December 14. 2005 11:36AM

Visiting pastor helps heal hearts after storms

By JAIME LUGIBIHL DISHMAN
The Courier
 

 
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Warren Sapp stands along the bayou in Pointe-aux-Chenes earlier this week. Sapp, from Oklahoma, will be living in his pop-up camper for the next six months and offering his pastoral-counseling services for free to anyone who feels they need help. (MATT STAMEY/THE COURIER)

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Warren Sapp just felt "tired." At 59, he was ready to retire as a pastoral counselor in Oklahoma.

But when the American Association of Pastoral Counselors sent out an e-mail asking for volunteers to help with Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts in south Louisiana, Sapp offered his services as a pastoral counselor to help with people’s emotional and spiritual well-being after the storm.

Maybe he just needed a change in location to overcome his feelings of tiredness with his job, he thought.

Honestly, he never expected to get called.

But on Sept. 20, he received a confirmation that his help was needed.

On Sept. 21, he was on an airplane, headed to south Louisiana.

He was initially assigned to Terrebonne General Medical Center and eventually reassigned to the storm shelter at the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center.

Sapp describes the position as an instant fit. His entire life, he has loved Cajun music and always wanted to visit south Louisiana. Though he never imagined it would be under such extreme circumstances, he said he feels that being here is exactly where he needs to be.

He was one of a team of five who offered counseling services to people displaced by the storm.

But after about two months of serving, when others were pulling out of south Louisiana, heading back to their hometowns, Sapp felt he had more to do.

"If we were going to be really beneficial to the Cajun population, we had to follow them into the bayou and meet with them on their turf and their terms," he said.

About two weeks ago, he moved into the heart of Pointe-aux-Chenes, where he lives in a pop-up camper shortly before the road leading to Isle de Jean Charles.

Through a grant procured by Grace Lutheran Church in Houma through the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod World Relief, he will be working out of Pointe-aux-Chenes for the next six months.

"A lot of the funding sources are really wanting to follow up with people, not just goods," said the Rev. Kelly Bedard, pastor of Grace Lutheran.

Bedard said he is amazed at what Sapp has already accomplished in a period of just two weeks.

His nondenominational approach to pastoral counseling is to truly become friends with the people and offer services to people who would never ordinarily step foot into a typical counseling setting.

Bedard said a church member recently asked him if Sapp was even Lutheran.

"I said 'No. You want to do it?’ " he said.

Sapp said once he started working here after Katrina and witnessed firsthand the devastation in lower bayou communities caused by Hurricane Rita, he realized that once the initial media blitz ended, the people suffering the most would be forgotten.

"It was not OK with me that the Cajuns would be forgotten again," he said. "What I wanted to bring to them was listening ears instead of stuff."

Sapp is primarily interested in people’s emotional and spiritual well-being when he helps them. Though he can help with physical needs, that is not his primary purpose during the six-month duration of his job.

"There is a lot more to hurricane recovery than rebuilding property," he said.

Right now, he is focusing on establishing contacts and letting people know he is here to help.

His job is to bring a nondenominational faith and good therapeutic practices together.

"Am I going to beat them over the head with the Bible?" he asked. "No."

He said people can come to him during his time for any type of counseling, even if it’s not hurricane-related.

"It can be a married couple who doesn’t know how to stop an argument," he said. "Or someone who is always depressed or anxious."

He has been visiting local places in Pointe-aux-Chenes, such as the elementary school, the grocery store, the gas station, and getting his name out. He has met with community leaders in neighboring Isle de Jean Charles, trying to reach out and offer his help.

Though in a typical counseling setting, it is customary to only get a full caseload after two years of working, Sapp said he wants a full caseload in six weeks.

"I don’t have an office or a clinic, my theory relies on healing conversations," he said. "It will happen on front porches, on boat docks and at convenience stores."

Sapp said he plans to return to Oklahoma about a weekend each month to visit his wife. And he hopes she and his two kids can sometimes come visit him. If anyone has frequent-flier miles they can give him, that would be a big help.

But for the next five-and-a-half months, his main purpose is to pour himself into the people of the bayou community of Pointe-aux-Chenes.

"I want to pay attention to the different dimensions of how people are getting hurt," he said. "They’re losing their land and their way of life. You can’t lose acres of land a day and not lose something of yourself."

Sapp can be reached at 860-8862.

Courier staff writer Jaime Dishman can be reached at 857-2205 or jaime.dishman@houmatoday.com.