June 9, 1999
Texas woman plans balm after storm
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___LADONIA--A woman from First Baptist Church in Ladonia wants to bless the beasts and the children left homeless by tornadoes that swept through central Oklahoma last month.
___Crystal Kant is coordinating a drive to feed livestock belonging to storm victims and to secure furnishings and child-care items for displaced families.
___Soon after tornadoes hit several communities in the Oklahoma City area, Kant started praying about a way that she and COMPASS Ministries could help the victims. Kant serves as a volunteer chaplain with COMPASS, a Fannin County-based program that has been devoted mostly to ministering among inmates and their families.
___Her prayers were answered when a friend whom she had met at a women's prayer retreat called to say that she was going to Oklahoma May 8 with a vehicle full of supplies for storm victims. Kant said she would plan to go as well and take her own truckload of donations.
___Contacting friends at First Baptist Church and COMPASS ministries, she collected $100 and assorted donated goods.
___After learning there was a need in the disaster area for pain relievers and other over-the-counter drugs, she contacted the Wal-Mart in nearby Commerce. The pharmacy manager, whom she already knew, offered to donate three boxes of vitamins from a line that had been discontinued. The supplements were worth at least $800.
___As Kant and her cousin, Donna Brown, started shopping for other items to include in personal care kits for storm victims, they found much of what they needed on a clearance table. After filling their carts, they heard an announcement on the public address system that all red-tag clearance items were an additional 50 percent off the already discounted price.
___When the store manager learned what the women were doing, he agreed to give them a 50 percent discount on a number of other items as well.
___"There's no way a couple of little women from Fannin County can walk into Wal-Mart with $100 and turn that into nearly $1,000," Kant said. "That's God working!"
___With additional financial assistance provided by Fannin Baptist Association, the associational Woman's Missionary Union and COMPASS, the women went to another Wal-Mart in Bonham to buy baby-care items.
___Kant and her family spent the next couple of nights sorting vitamins and grouping hygiene supplies and medications into bags for men, women, children and infants. They labeled each plastic bag with the simple message, "Jesus loves you."
___When Kant and Brown delivered the supplies to the collection center at Bridge Creek Elementary School, the volunteer on duty started crying when she saw all of the vitamins. She explained that many elderly storm victims, as well as others with heart disease, diabetes or anemia had come seeking vitamin supplements, but none had been available.
___After dropping off the presorted vitamins, Kant and her cousin starting making their way through the Blanchard and Bridge Creek communities, distributing the care packages and other donated items to storm victims.
___That weekend, and another Saturday that followed, she prayed with displaced families and offered supplies that she had available.
___In particular, she befriended seven families in Blanchard--five of whom have young children--whose homes were completely destroyed. She learned that they would be in emergency lodging for three months, and then they would be setting up housekeeping again.
___Returning home, she started collecting furniture, household goods, children's clothing and toys for those families. She set up collection sites at three locations in Fannin County.
___While she was in Oklahoma, she discovered many of the rural residents who lost their homes had livestock that survived the storm, but they are unable to care for them. A veterinarian has offered to care for many of the animals until their owners can reclaim them.
___Thinking that the doctor should not have to bear the financial burden of feeding the animals alone, Kant developed another ministry project. She contacted feed stores in Bonham, Honey Grove and Commerce, asking the store managers to offer their customers an opportunity to help.
___"We're just asking customers when they come in to buy their own feed to purchase and donate one extra $7 bag of feed," Kant explained. The store owners agreed to store the donated feed until a truckload was ready for delivery, and they offered to donate any bags from their inventory that were torn.
___"It's a blessing to do something like this," she said. "I'm not doing it in my name or in the name of COMPASS ministries. It's all in Jesus' name."
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