Introduction: Hearts across the Water


“A story is intended to stab and wound you to the heart...
So it then can stir, heal, and change you forever."
-Franz Kafka





There is nothing good to say about the Hurricanes Katrina and Rita or the Asian Tsunami.
All three natural disasters brought death, destruction, and untold human misery. The areas along the Southern Gulf coast as well as Indian Ocean areas of Southern Asia will never be the same.

No, there is nothing good about these hurricanes and this tsunami. Yet, there is much good to tell about the people that came through these storms. Their stories of "passing through the waters" should be, and must be, told.

I'm just the storyteller.
These are their stories.
It is simply my duty to share their stories
So their lives and deeds may be remembered and celebrated.

There is no way my writing and re-telling can ever adequately express their loss, grief, and heroism. My prayer and hope is that you will glimpse into their hearts and know them through the words of this book.











An Overview- Three Cities

This book is essentially about three cities.
Well, more than that, it is about the people of three cities.

First, it's about two large cities… both about the same size.
Well, about the same size until two fateful days that will mark both of them forever.

For Banda Aceh, a large city of 700,000, the fateful day was Dec. 26, 2004. Pronounced Bond-AH AH-chee, it is the capital of Sumatra, the northernmost island that makes up Indonesia. On that December day over 100,000 of its citizens died within a matter of minutes when a huge wall of water surged over the coastal areas of the city.
In March 2005, eighty days after the tsunami, I was part of a Louisiana Medical team sent to Indonesia. Although most of the tsunami-related injuries had been taken care of, many medical problems persisted due to the stress and strain of living outdoors under tropical conditions.
Upon arrival our team quickly learned that our main purpose in coming was to listen to these people and their stories. They wanted to tell their stories. Over and over they said:
“Please tell our stories in America. Do not forget us when you return home. Tell the Americans about the Achenese people and our great loss.”
This book is the partial fulfillment of that promise to remember these Indonesian friends.
May they touch your heart as they have mine.

Hearts across the Water is also about New Orleans, also a city of comparable size to Banda Aceh until the twin days of August 29-30, 2005. On that Monday Hurricane Katrina rushed through and on Tuesday the levees broke and a large American city was flooded-- and changed forever.
Thankfully, the loss of life wasn't as dramatic and sudden as at Banda Aceh. But in its own way New Orleans also experienced a death of sorts on that day, never to be the same.
12,000 miles stretch between New Orleans, Louisiana and Banda Aceh, Indonesia. It takes about thirty hours of flying with six changeovers and journeying through seven airports. To go by boat, whether through the Panama Canal and Pacific Ocean, or across the Atlantic and the Cape Horn of Africa into the Indian Ocean, would take weeks.

Two cities so diverse…
Half a world apart.
Both touched by tragedy in the period of less than a year.
Connected by a circle of water,
The waters of the Tsunami and Katrina.

This book is about three cities and I only introduced you to two.

The third one is a small southwestern Louisiana town called Dry Creek. It is more than a little ironic that a book about floods, walls of water, and the raging ocean would include a town named Dry Creek.
Dry Creek is my lifetime home.
It's the place where several hundred diverse New Orleanians came to find shelter and instead found a home, after Katrina.
We laugh that their arrival instantly doubled the population of Dry Creek.
Dry Creek is the same community where weeks later, rural coastal residents escaping from Rita came to ride out the storm with these New Orleanians. A stranger cultural mixture has probably never been combined.
Just like Banda Aceh and New Orleans, Dry Creek will never be the same. When you open your hearts, as our camp, community, and schools did, you can never return to your former state.
By the way, that stretching to a new level of compassion and understanding is good. We all need to get out of our comfort zone and get stretched in love and involvement. That is exactly what happened in our community.
But Hearts Across the Water is not really about cities, big or small.
Large masses, numbers, and statistics do not touch our hearts and connect with our soul.
But individual stories do.
These are stories of our own community and the shelter at the camp. Stories of the comfort of a good dog in the midst of the hurricane. The memory of a nineteenth-century man who built a building to withstand a storm in the twenty-first century. Reminders that you can be displaced, but never misplaced by God. Reminders of the goodness and dignity of humans as they reach out to strangers.
All joined together in stories of tears, sadness, hope, and joy.

The story of hearts joined…
Joined and connected…
Hearts Across the Water.