Oceana Grad Helps Hurricane Victims

Pastor of California church provides shelter for family. Growing up in West Virginia gave Dr. Tim Brown, a graduate of Oceana High School, a generous, caring nature that has influenced not only his own life, but the lives of those around him.

Brown now serves as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Clovis, CA, a suburb of Fresno, CA, where “Bubba” of “In The Heat Of The Night” television fame, or Alan Autry, serves as mayor.

It was a call from the mayor that led Brown and his church to help a family of survivors from the New Orleans disaster. “When we heard about (Hurricane Katrina), we wanted to respond in a significant way, other than just taking up an offering,” he explained.

Autry asked Brown if they would be willing to provide for a family who was willing to relocate. As it turned out, the family had been trapped in their New Orleans apartment for three days.

As bad as it was, the situation could have been much worse. After they were finally rescued, driving their small pickup truck out of New Orleans was another major ordeal. They couldn’t stop, people were trying to break the windows to steal the truck in order to get out of the city.

The parents were separated from their two teenage children for a time, but could communicate because they had working cell phones. The family had never been out of New Orleans and now they were relocating to Clovis, CA, a city of 80,000 people 2,000 miles from home.

Providing for this family who had been through so much meant committing to a year of rent, furnishings, utilities, jobs, and getting the teenagers settled into a school.

“We took a step of faith,” Brown emphasized. “Our church didn’t have the resources to provide rent for a year and complete furnishings for a house.

“In one week, we had the rent for one year and could fully furnish two houses. It’s been amazing the response we’ve gotten,” Brown noted.

The house is in an upscale neighborhood, he explained.

“They (the family) were just blown away, they’ve never lived in a house,” he said. “They’ve always lived in an apartment.”

Job offerings for the parents have been coming in and the teenagers have started school.

He said the story has been distributed by several media outlets, so not only has his church responded, but the community has responded as well.

Additionally, the church has a car ministry in which they take old cars and fix them, then give them to those in need. The family was given one of the cars.

Five more families are looking to relocate in the area and will be looking to the church for help. The church will partner with the Clovis Rotary Club and American Red Cross to provide assistance.

The church has since been given a six-bedroom house, which will likely be used by another family.

“It’s been challenging, and they’ve got another hurricane coming,” he said Thursday morning.

The son of Horace and Barbara Brown of Oceana, the pastor said his West Virginia roots have always given him a sense of pride and he’s never forgotten “the generosity and heart” demonstrated to him when he was growing up.

“What I’ve learned... the generosity from my parents, my family, the schools I attended have influenced my decisions as a leader.

“That ‘heart’ can never be taken away,” he emphasized.