Hurricane Sandy

If you haven't been directly impacted by the trouble caused by Hurricane Sandy, you have likely seen the devastation on TV.  From pictures of the Seaside Heights roller coaster in the Atlantic Ocean to images of parts of LBI that simply no longer exist (the island is now multiple smaller islands!) the damage really is incredible.

Here in north Jersey we had it a bit better.  We have lots of trees down and loss of power, but all things considered we are very well off in comparison to the shore points.

After the storm, however, the temperature dropped quite a bit.  And without power, many people were without heat.  Amanda and I lost power at 6:35 on Monday night.  We stayed home, played board games, and went to bed a little early.  Tuesday we got a hold of my parents and found out that they had power! So we packed up some necessities and headed on over.  Thank God for warmth and showers!

While we were there my mother and I were discussing how we might be able to help the people who were affected by the storm.  I mentioned that there are probably people in the Pequanock area that are flooded, but how could we help them? We even looked around on the Red Cross website.  After some consideration we said, "What about the people in our town?  There are people with no power.  There are mothers who can't cook a hot meal for their children.  There are senior citizens with no heat and are cold and lonely."

We called our Pastor at Ringwood Baptist Church and asked him if we could cook some food for the local residents with no power.  He was on board and contacted the Police Chief who helped get the word out through the town's emergency phone call system.  Pastor Peters also posted some signs around town.  I got to work on Facebook letting anyone know that we had a free hot meal, phone charging, warmth and good conversation.  Amanda set out to send text messages to anyone that she could get a hold of as well.

When Wednesday rolled around we got to work early, prepping food, setting up tables, putting out board games, laying out coloring books for the children, and working hard to continue to get the word out.  At 11 when our doors opened no one showed up and it was a little disappointing.  Around noon we started to get a few folks here and there.  Encouraging, but not what I had hoped for, though one man who came in was a very talented musician and stayed nearly the entire night playing piano and guitar (with me for a while) for the people who came.  Throughout the day groups of 2 to 4 people would come in once in a while, but around 5pm people started pouring into the church.  We had families with as many as 5 children.  We had teens with Halloween costumes.  We had elderly couples looking for a warm place to stay for a few hours.  We had single people who were lonely and just wanted to connect with someone after being home alone in the dark all day.  We also had some young men who were out all day cleaning up downed trees and really just wanted a hot meal.

All in all we estimate that more than 100 folks came in for some food and warmth.

God really helped us connect with our neighbors and serve them.  I pray that God will continue to allow us to bless our community and show us new ways to reach out and show the love of Jesus.

I would also like to write a special thanks to my father, John DuMont who spent the ENTIRE day in the kitchen from 9 am to 8 pm.  He was cooking and cleaning and on his feet all day (all this knowing that he had to leave for work at 4am the next morning!).  So, Dad, thank you for your hard work, and thank you for your loving service to our community.