Day 4 Reflection

Feeling Safe

The text came with a photo of their 12-year-old daughter holding the quilt from

Bethesda, “She loves it. She said I’m going to be blessed every night.” And then she

added, “Thank you guys so much… it feels so much safer.”

So much safer. Safer. It had been on my mind for days, this notion of safety in your

own home. Jessica had shared how her home had been not only devastated by the storm but then taken over by squatters while she was not in it. Trashed. Damaged. On the verge of destroyed, truly. She simply felt unsafe. Can you imagine? Your own home taken over by others and destroyed in ways for worse than mother nature had already done. She simply felt unsafe. Every ounce of copper stripped from the heating system. Electrical wiring shorting and shocking you as you touch familiar light switches. She simply felt unsafe. Unable to lock the door because the lock stopped functioning. The fear that folks might take the few recovered belongings. She simply felt unsafe.

We take safety for granted. Physical safety. Emotional safety. Even spiritual safety.

When your home becomes unsafe, you don’t want to come home anymore. When trust is broken or you are harmed by another, you don’t want to be in that relationship anymore. When the body of Christ that surrounds you comes up more human than Christ-like, you wonder if you can fully participate anymore. Safety is taken for granted when you have it. And when it is gone, you long for it back. When safety is lost, it changes you. Trust is lost, and fears take over.

While we fixed pipes, wires, siding, and windows, all I could think about was putting new locks on the doors. It was the first thing I asked our host organization from Long Term Disaster Relief to get for us. Four days later, the locks had not come. Windows came. Siding came. Wires and outlets came. Flooring came. Paint came. No locks. All I could think about was how none of the work mattered if the family didn’t feel safe. It would never be home without safety. So, on the last day, in nearly the last hour of our work time, we purchased new lock and deadbolt sets for the front and back doors. I drove three inch screws through the plates so that anyone trying to get in those doors would have to tear apart the entire door frame! I wanted this family to feel safe.

I handed them the new keys and said, “Your home is safe now.” Then I wondered if

they would feel safe with new windows and patched walls and new doors and locks. And then the text came… “it feels so much safer.” And I cried. When you do trips like this you never know what you are going to see. You never know how big or small the project might be. You never know if you will finish, or how much work you will have to leave behind. Even when you arrive to walls you can see through and tubs that drain to the ground, you wonder if all the repairs will make a difference.

Will they restore a sense of home? Will they function well? Will they make life better? But giving a family back a sense of safety? You can’t put a price on that.

May all our lives be filled with safety – physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Pastor Jonathan Stufft

St. Paul Lutheran, Bellville