Good Samaritans go to help

Dear Editor:

Most folks know the story in the Bible about the Good Samaritan. Port St. Joe had its own version of the story recently.

Three men, supported by the First United Methodist Church in Port St. Joe, made the six-hour trip to southwest Alabama to lend a hand to the tornado victims of the obscure little community of Yantley, just outside of Lisman, Alabama.

Sam Cesna, John Nagay and Sam Anttila left Port St. Joe on May 16 with a few tools, an enthusiastic urge to help and a generous monetary contribution from FUMC for the relief effort. Undisturbed by the lack of organization which faced them when they arrived, the guys took to canvassing the area where they could help. They put tarps on roofs, made repairs where they were asked to make them, and they even got involved with the construction of a brand new home for a family of 12 that had lost everything.

Most of the folks living in this devastated, impoverished little community had no insurance at all, leaving them with nothing left after the tornadoes tore their homes apart. Two First Baptist churches, in Butler and Lisman, were supplying the material for the new home and all the labor was provided by relatives, friends and Sam, Sam and John.

While most of the media attention, food and supplies to help the victims was going to larger cities like Tuscaloosa, the little out of the way places like Lisman was going unnoticed. The guys (the Good Samaritans) came back on May 19 with a good feeling in their heart that they had done something to help these folks instead of passing on the other side of the road as the story in Luke, chapter 10, tells us.

Christians helping Christians is what it is all about.

Sam Anttila

Port St. Joe