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Local Church Finds Road to Katrina Victims Filled with Detours
By Theresa Child
Tuesday June 6, 6:30am: The J Team was stuck on the side of the road on I-65 near Franklin, Tennessee. The 26-foot truck filled with food for Katrina victims in Ocean Springs, Mississippi wouldn’t travel above 40 miles an hour.
The J Team, also known as Jim McAnulty, John Zoll and his son Jonah, left Bower Hill Community Church in Mt. Lebanon early Monday morning to deliver the food to the Christus Victor Lutheran Disaster Response Center. But would they ever reach their final destination?
The road that brought the J Team to this point hadn’t been easy. After attending a Lenten Series on Thirst and Hunger in the World, members of Bower Hill decided it wasn’t enough to just learn about hunger, they needed to do something about it. When they realized that June 6th would be Hunger Awareness Day, the plan started to take shape. The church members worried there would not be enough time to organize such a huge project, but weren’t expecting some of the other obstacles that came to pass.
First, they had to collect the food. Bower Hill is a small church, so they asked other churches for help. But, there were several churches doing a “Fill a Truck” project of their own the same week. Surprisingly, an abundance of food was collected from retirement communities, local churches, and Mt. Lebanon school children. Some children from Bower Hill Church asked their neighbors to help fill their wagons and they brought wagons full of food to the church.
In fact, there was an overabundance of food. “We collected over 14.000 pounds of food. There was so much food, that we exceeded the weight capacity of the truck,” explained Rev. Laurie Sponaugle, co-pastor. “We will have to find another way to transport the more than 2,000 pounds of excess food. The members of the church worked hard to collect, sort and pack this food for the Katrina victims. We are grateful that our problem is overabundance and are humbled by the generosity of this community."
And then the truck broke down. An hour and a half later, a tow truck arrived and took them to the Penske Service Center where they could get a new truck. However, the J Team would have to move the food from the first truck to the second by themselves or hire a crew to do it. Thankfully, Penske Pennsylvania agreed to pay for the crew and the boxes were transferred. Altogether, it was a delay of six and a half hours.
At 10:10pm, the goal was reached when the J Team arrived at the Disaster Response Center. The next morning the truck was unloaded, the food was sorted and placed directly into circulation to be distributed. “Conceivably, our donations were placed in the hands of people who needed them within 24 hours of its arrival in Mississippi,’ said John Zoll.
The J Team returned home safely Thursday June 8th, but the mission was still not accomplished. What would be done with the extra food? “It was important to us that the food get to the Gulf Coast,” said Rev. Sponaugle. “We looked into the cost of shipping it and we even contacted our congressional leaders. It wasn’t until one of the organizers of the trip, Elaine Dalmaso did a web search for churches doing mission trips to the Gulf Coast, that we found our solution. Members of Christ United Methodist Church of Youngwood, PA took the excess food with them to a relief center in Moss Point, Mississippi.”
The J Team shared their experience at worship on Sunday June 11th. Their essays can be found on the Bower Hill Community Church website at www.bhccml.com. Jim McAnulty says “John and I enjoyed sharing our stories, but it was Jonah who put into words how the J Team feels about this journey.”
Here are some of Jonah’s words (age 11): “I went on a really long journey this week. Parts of it were fun and exciting. Some of it was boring and tedious. Which is kind of like life, I guess. And it was hard not to ask. Are we there yet? But, I have to ask Are we there yet? I am very thankful we had the opportunity to help the people in Mississippi. But 2,100 miles later, I think our journey has just begun. We are not there yet, as long as there are hungry people and you have given us food to share, as long as there is loneliness and we can be comfort and a friend, as long as there is war and we can choose peace.”
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