Homeowners in storm-ravaged Louisiana experience the love of Christ through Samaritan’s Purse volunteers.
The night a deadly winter storm swept across Louisiana, Charlette Neumeier was too nervous to sleep. She could hear branches buckling under the weight of ice and crashing onto her roof as she prayed they wouldn’t break through.
The next morning, she looked outside and could no longer see her yard, it was so covered in limbs and ice. Her home sustained minor damage to the front porch and roof, but thankfully the trees fell away from her house. With no power and no water, surrounded by a maze of downed trees, her only thought was, “How am I ever going to get out of here?”
Samaritan’s Purse volunteers present Louisiana homeowner Charlette Neumeier with a Bible signed by the team after working to clear debris that covered her yard after the recent winter storm.
Hope and Help Come
Charlette lives alone, with no family near her home in West Monroe, Louisiana.
She heard about Samaritan’s Purse from her neighbor who had already received help from our volunteers. Charlette wasted no time calling to put in her own request for help. Hours later, orange-clad volunteers arrived on her doorstep ready to serve in Jesus’ Name. She could hardly believe that people would come from all over the country to help her and her neighbors in their time of need.
Volunteers wielded chainsaws to get the job done.
“I think it’s fantastic that there’s this many people that want to volunteer to help somebody else out,” Charlette said. “There are so many people in our community with nowhere to turn and no one to help them.”
Teams of volunteers are working through Charlette’s neighborhood where home after home for blocks on end need help with debris removal. As she talked with those who worked on her home, tears welled up in her eyes as she watched total strangers work in frigid temperatures to break logs out of ice and restore her property to what it was before the storm.
Charlette holds the new Bible she received from Samaritan’s Purse, grateful for how the volunteers blessed her.
“It’s a blessing and I know God sent these people to my neighbors and me,” Charlette shared. “It’s just so overwhelming you don’t even know what to say, but I do appreciate everything that everyone’s done for me.”
Lives of Service
Darris Waren has lived in West Monroe his entire life. While he watched others move away, he knew he was called to stay and serve. Forty years later, now as the associate pastor at Fair Park Baptist Church, he got a call from Samaritan’s Purse offering to come and serve his community. He learned we needed a partner church in the area. Darris’ decision was made in an instant; he committed to do whatever it took to help.
People were grateful to serve West Monroe homeowners as the hands and feet of Jesus.
Since then, he and his staff have taken time out of their normal duties to volunteer alongside Samaritan’s Purse. “If you’re not serving, then what are you doing?” Pastor Darris asked. “People are hurting. They’re struggling. They’ve got their own problems at home, but just get up and go serve somebody else. It will help you and it blesses you to be able to pick up and move on and move forward.”
His tight-knit community took a brutal hit from the winter storm, leaving many without power and water for more than a week. The prospect of what it would take to help everyone affected was overwhelming.
“When the Samaritan’s Purse trucks started rolling in—to see people that are refreshed, they’re ready to go, they’re trained in this—it gave us an opportunity for just a moment to sit back and go, ‘Thank you, God. Somebody’s here to help us. Somebody’s here to get us through this.’ And we know that God’s going to get us through any situation, but for Him to send people to be the hands and feet of Jesus for us, has been such a blessing,” Pastor Darris said.
An Opportunity to Share the Gospel of Jesus Christ
Coming alongside homeowners to meet their physical needs naturally opens the door for spiritual conversations. As Pastor Darris served alongside Samaritan’s Purse, he said it has been a gift to share the Gospel with people in his own backyard.
Volunteers circle up to pray before leaving Fair Park Baptist Church for a day of serving devastated homeowners.
“There have been so many requests for help and my prayer is that we’re able to touch all of those homes, all those lives, and we see people come to know Christ during this time,” Pastor Darris said. “God’s hand is at work and I think once we get past this and people can look back on it, they’re going to say, ‘God is so good and He’s faithful.’”
Volunteers Still Needed for Winter Storm Recovery
Please pray for more volunteers to join our relief efforts across the winter-storm affected South. We are working in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. With thousands of requests, we need an army of volunteers to help. Ask that God would provide more volunteers and that He would open doors for the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be shared with the homeowners we assist. We praise God for nearly two dozen people who have already given their lives to Him.
To learn about opportunities where you can serve in Jesus’ Name, visit spvolunteer.org.
