Less than a year ago, when one of the deadliest disasters in modern history killed an estimated 275,000 people, church members prayed, gave millions in special tsunami contributions and organized relief teams.

Eight months later, when Hurricane Katrina killed more than 1,000 people and caused an estimated $200 billion in damage in the costliest disaster in U.S. history, God’s people again rushed to donate money and supplies, not to mention sweat to clean up and rebuild.

But a new series of disasters has raised concerns of compassion fatigue — or overload, as some describe it.

November 1, 2005


Less than a year ago, when one of the deadliest disasters in modern history killed an estimated 275,000 people, church members prayed, gave millions in special tsunami contributions and organized relief teams.

Eight months later, when Hurricane Katrina killed more than 1,000 people and caused an estimated $200 billion in damage in the costliest disaster in U.S. history, God’s people again rushed to donate money and supplies, not to mention sweat to clean up and rebuild.

But a new series of disasters has raised concerns of compassion fatigue — or overload, as some describe it.

“There does seem to be a sense of being overwhelmed with one hit after another,” said John Kachelman Jr., minister of the Judsonia, Ark., church.

Hurricane Rita struck parts of Louisiana and Texas in late September, causing roughly $8 billion in damage. Days later, Hurricane Stan brought flooding and mudslides to Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico. The death toll could top 2,000. And on top of all that, a magnitude-7.6 earthquake shook Pakistan and India on Oct. 8, claiming more than 54,000 lives and leaving an estimated 2 million people homeless.

“It absolutely hurts because our funding is depleted, our volunteers are exhausted and so forth,” said Ray Hughes, executive director of Rapha International, a medical mission agency.

Rapha normally doesn’t do domestic mission work, but Hurricane Katrina — and then Rita -— changed that. Leaders of the Fort Worth, Texas-based agency said they saw such immense need unfolding that they felt compelled to act.

In the wake of the Central American hurricane and the Pakistan-India earthquake, Rapha again set out to organize relief shipments. But the disasters at home couldn’t help but affect Rapha’s ability to respond, Hughes said.

“It really has been one thing on top of another on top of another,” he said. Because of Katrina and Rita, “our normal sources for medical supplies and equipment have all dried up.”

GENEROUS AGAIN AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN?

Like Rapha, Healing Hands International, a humanitarian relief agency based in Nashville, Tenn., primarily focuses on foreign disasters. But after Katrina, Healing Hands worked to provide medical packs and hygiene kits to congregations.

Roberto Santiago, Healing Hands’ international development coordinator, said he was unsure how church members would respond to the latest tragedies, given the outpouring already seen after the tsunami and Katrina.

“I think most people have given generously and probably what they thought they would be able to afford this year,” Santiago said. “The question to be seen is if we get what they call ‘donor fatigue.’”

Arkansas minister Kachelman, who helped coordinate aid for tsunami victims, said fatigue is not a big worry for his congregation. The Judsonia church recently mailed its final tsunami relief check to help brethren in Columbo, Sri Lanka, he said. Then members loaded about 20 large containers with items such as hospital beds and mattresses for people in three former Soviet republics.

“In our spare time, we have been collecting furniture to furnish two apartments in Searcy for two families evacuated from Katrina,” he said. “I’ve not noticed any lagging of effort or diminished enthusiasm.”

PROACTIVE VS. REACTIVE

Johnny Jordan, a member of the Richland Hills church, Fort Worth, Texas, spent four weeks in Sri Lanka helping after the tsunami.

What he saw prompted him to start a new relief organization, Rapid Hope International, that he hopes can help organize better disaster response by churches of Christ.

In Jordan’s view, church members are “being stretched too thin and suffering from disaster fatigue,” a problem that he suggests could be fixed if churches gave regularly for disaster relief instead of waiting for a catastrophe to occur.

Giving proactively instead of reactively would wipe away compassion fatigue, Jordan said.

“It would actually be the same amount of money, but we would be better prepared to get the supplies out there,” he said.

But Hughes — who serves on Rapid Hope’s board -— voiced skepticism about Jordan’s idea.

“It is noble, but it’s not realistic because we’ve all tried that before,” Hughes said.

Stan Cunningham, another volunteer active in the Katrina relief effort, said he sees much room for improvement in churches’ response to disasters. While members’ generosity is impressive, he said, a better system of coordinating efforts is needed.

“I am saddened that we, as a collective body of Christ, do such a poor job of coordinating,” said Cunningham, involvement minister at the Northside church, Nashville, who spent five weeks in the New Orleans area after Katrina.

Affected congregations “all had to go through a drastic learning curve,” he said, “and each of them basically had to create the wheel of disaster relief all over again.”

Part of that, Hughes said, is inevitable because of the autonomous nature of churches of Christ.

At the same time, no amount of coordination can overcome all the uncertainties of a disaster, said Don Yelton, director of WFR Relief Ministries of the White’s Ferry Road church, West Monroe, La., which collected $2.6 million after Katrina.

“WFR Relief is prepared for a disaster ... but it must be assumed that in a disaster there will be suffering and lots of it no matter how prepared we are,” he said. “No matter what we do ahead of time, there will be shock. I think the best thing is to go with the flow.”

Joe Dudney, executive director of Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort in Nashville, which has raised roughly $8 million since Katrina hit, said churches are much better prepared to respond than they were a few years ago.

Still, he said, “We’ve got more (to handle) than we can shake a prayer over. I’ve said all along ... that we’re making a dent in it, but this is bigger than all of us put together, including the U.S. government.”

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