NEW YORK CITY (BP) -- The elderly lady was afraid to open the door.
Alone in the dark in her apartment on the 23rd floor of the Fulton
government housing complex in Chelsea Park days after Hurricane Sandy
struck, she was not accustomed to people helping.
But Gallery
Church in midtown Manhattan was in a position to help. Ministry leader
Chris Mills climbed the 23 flights of stairs Nov. 1 to reach the elderly
woman, one of dozens too frail to exit the building, elevators of no
use because of power outages.
"She hadn't seen anybody in three
days. She had been without power since Monday night and we were the
first people to show up to her apartment, so she hadn't seen anybody
since the hurricane," Mills said. "People get scared and don't know
what's on the other side of that door. When she did open the door, she
saw what we had to give her. She was very thankful and gave us a list of
a few more things that she needed. We were able to go back today with
that list and give her some more items that she needed."
Mills, a
member of Gallery Church for three years, leads a youth ministry
outreach in Chelsea Park, a community the church has adopted for
ministry.
"We didn't show up until maybe two days after the
hurricane and we're the first ones that they've seen. It just shows you
the power of the local church. Usually in a situation like this the
local church is the first one on the scene. We're kind of first
responders in that," Mills said. "It's just amazing that there are so
many people in the housing complex here that have not seen anybody but
us. That was surprising to me and overwhelming."
Southern Baptist
Gallery Church pastor Freddy T. Wyatt mobilized 20 volunteers, nearly a
third of his membership of 70, to survey apartments in the Chelsea Park
and Stuyvesant Town neighborhoods, looking for those in need, and
extended his efforts Friday to include two other areas.
"We have
found dozens of elderly people. Some had no contact with anyone before
we got there since the storm hit. We found some that were running out of
food, some that were running out of water and some that needed their
dialysis, and we were able to make that emergency connection for them,"
Wyatt said. "We're a central location that has power, and we're able to
distribute the people out to different places."
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