Lifestyle Showpig News
If you name a hurricane after a man, “he” will get lost, won’t ask for directions, wander around for days and leave a mess. That’s one of the lighter ways Texans describe Hurricane Harvey’s meander through the Lone Star State, which dumped 30-50 inches of rain over large swaths of Texas, according to Montgomery Lone Star Cowboy Church co-pastor Darla Weaver.
There is absolutely no way to take Harvey’s aftermath lightly though. Weaver, who heads up the church’s hurricane relief efforts, finally stopped asking if people’s homes were flooded and simply began asking how deep the water got. The devastation, now estimated to be in the billions of dollars range, was extremely widespread. Not only did the unprecedented amount of rain overwhelm streams, ditches, rivers and natural drainage channels, but it taxed local lakes to the point that river authorities had to release thousands of gallons of water amid the rising flood.
Texas has long been known for its cowboys. While coverage of dogs and cats being plucked from Houston homes was shown on the news, farmers and ranchers tried desperately to save their livestock. All small stock that couldn’t be moved to higher ground drown as the flood water rose above their heads.
More than a week after Harvey spun back out to sea, some cattle are still standing in belly-deep water being fed hay out of john boats that are now serving as floating feed bunks. Streets are lined with dry wall, sheet rock, carpet and broken furniture that was touched by the flooding. With mold setting in as early as 24 hours after flooding, home owners re-entered their homes as the waters receded only to tear them apart to save the main structure. Meanwhile, livestock that came into contact with the waters have open sores that are almost burn like, because the flood water contained chemicals, fuel, sewage and debris.
Even amid all the destruction though, there is still hope. Fred Rogers, who took many through a “wonderful day in his neighborhood” on the local public broadcast station, said during times like these to “look for the helpers.” While it might not be a wonderful day in many Texas neighborhoods, the word “neighbor” has taken on a new, deeper meaning as there has been no shortage of helpers.
Montgomery Lone Star Cowboy Church, in Montgomery, Texas, serves as a staging area for Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. To date, the church has received volunteers from Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee and calls as far away as California to see how they can help.
One such volunteer was Ray Perryman of Short Round Ministries. He arrived in Montgomery to help pack supplies to be trucked to the epicenter of the storm damage.
“People of faith always tell people about the heart of God, but I saw people demonstrating it by being the hands and feet of the church,” Perryman says of the experience. “They weren’t telling people about God, they were going to work to show it. It will profoundly change you when you see folks working for hours and hours on end for no other reason than they care.”
Weaver has lived this for the last week. Since Aug. 28, the Montgomery Lone Star Cowboy Church has served 12,000 hot meals. Even more amazing, the church’s oven is broken so all of these hot meals were cooked outside on cookers and grills. Teams of people showed up at the church with food and barbecue pits to help those who lost everything.
Reagan Langemeier grew up in the rural community of Marion, Texas. When Harvey ripped through southeastern Texas leaving whole communities, home and livelihoods leveled in its wake, the Marion FFA Chapter decided to do something about it.
The ag chapter reached out to another Texas ag program, Katy ISD, which is located near Houston, to help find ways to save FFA members’ Texas major bound livestock residing in the school’s barn. On Sept. 2, the Marion FFA students and ag teachers loaded down a trailer filled with feed, shavings, water and supplies and headed to Katy.
According to Langemeier, the hope is for the Marion FFA to raise funds to sponsor kids who housed their livestock at the school’s farm. They’ve created a Go-Fund Me page for the cause, and are talking to feed, veterinary and livestock supply stores for sponsorships.
“Whether it is finding a new barn to house their livestock project or finding a donor for feed, shavings, antibiotics, etc. Marion FFA chapter is trying to help with this,” Langemeier says.
Immediate needs to help fellow stockman hit by the hurricane seem to be hay and monetary contributions. Money contributions will go toward buying veterinary supplies to help the surviving livestock and cleaning and rebuilding efforts. Hay is a bit trickier to secure. Since any stockpiled hay was literally washed away and several fields are still underwater, the surviving Texas livestock need forage.
Montgomery Lone Star Cowboy Church’s outdoor arena will be able to serve as a point to stock hay for the future, but so far they haven’t been able to stack in storage.
“We cannot keep hay,” Weaver says. “We’re just shipping it out as fast as it can get here.”
Since the storm, the church has had hay hauled in from all over the country, including California, Michigan and states along the Eastern part of the country. In less than two weeks, Montgomery Lone Star Cowboy Church has distributed 20,000 pounds of feed, tons of hay and eight, five-gallon buckets full of medicine for injured livestock.
“People who drive for hours to bring us supplies from other states just grin from ear to ear, when they pull in and we unload from their trailer directly into a box truck or whatever to be given to people immediately,” Weaver says, and she thanks Jesus for orchestrating those moments.
While rebuilding in Harvey’s aftermath will likely take months or evens years, Texans are comforted by the fact that we’re all in this together.
Weaver was moved this last week when a tiny Hispanic Church hoped to feed 1,000 people with the help of cooking teams from the Montgomery Lone Star Cowboy Church. When the team got there, the line of those in need kept coming. Before the day was through, that tiny Texan church fed nearly 4,000 people a hot meal and offered them hope.
“It’s not just my denomination or your denomination, all these churches have come together. In Texas, we’re not cliquish,” Weaver says. “Counties are taking care of other counties, churches are taking care of other churches, neighborhoods are taking care of neighborhoods and people are taking care of people.”
TO HELP:
Montgomery Lone Star Cowboy Church Hurricane Relief Fun Monetary Contributions: https://pushpay.com/pay/
To donate hay to Texas stockman email localmissions@lonestar.tv
Marion County FFA Livestock Relief Fund: https://www.gofundme.com/lives
Special note from the Showpig Team
The Showpig.com Team’s thoughts are prayers are with those who were impacted by Hurricane Harvey in Texas, those who are watching wildfires in the Northwest and those who are in the path of Hurricane Irma as it bears down on the Florida coast. For those of us living in the Midwest and surrounding areas, it is difficult to truly process what life is like on the ground in Houston, Texas, in light of the events of the past week and the devastation wrought throughout Texas by Hurricane Harvey. As we have watched the news and seen pictures of flooded homes and displaced families, our hearts have ached for those we don’t know, and especially for our showpig family in the area. In an effort to learn how we could lend a hand, we reached out to our good friends Ray Perryman of Lubbock, Texas, owner of Short Round Ministries, and our Showpig.com summer intern, Reagan Langemeier of Marion, Texas. Their stories of kindness and compassion in the midst of despair touched our hearts and inspired us, and we wanted to pass them along so you could join the cause if you feel led to do so. We certainly hope you do.