The following is a speech made by Terry Palmer at Open Door Mission’s graduation on October 18, 2005. Terry originally came to the Mission in June 2004 and graduated from the DoorWay Program in 2005. Terry continues to grow in his faith everyday and is a blessing to all he meets.
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, God Bless you all. My name is Terry Palmer, for those of you who do not recognize me, I would like to introduce myself. I work for the Doorway Program and I also work when needed in the Development area. I have been asked tonight to speak for a short time on what we as a group have been doing in the arena of volunteerism at the Mission recently.
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Terry Palmer helping out in hurricane ravaged Beaumont |
On August 29th, as you all know, Hurricane Katrina rolled across New Orleans and devastated the lives of many people. It was a horrific natural disaster that affected many people. The first week of September, we felt a calling from God to go outside the box and get involved with rescue operations by putting our faith in action. We are taught from the Bible that we can perform many good works; we can even speak with the tongues of angels, but if we lack love we are as sounding brass or clanging symbols. (1Corinthians 13:1) We attended the Second Baptist Church community call for churches to help take care of the roughly 250,000 displaced residents who would be either coming through our city or staying for some time.
I have personally witnessed in the past two months this kind of Godly love in action. From the first week we offered our services God has not stopped honoring our willingness to serve and be servants. We have been busy not just here in Houston but in many of the surrounding areas. Our original plan was to help with the evacuees coming in from out of state; however, God in His wisdom had other plans for us. We started out at the George R. Brown Convention Center, where we helped out with the food service and many other areas. Some of our guys hearts were captured by the children at the George R. Brown Convention Center/Katrina Relief Shelter.
They stayed with some of these children for several weeks and developed incredible relationships with the people in charge and even with some of the parents of some of these children. When the convention center was finally emptied we heard nothing but accolades from the men and women in charge; in fact, due to a willing Spirit, willing hands and feet, and a need in our own Spirit to serve God, we have been truly blessed with glowing reports from every organization we have been honored to help.
We also donated 4 weeks at the Houston Food Bank, including Saturday and Sunday the first two weeks. We commend our guys, who worked tirelessly and sometimes thanklessly moving the many millions of pounds of food that passed through their facility. Many nights when these men returned, instead of hearing “Thank you” they would hear “OK guys, tomorrow morning, same time.” They were often so tired all they wanted to do was eat and go to bed. Yet they continued to work not looking for anyone’s approval but knowing they were doing what God had asked them to do. The Bible says for us to do our work with an attitude of service for God directly and not to look to other people for our rewards.
We were at the same time being called for extra duty by the End Hunger Network and again some of our men stepped up and filled these very large shoes. We have been helping out End Hunger Network ever since, and that relationship has truly evolved from just a wonderful partnership to something only God could be in charge of. During this time of moving thousands of pounds of food, God has opened up new avenues which in turn opened doors to new and exciting relationships with several surrounding churches that we had never dealt with, nor even had heard of before.
Because of God’s guidance and our willingness to listen, we have established friendships with White Oak Baptist Church and Lindale Assembly of God Church. We have several men at White Oak right now who have been living in the emergency shelters for several weeks and have helped them out in numerous ways. We have been told that their ability to organize, take control and be compassionate toward people all at the same time has been a benefit for the residents and the people in charge.
In addition, they have been cooking meals and babysitting these evacuees’ children when needed so the tasks of running back and forth getting apartments, looking for jobs, and even going to the store can be done with greater efficiency. When we first arrived at White Oak, it was just to drop off food and say a quick prayer with these strangers who were doing God’s work. We quickly discovered that we were being directed by the hand of the Lord and His Spirit. Before we even left several of us looked at each other and said, “God is doing something special at this church; they are actually doing what many people are talking about, putting their faith in action.” We knew at that moment that if we were to act on what we believed God was telling us to do, that this was not just a one time encounter. We knew as we were leaving that church that evening that we would be back.
The next week we had the same experience at Lindale Assembly of God Church. We were directed there by C.J. Goodwin who had received word from another contact that they were also housing evacuees in their gymnasium and taking care of their personal needs as well as housing 150 Guatemalan evacuees living in a motel who did not speak any English. Upon our first visit to Lindale, the pastor’s wife was so excited by the donations that we dropped off that she cried and prayed over us. Not at the same time. We felt such a spirit of love at that church that again we felt before we left that we would be returning.are still in partnership with White Oak Baptist Church, and Lindale Assembly of God.
In addition, we have been involved with East Texas Food Bank through our partnership with End Hunger Network. We just returned last Friday from a two week plus stretch at the Beaumont Food Bank where we have helped in so many ways. Our initial trip to Beaumont was extremely taxing for several reasons; the first being that we were all venturing out into unknown territory. The Bible says that Jesus told Peter during the raging storm to fear not; step out of the boat and keep your eyes on me. (Matthew 14: 27-29) Had we not had this lesson of faith in our hearts things could have gone very differently. However, God’s promises are true and through the days following our arrival, we watched in awe as he lead us by the hand and carefully unveiled his plan one step at a time. Through the efforts of many different groups of people willing to put their own needs aside, hundreds of people have felt the touch of God as he ever so gently lets them see with their own eyes that through the storms, through the tragedies and trials of this life, he is there . If one can put self aside and open one’s heart to a voice that is always speaking but quite often unheard, you can hear the sound of Jesus speaking and leading us to a life much fuller than we could ever imagine. Many of the men in our group had never done anything like this before. Quite frankly, I had not done anything like this before, and had not felt the joy and the satisfaction that can come from doing for others who have no means of reciprocating; all they can do is accept your help and thank you. That is enough.
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| Terry opening box of hurricane relief supplies |
We have done everything related to food distribution you can imagine. We were blessed to be able to move bulk food from one point to another where that food could be distributed to families for consumption. We also moved food at the food bank; putting food in the backs of cars as they drove through a line, not stopping because the line formed for what seemed to be at any given time at least a block long. We have been to 75 counties and parishes in Texas distributing food and water. It was an amazing experience that you would have a hard time putting into words except to say that God was all over everything that we did. We were also blessed to be able to have Bible studies and meetings and actually water the fertile soil of many hearts while we were at the Ford Arena in Beaumont which became our home for more than two weeks. We have all been blessed by new relationships and new encounters that could have never happened without the tragedy of two devastating hurricanes causing so much destruction first. Isaiah says “I give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes.” (Isaiah 61:3) Also, in Genesis, we see the example of how Joseph’s brothers intended to harm Joseph, but God used their evil scheme for His good purposes. (Genesis 50:20) I have seen this with my own eyes. We still have people going to Beaumont to help with the distribution of food and my prayer for them is that they will receive the blessings that we have received by just opening their hearts and letting God speak to each one of them.
