Stories of Response

After hurricane katrina Delivers Mail, Nazarene College Students Deliver Hope...

(Biloxi, MS) Among all the words used to describe Hurricane Katrina (destructive, devastating, etc.) an unexpected term has emerged out of Biloxi, MS and that is “letter carrier.”

One night, six months before the storm roared ashore, Biloxi resident Etta B. Cooper was unable to sleep. She worried about issues related to finance and retirement. Ms. Cooper says “I got out of my bed. I got my pencil and I got my tablet. I commenced to write God a letter.” She wrote that she wanted to be totally used by God but that she was tired. She was ready to retire from her job but bills and other obligations might make that impossible. She wrote asking God to save her children and to bless her Church. She sealed the letter in an envelope on which she scrolled “To Jesus Christ, My Lord, My Everything.” In the upper left corner she wrote her name and return address on Keller Avenue, Biloxi, Mississippi 39530. In the upper right she affixed a stamp. She placed the letter in her family bible among the pages of Psalm 27. And just as the chapter instructs, she waited.

Then came the storm. Ms. Cooper fled to Jackson, MS in advance of the flood that would leave 7 feet of water in her home and chase her neighbors onto their rooftops. A few days later, her eldest daughter, Sabrina, returned to Biloxi to salvage a few items from the Cooper home. It was back in Jackson where the Family Bible was placed in front of a fan so pages might dry. Falling out of the bible was the envelope Etta Cooper had since forgotten from that night of anguish so many months ago. The envelope was wrinkled; the ink faded. The glue that secured Etta’s letter inside had lost its adhesion, permanently separating the envelope from its contents.

“I started shouting,” Ms. Cooper said describing her reaction. “I said ‘praise the Lord…Lord you got my letter. I know you got my letter.’ He left the evidence. I told God, ‘Lord any way you want to show me that you got my letter, I’m going to be satisfied.’ Don’t you know I’m satisfied? Most of all God saved me. I’m saved. And I’m safe. And I thank the Lord because God is my witness. Don’t you know I’m thankful? And then God is just sending all these people and now they’re in there working on my house.”

The “people” to whom Ms. Cooper is referring are volunteers from Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho. The group is made up of mostly college students, but also includes advisors and staff from the University and other volunteers. The crew has removed and replaced damaged dry wall and flooring. They’ve hammered and sanded; puttied and painted. They even showed up early one morning to hold a church service with Ms. Cooper in the shell of her home.

So what would motivate Nazarenes from thousands of miles across the country to come to Biloxi Mississippi and not only rebuild a home, but also help rebuild a life? Etta B. Cooper is convinced they were sent on a mission by God to bring both help and hope. Her prayers have been answered. And “don’t you know” she IS thankful!