Last Thursday at 5 p.m. one of my lay leaders called. Another church member had just called her with the following story and a question, "What can the church do?" The lay leader relayed to me the story and repeated the question, "What can the church do?".
There was a lady who was so sick that she was hospitalized at Pitt County Memorial Hospital (where the family from my congregation met her). She is recently arrived from CA and has a 5 week old baby girl. Social services is involved and might take the baby away since no one can care for her. The lady is from an indigenous part of Mexico; Spanish is her second language. She has no family here and could use some clothing for the baby. What can the church do?
On the phone that evening, I had no idea how to respond. We could gather some clothing for the baby. We could pray. I asked my lay leader for time to think about it.
Sunday morning at church the praise report was given that the lady had been released from the hospital and was now home. There was a bag of baby clothes that had been collected/bought. I arranged to go with a church member to visit the lady on Monday.
Monday morning the church member called to say that she can't go that day after all. I had only that day to go, so I got the address and collected the baby clothes. Discovering that the lady lives in Spring Hope (about an hour from Unidos por Cristo), I called two pastor friends who live in that area. One is a native Spanish speaker. The other is part of Faith Christian Ministry that provides clothing, food, help paying bills, etc. according to the need. Neither could go with me that day but both asked me to call them afterward with how they can help.
I had the address, but didn't know whether it was a trailer, a small house, etc. I drove up the long dirt road grateful that I drive a small SUV. At the end of the road was the house number, and number actually belonged to a set of three buildings that made up a migrant workers' work camp. I'd seen them before, from the road. Never up close. I entered what seemed to be the "main" structure, which was not completely enclosed. The high on Monday was in the 40s with a windchill that felt like the 30s. I called out "hello" and "buenas." No response. I listened carefully and knocked on the first door I heard sound coming from. Fortunately, the lady I was looking for was visiting her neighbor behind that door.
The lady took me over to another building. She lives in one room (about 8'x10', I'd guess) with her 15 or 18 year old brother (he's given both figures as his age) and her 5 week old baby girl. The room was warm. It had three beds and a crib with space to walk around each. Clothes were hanging from clothes lines strung across the room. The lady was grateful for the baby clothes I brought. I also gave her some Wal-mart gift cards I had at the church office. Then I had to explain how to use them. I asked if they had a bible and learned that she cannot read. The baby woke up and was the smallest baby I have ever seen outside of a hospital. I learned later that she was born seven weeks early. Communication was a little hard since we were both speaking our second languages. The lady and her brother had come from CA to work in the tobacco fields, but there was no work anymore. At the end of my visit, I said a prayer over the family and left.
I've witnessed poverty firsthand before. I've visited folks in old and poorly maintained trailers, in huts made of tarps and a tin roof, and in old inner-city row houses when the power's been turned off. But this family was the poorest I had seen in a few years and the poorest I have ever met in North Carolina.
My pastor friends have followed up with the lady and asked the "correct" questions, things like: what is the heat source, do you have food, where do you prepare it, do you have enough clothing, what are your needs? Things I hadn't thought to ask; I was too busy just looking around that one room.
