Love in Action
Report from Texas, USA
Disasters are Ephemeral
but Master’s Love is Endless
By Robert Yuan, Houston, Texas (Originally in English)
Just two weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck the
southeastern United States, Hurricane Rita developed off the coast of
Florida, becoming a Category 5 storm with winds of over 160 miles an hour
(257km/hr) and breaking Katrina’s record as the most intense hurricane
in the region’s history. However, through God’s grace,
Rita missed the city of Houston and weakened before making landfall on
the Louisiana-Texas border on September 24, 2005.
Heeding Master’s August 27 instruction to
“always in the future” respond to disasters, local initiates
quickly organized a Supreme Master Ching Hai relief team with headquarters
in Houston, even as millions of residents were evacuating the city. However,
the initiates soon learned that their aid mission would be challenging
since all the food, bottled water and gasoline in the area had been promptly
bought up by residents stockpiling supplies in the days before the hurricane
was scheduled to strike.
Thus the Houston team asked initiates from other
centers, including those from out of state, to bring food and water to
the headquarters. A number of out-of-state practitioners then formed volunteer
teams and promised to arrive with relief supplies before the hurricane
hit the coast, overcoming many obstacles to obtain the items, which were
in great demand as far away as Oklahoma City, Dallas and Austin. The initiates
arrived in Houston only an hour before the hurricane arrived and as they
entered the headquarters, Rita’s winds and rain quickly intensified.
On the next morning, September 24, the wind speed
at the disaster sites gradually decreased to 60 miles an hour (97km/hr),
so the initiates loaded their vehicles with relief supplies and traveled
to the hardest hit areas in Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas, 100 miles
(161km) away.
As the team arrived in Beaumont, the wind and rain
began to subside but the roads had been blocked off by the police to prevent
looting and to keep people safe from the dangerous fallen electrical lines
and debris that cluttered the streets. As the workers approached the police
barricade they asked for permission to bring food and water to the disaster
area but were politely refused. Not giving up, the convoy proceeded to
the next freeway exit praying for Master’s help in accomplishing
their mission. Then after some questioning, the police allowed the relief
party to cross their barricade and the initiates had to drive carefully
through debris, fallen trees and downed electrical lines. As they
surveyed the area, the volunteers noticed that most of the residents had
evacuated as recommended by the authorities; however, they did not give
up and combed the streets for survivors.
After some searching, the sisters and brothers
encountered a local man and asked if he knew of any place where people
needed relief supplies. He responded, “Yes,” adding, “I
haven’t eaten in more than two days as the evacuation resulted in
the local stores being closed.” Then Master answered the initiates’
prayers as the man volunteered to take them to neighborhoods that needed
provisions. The team next went from neighborhood to neighborhood, distributing
supplies at apartment complexes and hotels where the residents thanked
them and encouraged them in their efforts. Many of the initiates in turn
humbly thanked the local people for giving them the opportunity to serve
others and thus serve God. During the distribution process, the sisters
and brothers experienced many time- and space-transcending moments, in
which neither victims nor rescuers but only pure love seemed to exist!
As the day neared its end, the team said farewell to their God-sent local
helper and departed.
Then
on Sunday September 25, the initiates assembled an even bigger convoy
including three large rental trucks and three vans, and again set off
to the Beaumont area for another day of miracles. The plan was to split
up and go to Port Arthur, Jasper, Lumberton, Vinton and other towns also
affected by Rita. Next, as the convoy neared Beaumont, it stopped
for a meeting near the Interstate-10 highway, and one of the brothers
walked to the nearby Elegante Hotel to obtain information on the local
situation. He returned with another God-sent messenger, who reported that
the Hotel was full of Katrina evacuees who had also been affected by Rita
and were in desperate need of food and relief. The messenger got the team
past the nearby police barricade, and as the initiates’ trucks pulled
into the Hotel entrance, they were greeted by the forgotten Katrina victims’
cheers and clapping. Then news teams from CBS, ABC, NPR, BBC, Fox and
other media outlets, many of whom seemed to come from nowhere, began interviewing
our relief workers, who efficiently distributed food to the needy victims. Basic
food items such as bread, jelly and peanut butter became instant delicacies
as they were devoured by the recipients, who also eagerly savored dry
instant noodles right out of the bag, making even the initiates’
mouths water.
As the brothers and sisters completed their mission
in Beaumont, an elderly woman who managed the Port Arthur Holiday Inn
volunteered to take them to more needy people in Port Arthur, and promised
to get them past a barricade established by police. This was a great surprise
since the disciples had earlier decided to skip Port Arthur due to news
reports warning people not to go near the city, which was still flooded.
And although only the military and rescues workers with permits were being
allowed in, the disciples realized that they should drop their preconceived
ideas and follow God’s will! With this new God-sent helper, the
disciples successfully passed through the police barricade. Then upon
arriving at the Holiday Inn and being greeted by several officers, the
practitioners politely asked how they could help the victims. The police
replied that the local residents who had not evacuated before Rita struck
were in desperate need of food. Representatives of the team were then
introduced to the city’s mayor, Oscar Ortiz, and the chief of police.
It turned out that Mayor Ortiz was also a victim as his home had been
damaged by Rita, and he and the chief sincerely thanked the team and offered
their assistance. In response, one of the disciples said, “It would
be helpful if you could give us authorization to go through the police
barricades so that we can help those in need.” The Mayor then presented
the team with an emergency relief certificate signed by him and the chief,
who later sent two officers to deliver a second certificate to a group
of initiates down the street unloading supplies.
As the team continued their miraculous day of relief
work back in Beaumont, they were met by another guide, a local man who
took them to a hurricane-damaged condominium for the elderly that lacked
power, food and water on a sweltering day. The man was so touched by the
initiates’ sincerity that he joined the team in bringing food and
water up many flights of stairs to the victims who were either too old
or too weak to walk down to the lobby. At one stage of the project when
the recipients asked for bread, which had run out earlier, the team members
looked at each other in bewilderment. Then, thankfully, one of the brothers
found a previously unnoticed box of bread among some boxes of gasoline
cans, thus brightening the eyes of the elderly victims, who hugged the
team in appreciation. To the workers, this experience alone made their
efforts worthwhile. With their supplies depleted, the initiates next dropped
their helper on the side of the highway near his apartment and saw
him fight back tears while waving goodbye to the convoy as it headed
back to Houston.
On the third day after the hurricane struck, the
military moved in to assist the victims, but the relief team members nonetheless
continued their work by distributing a new batch of supplies purchased
the night before in Houston.
After this last distribution effort was completed,
the sisters and brothers were escorted by local officers back to police
headquarters, where they donated their remaining items and happily concluded
their mission.
As
the team members looked back on their three days of Hurricane Rita relief
work in the Beaumont and Port Arthur areas, they were awestruck at all
the miracles that had occurred and at the love they experienced with the
help of Master, Who led and taught them each step of the way. And through
the Katrina and Rita disasters, the initiates also came to realize that
while purifying the planet, God also bestows Hiers love on Earth through
their efforts.♥
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