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Camarillo church continues to help Katrina family

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Contributed by: YourHub.com on 8/28/2006

By Tamara Koehler
tkoehler@VenturaCountyStar.com

A year after Clifton Sneed fled a battered and sinking New Orleans with his wife and four young children, life continues to be a struggle.

A house a tiny local church bought for the family is now up for sale after donations dwindled and the congregation could not continue making the mortgage payments.

Work on an offshore drilling unit has slowed recently, and Sneed is not pulling in the income he'd like. His wife, LaShon Lewis, works for Buenaventura Medical Group and fears her job is in jeopardy. The longtime medical practice recently announced it will be sold to Kaiser Permanente. And another tragedy struck in the last month. Lewis' baby sister was killed in an accident on the East Coast.

"It's been a really tough year; so much has happened it's hard to believe," said Sneed, a 28-year-old welder. Still, he says he's a blessed man.

"I believe God has promised the world to me. I've been through too much for that not to be," he said.

In the past year, he has learned about the nature of people - the good, the bad, the indifferent. There were the two bum cars that auto dealers in Louisiana sold him as he made his way out to California. Each broke down within a week and cost $3,500 of his savings.

The landlord of the damaged apartment in Metairie, La., a suburb of New Orleans in Jefferson Parish, has hounded him for the rest of his lease payments, even though the place was uninhabitable from mold and bugs. The ongoing dispute has become a black mark on Sneed's credit history, something he says he will fight. But the kindness of strangers continues, even if the intensity of the giving has faded.

The family now lives in a three-bedroom apartment in a clean, nice neighborhood in north Oxnard. Half the $1,900-a-month rent is paid by the congregation of New Vision Christian Center. The fledgling, two-year-old Camarillo church has promised to continue helping until November. Last year, a silent investor worked with the church and bought a home in northeast Oxnard for the family. Local charities and members of the congregation donated furniture.

The church congregation and others pledged to make the roughly $3,800 mortgage payments for a year, with the understanding that the Sneeds could then begin renting the home if they chose, said New Vision pastor Cheryl Smith.

"We're a small church, and this was a big undertaking for us," Smith said. "I was convicted by what Franklin Graham (the evangelist son of the Rev. Billy Graham) said that if every church in the country took in just one family from Katrina, everyone would be taken care of. "But people just stopped giving after awhile. We never did get a big boost, and the payments were just too much."

Sneed said he's grateful for all the help. He's a proud man and wants his family to stand on its own.

"The people in this church, what they've done is wonderful," Sneed said. "We want something we can afford ourselves. I want to maybe buy my own home, get my credit cleaned up and apply for a loan."

The Sneeds have joined the New Vision church and are faithful worshippers. The church has embraced its new members wholeheartedly, Smith said.

"We love this family, they're hardworking, they both have jobs, their kids are great. We wish we could do more," Smith said.

But even contributing $950 a month to pay half the rent remains a hardship, she said.

Sneed and his family, who evacuated the day before Katrina struck, do not want to go back to New Orleans. Sneed's family lives in Mississippi. Lewis' father lives in Los Angeles. Oxnard is home now; the kids are happily enrolled in schools and camp.

"It's expensive here, and things are uncertain, just like they've been" since Katrina struck, Sneed said. "But it's home now."

How to contribute

Anyone interested in sending contributions can make checks payable to New Vision Christian Center, P.O. Box 330, Camarillo, CA 93011.

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