Pastor brings Katrina aid to Hispanic-Latino community

The Rev. Sally Bevill, pastor of Beauvoir United Methodist Church in Biloxi, Miss., felt God calling her to the Gulf Coast to assist the Hispanic-Latino community after Hurricane Katrina. UMNS photos by Kathy L. Gilbert

By Kathy L. Gilbert*

BILOXI, Miss. UMNS) - Hurricane Katrina took a lot from Maria Castillo.

"Because of the hurricane, I lost my mother," she says, tears streaming down her face, recalling her mother's death only days after Katrina hit in 2005.

"After Sept. 12, she just couldn't bear any more suffering."

Castillo's father died in December 2006, and she lost all her possessions when Katrina's waters flooded her apartment. She shares a mobile home with a friend and is caring for her ailing grandmother.

The one place she found help and a new family was at Beauvoir United Methodist Church.

"Here, when a person is in need like I was, they know that they can go to the church for help with things like rent and food," said Castillo, a Cuban immigrant who came to Biloxi in 1998. "I don't have the words to describe what they've done to help me. I appreciate it as much as possible. But I don't have the words to describe it."

The Rev. Sally Bevill and her assistant Mary Townsend, a case worker for United Methodist Committee on Relief, spend a lot of time finding help for people like Castillo. Bevill came to the Gulf Coast in July 2006 because she knew God was calling her to help the area's Hispanic-Latino community.

"People just think because they may be undocumented or they don't speak the language that they can just abuse them," says Bevill about the Hispanic-Latino community. "And we're here to tell them they can't."

Before Katrina, the local Hispanic-Latino population was about 15,000; it has since grown to well over 50,000, according to Bevill.

"I think one of the great problems with our Hispanic-Latino community is that they were the rental community," she says. "And a lot of the help that's offered out there, from Red Cross, FEMA, UMCOR and other agencies, are for homeowners. We have a whole other community."

Another common characteristic of the Hispanic-Latino community is that its members typically live in situations that most people would find intolerable.

"You will have them working day shift, night shift, 15 in an apartment, and they'll trade out their beds to do the work. They'll live in houses that are deemed unlivable," she says.

New creation
Bevill says the Gulf Coast is being transformed.

"We're watching a new creation along the coast-a new community, a place where God is taking what was so devastating and making something hopeful and new out of it. And to be a part of that is life-changing."

Bevill and Townsend have two young assistants, Linda Miranda, a full-time volunteer, and Elly Lehnert, on staff with Hands On USA and assigned to Hispanic-Latino outreach. Together, they are making a difference.

"We're very tired, but we're very driven women," Bevill says with a laugh. "I can't say how thankful I am to The United Methodist Church and UMCOR because they're the ones who heard our plea."

Bevill is coordinator of Hispanic ministries and pastor of the Beauvoir church. She is also in partnership with Rev. Elijah Mitchell at Seashore Mission Church, both non-Spanish speaking congregations.

Townsend and Miranda teach English as Second Language classes at the Beauvoir church twice a week. The four women are also in high demand as translators when someone needs to go to a doctor, apply for a job, find a place to live or navigate organizations like Red Cross and FEMA.

"We're desperately seeking someone who can come help with the spiritual aspect," Bevill says. "We need congregational development. We need to start faith communities and Bible study and all kinds of stuff-because apart with the physical rebuilding, there is the rebuilding of the lives."

While Hurricane Katrina blew through the coast quickly, the people left behind are on a long journey.

"We cannot do it alone," says Bevill. "When one suffers in the body, we all suffer."

Economic assistance is a huge need, but the gift of prayers, presence and partners are even more needed, according to Bevill, who has found great purpose in her work.

"Every day we make a difference," she says. "You wake up every day and know that no matter what you enter into, it's going to really matter in somebody's life."

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.