen the lines of cars being filled with ice, water, and MREs supplied by FEMA and various churches.

I was duly impressed by how great this organization was. I was ready to start a local chapter... until tonight.

A man and his wife walked in the door and said they needed shelter. They asked just to set up a tent on the lawn. They were told "no" but they could sleep under the open sided tent already set up. What a gift... a night sleeping with the mutant mosquitos stirred up by the hurricane. No effort was made to get them a place in a shelter. No offer to do anything to help them. No sooner than they walked out of the door they were forgotten by those they had asked for help.

But something happened... a pastor from a near by town came to the door. I let him in and questioned him to find out who he was and why he was there. At that same time the man walked up again, he wanted to go to the bathroom and brush his teeth. The pastor spoke to him and he explained his plight. The pastor got on the phone and began looking for shelters. He found one and he went and bought pillows and blankets for the man and his wife and then he drove them to a shelter in a nearby town.

One pastor, new to the area, showed more heart and made more of a difference in that man and his wife's life than the big organization that is so big and in your face.
It all looked so good and played so well on television, but where the shoe hits the pavement... the humanitarian organization failed.