6 Times Faith Hastened Healing After a Crisis

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Disasters bring out the best and the worst of humanity. Some communities dissolve into chaos. Others band together. When nature unleashes its full fury, outsiders are often moved to assist those in the areas hit the hardest. Volunteers make their way to land flooded by a raging sea or buried beneath a tidal wave of volcanic ash. Men and women hand out food to those left standing amid the rubble of their homes. When the devastation is catastrophic, donations and resources pour in from across the globe. Aircraft carrier desalination plants become the largest source of fresh water in a region that has been annihilated. Helicopters carry food and water into the area affected by the disaster and take the wounded out. Schools are repurposed into hospitals. Doctors and first responders work around the clock to save as many lives as possible. Heroism is found in the most unlikely of places, and even once the immediate danger is passed, the road to recovery and rebuilding is long and hard.

Faith-based organizations are often on the front lines of these battles against nature and death itself. These volunteers live out their faith by lending assistance not only when the disaster strikes but also through the recovery process as well. Here are six times faith hastened healing.

Hurricane Harvey

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Hurricane Harvey was a category four hurricane that made landfall in the summer of 2017. Harvey made landfall in both Barbados and St. Vincent on August 18, 2017. It degenerated after that initial impact, but it regained its intensity in the Gulf of Mexico. The storm made landfall in Texas at its full category 4 strength. The hurricane weakened, but its forward momentum slowed to a crawl leaving the full fury of the storm sitting on top of Houston, Texas. Harvey dropped more than 33 trillion gallons of water over a few days. The colossal rainfall produced so much weight that the earth’s crust was pushed down by two centimeters.

In the aftermath of the disaster, faith-based groups took the lead in the recovery. Seventh Day Adventists acted as the “warehouse” for relief efforts by leading the charge in collecting, organizing and distributing relief supplies. The Universal Methodist Committee on Relief helped families navigate the maze of red tape of FEMA assistance and private insurers. Meanwhile, the Convoy of Hope provided aid in getting food to disaster victims.

Hurricane Irma

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Hurricane Harvey had no sooner finished drowning Texas when Hurricane Irma swept through the Gulf of Mexico. Just over a week after Harvey had dissipated, Hurricane Irma slammed into the Florida Keys on September 10, 2017. The storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of up to 130 mile per hour. Irma killed 102 people in the contiguous United States and was even more devastating in the Caribbean. The storm surge produced waves in Puerto Rico up to 30 feet high, a level most commonly associated with tsunamis. Almost every home and business in the British Virgin Islands was flattened, and electricity was still not restored to the entirety of the U.S. Virgin Islands by January 2018.

Faith-based organizations were on the frontlines of the Irma disaster just as they were with Harvey. Before Hurricane Irma even made landfall, the Convoy of Hope had three tractor trailer trucks stocked with food, water and sanitary supplies waiting to be sent to the worst hit area. The United Methodists provided volunteers to help clean out mud, debris and water from homes. Muslim, Buddhist and Jewish relief groups also worked furiously to help jumpstart the recovery process.

Japanese Tsunami

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In 2011, Japan faced the sort of disaster that no one could have prepared for. On Friday, March 11, 2011, there was an earthquake off the coast of the northeastern coast of the archipelago. This in and of itself was not unusual. Japan has more than 1,500 earthquakes per year, and minor quakes occur almost on a daily basis. The Asian country’s cities are built to conform to rigorous standards to ensure that they stay standing even during harsh quakes. The March 11 earthquake, however, measured at 9.0 on the Richter scale. The quake was the largest recorded in Japan and among the top five strongest recorded worldwide. In addition to its strength, the March 11 earthquake lasted longer than most quakes, but the worst was still to come.

The earthquake generated a tsunami that reached run-up heights of nearly 130 feet and traveled more than 6 miles inland. In Sendai, there was less than five minutes between when the quake finished and the tsunami surged ashore. To make matters worse, the quake and tsunami combination damaged the cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants causing a nuclear meltdown.

Religious groups in Japan poured resources into damaged areas despite Japan’s cultural distrust of religion. The Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai volunteers paid special attention to elderly survivors who are often overlooked, and religious organizations raised 42 percent of the total relief funds. The Catholic Church raised the equivalent of 21 million dollars, the most money of any religion despite there being less than 500,000 Japanese Catholics.

Hurricane Katrina

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Hurricane Katrina was the costliest hurricane to ever hit the United States and one of the five deadliest hurricanes to ever hit the United States. The storm made landfall on August 29, 2005, where it did colossal damage to Louisiana, Texas and Florida. New Orleans took the brunt of the storm when there were over 50 breaches in the city’s storm surge protection system. Some places in the city suffered from a double storm surge. The first wave came when the storm made landfall, and the second took place when the eyewall pushed water up into New Orleans. Almost all the major roads traveling in and out of the city were flooded, and numerous bridges collapsed.

In the face of this devastation, many faith groups led the charge in saving lives and repairing New Orleans. A Unitarian congregation in Baton Rouge sheltered more than 400 refugees from New Orleans. An interfaith coalition between the United Methodist Church and the Muslim organization ICNA Relief became so heavily involved in assisting the victims that there were still 100 full-time staff working to rehabilitate people displaced by Katrina more than five years after the storm dissipated.

Cyclone Nargis

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Cyclone Nargis was the worst natural disaster every recorded in Myanmar. The storm made landfall in Myanmar on Friday, May 2, 2008, with a storm surge that killed 138,000 people in the Irrawaddy Delta. The cyclone was the second deadliest named cyclone of all time, second only to Typhoon Nina of 1975. Thousands of buildings were destroyed as well. More than 75 percent of the buildings in Labutta collapsed, and nearly 1,500 temples were destroyed.

Faith-based groups were once again leading disaster relief efforts, but this time, religious organizations were the only ones offering relief. Myanmar’s military junta originally blocked all foreign aid for more than 10 days. The junta eventually and begrudgingly caved in the face of overwhelming international pressure. Both French and American ships filled with supplies were still denied access to the country, and it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of lives were endangered due to the junta’s refusal to allow foreign aid to enter the country. More than a year later, many religious groups were still helping Myanmar rebuild.

Port-au-Prince Earthquake of 2010

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On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 earthquake rocked the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. Buildings across Haiti collapsed as the country suffered from a lack of building codes. Houses and business alike disintegrated during the quake. Electrical power was lost and roads were blocked with debris. Hundreds likely died buried beneath the rubble of their homes because first responders were unable to reach certain areas due to the blocked roads. Hospitals were rendered unusable, and the official death toll was placed at 316,000.

In the aftermath of the disaster, faith-based groups did their best to help the hundreds of thousands of people who were displaced, injured or grieving. The United Methodist Committee on Relief provided volunteers. The Jewish Distribution Committee offered medical and counseling services for the injured and amputees. Islamic Relief USA and the International Red Crescent worked to shore up damaged structures, and the Church World Service coordinated food security programs, training and technical assistance.