在洪水之上:服务型领导奖获得者克里斯·辛格

牧师. 克里斯·辛格91年毕业，03年毕业, 是2018年服务型领袖奖的获得者吗, 他会在康考迪亚的年会上得到这个头衔 群星晚会 2018年4月.

克里斯在圣. John’s Lutheran Church in Orange before moving northwest of Houston, 德州, three years ago to be the senior pastor of Trinity Klein Lutheran, 3人教堂,大约600人. 他的妻子，92岁的珍妮特，是儿童牧师.

他们从来没有想到哈维飓风会淹没他们的家, 或者让全国广播博彩平台网址大全频道在全国范围内报道这座教堂.

“We thought the worst that would happen was we would lose power,克里斯说. “我们有一台发电机，还储备了食物. 我们已准备好渡过难关.”

到第二天，我们有300名志愿者.

但事情并没有按计划进行.

Saturday night, the Singers had dinner with friends right down the street. 下雨了，但没有什么不寻常的. Chris planned to drive into the church early Sunday morning and send a video message out to announce they had canceled services, 只是为了保证大家的安全.

但是在早上5点.m., when Chris woke up, water was already up over the sidewalk and on their lawn.

“I woke up my wife and said, ‘We’ve got to get out of 在这里,’” he recalls. But the water was too deep in the street to drive their new Ford Explorer away. Frantically, he and his sons tried to barricade the doors with sand bags, plastic and tape. 不过，“水还是不停地涌上”车道，克里斯说.

他们开始迅速把家具搬到楼上. 这个过程进行了20分钟, 珍妮特从一楼的卧室里喊道:“克里斯, 它是从地板进来的!” By the time they escaped out the back door, water in the home was waist-deep. 在大街上，水深及胸部. 歌唱的, 和他们的两个儿子, waded for two blocks and were rescued by people from the congregation who had brought trucks to the water’s edge.

Dazed, they arrived at the church “pretty much in shock,克里斯说. “We didn’t know w在这里 we would go, and didn’t want to put others out.”

最后，朋友们坚持要他们一起回家. By the next morning, flood waters had risen and trapped a number of people from the church.

“Five other families and us started praying and decided to do something,克里斯说. “在你意识到之前, 我们利用社交媒体动员了搜救队, 通过电话和短信联系不同的家庭成员. As we found out which areas were hit, we targeted families we knew were in that area.”

The opportunities we had at 肯考迪娅 to lead and try and learn were important to what we’re doing today and carrying us through situations like this.

家庭 from the church volunteered boats, trucks, coats and more.

“他们会把卡车开得尽可能远, 然后跳上水上摩托艇和小船，搬进社区,克里斯说.

他们救出了大约三十个家庭, only intending to shelter them at the church for a few hours until they were retrieved by family members. Then calls came from the sheriff’s department and fire department asking for help because shelters were filling up fast.

到周一下午, a line of cars was pulling into the Trinity parking lot dropping off towels, 毯子, 枕头和食物. The church’s gym was set up with cots, pillows and 毯子 for those staying overnight.

“到第二天，我们有300名志愿者 and they were awesome because things were shifting by the hour,克里斯说.

至于他自己的房子, a guy who had been t在这里 jet skied up to it without realizing he had gone over a 6-foot wooden fence immersed in water.

As the water receded in the days that followed, damage was everyw在这里. 歌手们丢了沙发, 一架钢琴, 桌子, 卧室家具, 衣服落在梳妆台里, 冰箱, 垫圈, 干燥机, 烤箱和更多. 清理和撕扯的过程开始了.

“在圣. 约翰的我在卡特里娜飓风后带领了几个小组去援助, 所以我大概知道该怎么做,克里斯说. “But when I got inside [my own home] it was the most paralyzing feeling. 你’re trying to make decisions about every part of your life—things you’ve gat在这里d and cherished, 纪念品. 每个细节都让人不知所措.”

Did it have to take a hurricane for us to do what we should have been doing all along?

People from his own congregation came to help, but Chris felt flat-footed. “I tried to turn on the leader thing and say, 在这里’s what we’re gonna do,” he says. “I finally looked at a lady from our church and said, ‘I have no idea what to do.她说:“牧师，到外面去。. 我有这个.”

一个小组清理并拆除了干墙和地毯. Trinity began teaming with Salem Lutheran Congregation to coordinate local efforts.

“这是这个故事中最美妙的部分之一，”克里斯说. “真是太棒了. 我们打扫了200多户人家, 然后选定了50个难度最大的, 我们的目标是让他们重返家园.”

在清理的时候, spraying bleach and waiting for it to dry before doing anti-microbial treatments, Chris received an email from a producer at NBC 新闻 asking about what the church was doing. 这导致了阿尔·洛克, NBC电视台的天气预报员, to choose Trinity Klein as one of his three charities to highlight in 2017. He came to film a segment with the Singers—and brought with him $100,000 in support.

“这是一个巨大的祝福，”克里斯说. “Al Roker looked at us and said, ‘I can’t believe what you guys are doing. The fact that your own house is devastated—we need more people in the world to help others when they’re struggling.'”

That money is now employing roofers, plumbers and electricians who are fixing damaged houses. Volunteers, including teams from local schools Orange Lutheran High School and St. John’s Lutheran, have come from all over the country to lend labor. LCMS Lutheran Disaster Relief brought in two trailers of generators, 给志愿者的背心和用品.

“Jeanette and I have found ourselves at moments saying we are so upset for what we’ve gone through with the hurricane, but the very next moment saying we’re so very thankful for the hurricane,克里斯说. “这可能是最好的说法. 其中一个短语是, ‘Did it have to take a hurricane for us to do what we should have been doing all along?'”

在欧文的康考迪亚大学, Jeanette played volleyball; Chris played soccer and was chapel coordinator.

“肯考迪娅 gave me a lot of opportunities to think about vocation and serving God, and to dream about how we could apply some of these great truths to be a blessing in different ways,克里斯说. “The opportunities we had at 肯考迪娅 to lead and try and learn were important to what we’re doing today and carrying us through situations like this.”