Storm Connects Churches with People

Pastor: Storm connects churches with people [Excerpts]

Hurricane Sandy, which now has killed at least 96 people on the East Coast, also brought with it opportunities for churches to connect with people in their communities, a church planter on Long Island, N.Y., said.

Most of the response from Ecclesia Church of East Islip has been "friend-to-friend, neighbor-to-neighbor, like loaning your car to somebody who doesn't have gasoline," pastor Sterling Edwards told Baptist Press Nov. 2.

"People have opened up their doors to let other people take a shower if they don't have power," Edwards said, adding that people who do have electricity have provided meals for those who don't.

On one street, he saw extension cords running from one house to another as people with power helped provide it to people without. About 3 million customers in the Northeast remained without power Friday, including most of Long Island.

A missions team of four adults from Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston was in New York before the storm hit to help with fall festivals at both church plants. The team tried to get out of town Sunday but ended up having to stay.

"They were just here to help us, and they have a tremendous heart, tremendous attitude," Edwards said of the volunteers. "None of this slowed them down whatsoever. They were almost in one way glad to be a part of the action, to be able to help us."

"God has a way of using these events to break us out of our normalcy and cause us to look to Him for help," Edwards said. "I think this has helped us be identified as a church that genuinely cares for people and loves people. I've talked to a hundred more people this week than I talked to ever before this week. God has a way of connecting us with people."

Several members of Ecclesia have had one or more feet of water in their homes, the pastor said, including a groom who was to be married at the church Nov. 2.

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