Rev. Steve Weber Responding to Gulf Oil Spill
 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Incident Response Chaplain
by CDR Steve Weber, Chaplain, USCG
Today is Day 69 in the mammoth response effort to stop the oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. We are keeping an eye on the path of a potential storm tracking across the Gulf, hoping it does not disrupt the round the clock work to keep the oil off the beaches and out of the marshes along the southern coastline. Massive thunderstorms are rolling through the region chasing the small boats and skimmers back into port. Among the over 38,000 people who are working here are about 1,000 men and women of the US Coast Guard. My role is to serve them and deliver pastoral support and ministry in the far flung reaches along the Louisiana bayou region.
I am on 90-day orders here and spend a good portion of my days driving from one Coast Guard staging area to another to visit with and provide worship opportunities and counseling. One day recently I patrolled the beaches of Port Fourchon where young men have been bused in to set up miles and miles of barrier line along the beach. Later in the evening I conducted worship with a small group of Coasties who run one of the many vessels of opportunity operations, employing local fishermen. The next day my travels took me to an office building in downtown New Orleans where the Unified Area Command center is located. Then it was off to a local hospital to visit an injured Coast Guard man. The next day took me to Venice to meet with a young woman experiencing difficulty in her marriage and then driving back to the Incident Command Post for this region to share some thoughts and pray for this mission at a weekly All Hands gathering. “Chaps, would you say a blessing,” is how our CO puts it.
Thanks for your prayers for all those serving to bring a resolution to this tragedy in the Gulf. People are working long hours in very intense heat with a high sense of urgency. Stress levels are high, people are away from their homes and families, and yet there seems to be a great effort to work well together with all the different players. While I miss those long, northwest summer days I am enjoying the ministry and the challenge of being part of this critical incident response team. Blessings to all of you in North Puget Sound Presbytery.
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Posted on Wednesday, June 30, 2010 (Archive on Saturday, July 31, 2010)
Posted by sbeard Contributed by sbeard
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