Donate to Hurricane Katrina Relief efforts. The following are recommended by Desiring God Ministries to assist victims of Hurrican Katrina:

Castle Rock Community Church and Urban Impact Ministries exists together to transform the Central City of New Orleans through Spiritual Development, Christian Community Development and Strategic Partnerships. Last summer, Bethlehem’s Youth Pastor, Brad Nelson, brought a short-term mission team to assist with the summer outreach. Now the ministry staff and church people have scattered. Seventy have evacuated to Arkansas.
Desire Street Fellowship and Desire Street Ministries are located in New Orleans. Pastor Mo Leverett and his wife moved into the Desire neighborhood and founded DSM in 1990, a time when the Desire project was ranked the worst in the country. The ministry has planted a church, Desire Street Fellowship and a school, Desire Street Academy. In the wake of the hurricane, the staff has been scattered taking with them many of the 200 boys from the school. For the time being they are planning to set up a temporary school in Atlanta. They tell us, “Our greatest immediate needs are for prayers and funding.”
The Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Missions Board has a Disaster Relief section on the website. There you will find several ministry avenues for disbursing relief through Southern Baptist churches and affiliations.
World Relief can also be supported directly with an online donation or by mailing a check to: Katrina Hurricane Relief Effort, World Relief, 7 E Baltimore St, Baltimore, MD 21202 or call (800) 535-5433.
Prison Fellowship is gathering critical supplies—toiletries, blankets, etc.—to truck down to Louisiana’s prisons. You can donate online or by calling (800) 206-9764.

An interesting essay by John Piper is available from Desiring God Ministries as well. In times of tragedy, crying out to God, repentence, trust in the Cross of Christ is the only way. Katrina has reminded me of several things in the human condition. Here are some things I have learned:

The pride of man to build a city in a bowl, protected by levees, a disaster waiting to happen...Pride goes before destruction,and a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18
The kindness of human beings. The compassion of people on their neighbors has been an amazing thing to observe. Particularly the rallying of churches and believers to give, go, pray, open homes, has been a testimony to the God worshipped by these people.
The depravity of man. Beyond race, color, creed, or political persuasion, people have evidence the truth of Scripture - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). The reports of rape, looting, violence has brought discouragement to many - oh how much more to live through this on the ground. Many brave souls have seen such depravity, yet held on to hope.
We are not as strong as we think we are. In the last 100 years the wonderful technological advancement has given the illusion of stability and the easy life to far too many. The reality is that we are but dust, a fraile creature, each of our deaths certain. Those who perished in Katrina passed on in a drastic, tragic fashion. The rest of us have the same appointment, whether quickly or in a few score years from now, slowly dying with tubes and machines hooked to our bodies. The end is the same.

Who can escape this body of death, who can escape this body of sin - but by the grace of God in the person of Christ - we live and then die without hope. In the midst of great suffering, the ancient patriarch Job cried out "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him" Such is our only recourse - our God is a present help in a time of trouble. An old hymn comes to mind:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul. It is Well with My Soul by Horatio Spafford

Such was written in tragedy by a man who had just lost his children in a shipwreck. Such is the soul established on the rock of Christ and a life built on his words (Matthew 7:24, 25) .

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