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Our Gulf Coast Hurricane Relief Efforts
Check this page often to keep informed on the Northeast Conference
effort at assisting with Gulf Coast relief.
This
page is intended to assist critical communication as we work
both individually and collectively to bring much needed relief
supplies to God's battered people on the Gulf Coast. It is hoped
that efforts PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE will
be listed as a vehicle to offer encouragement, opportunity for
networking, and resources for guidance.
When
submitting your information for publishing on this page, please
include the following information:
- WHO is organizing the
effort, including contact information.
- WHAT you plan to do.
- WHEN your effort takes
place.
- WHERE you will be
locating your effort.
- HOW you plan to prepare
and accomplish your objective, including how others may be
helpful (do you need more people to go with you, certain
supplies to take along, what are your collection dates,
shipment dates, etc.)
Click HERE
or on the link below to communicate your plans.
Many of
our local relief efforts have focused on the work being done by
Lutheran Episcopal Disaster Response through Christus Victor
Lutheran Church, Ocean Spring, Mississippi. An organizing
committee is currently exploring options for shipping a
truckload of supplies (or its equivalent) quarterly to Christus
Victor. Please consider supporting this effort. Updates on
decisions made will be posted on this site.
Thank you for your support and participation in this effort.
Click
HERE to send information on your relief efforts
MISSISSIPPI TRIP DATES
The dates for the Mississippi trip are: July 20-28.
We will leave on Friday July 20 in the late afternoon.
We will arrive in Ocean Springs on Saturday July 21 in the
early afternoon. We will leave Ocean Springs on Friday
July 27 and arrive back home on Saturday July 28. We
are hoping that many of our young people will participate.
They must be 16 years old or older to participate. We
also need one adult per 5 youth who are 16/17. This
will be a wonderful opportunity to serve God by serving
others.
Let me know if there is anything else you need to know?
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Sue Socha
KATRINA RELIEF
EFFORTS CONTINUE THROUGHOUT NORTHEAST CONFERENCE
For those interested in
helping out with the ongoing post-Katrina relief and
rebuilding efforts going on in the Gulf region, there are
currently (at least) three trips currently being planned:
December 29, 2006 - January 5,
2007
Next planning meetings: Nov 26 & Dec 3 @ 10:00am
January 26 - February 2, 2007
Next planning meetings:
To be announced
March 24 - 31, 2007
Next planning meetings:
Early 2007--To be announced
All three groups will be
working through Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Ocean
Springs, MS (near Biloxi), a place with a proven track
record for "getting it done" with the volunteers who come
their way.
A REPORT ON OUR GULF
COAST RELIEF EFFORT
The first meeting of persons from
the Northeast Conference interested in providing relief to the
Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina took place at Gethsemane
Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne, IN on May 21, 2006, 2pm. Present:
Ed Redmon, Pastor Dave Furuness, Pastor Bill Hoerger, Ginny
Flora, David and Nancy McKinley, Shirley Schmidt, Phyllis
Thompson, Don Conkle, Kathy Hawkins, Pastor Jeff Hawkins.
Summary
WHAT:
Provisions for Gulf Coast Hurricane Relief in a regular, ongoing
manner.
WHY:
Faith meets need.
WHO:
The members and friends of the Northeast
Conference, IK Synod, ELCA.
The organizing committee,listed above, and
welcoming the participation of others.
Christus Victor/Lutheran Disaster Response Team,
Ocean Springs MS.
WHEN:
Regular meetings in order to organize, sustain
the effort.
Shipments to be made for three-eight years.
Quarterly?
Bi-monthly?
WHERE:
NE Indiana as resource area.
Christus Victor/Lutheran Disaster Response Team
as receiver of shipments
HOW:
Need to answer:
1. What are the specific, concrete needs of the victims?
Spiritual, emotional needs.
Goods—They currently distribute a semi-load per
week.
Employment, labor.
Economic assistance—dollars to be spent there.
2. What resources are available to us to meet the need?
The value of good stewardship
People
Skills
Money
Facilities
3. What are the best strategies?
Hope to maintain momentum of the effort over the
long term
Idea: send a truckload or its equivalent
quarterly—perhaps send goods one time to keep up
momentum (the effort and concrete nature of
collecting goods is more energizing than simply
sending a check) and money the next time (so they
can help the Gulf Coast economy by purchasing goods
there).
Idea: acquire a trailer and send goods each time
a group of volunteers travels to MS, at least
bi-monthly (saves transportation costs, encourages
volunteers who return to Indiana to help with
ongoing effort)
Ask congregations to tithe on Lutheran
Foundation partnership funds for this effort for the
next 3-8 years (totals $38,000 annually)
Idea: find common carrier trucks that are making
deliveries from the Gulf Coast to NE Indiana only to
return empty; fill those empty trucks with relief
goods.
NEXT STEPS TO FINALIZING OUR ACTION PLAN:
To the next meeting, scheduled for Sunday, June 25, 2pm at
Gethsemane, do the necessary research and
leg
work to bring a proposal for the committee to consider in the
following areas:
1.
A proposal for effective publicity to congregations – Ed
2.
A proposal for sending goods with volunteers who are traveling
to provide relief – Dave McKinley
3.
A proposal for collecting money from congregations – Dave
Furuness
4. A proposal for sending goods on common carrier
trucks that would otherwise be returning to the Gulf
Coast empty – Ed
5. A proposal for keeping in touch with Christus
Victor/Lutheran Disaster Response in order to know specific
need and the best ways we can help – Bill
6.
A proposal for making quarterly shipments or their equivalent –
Jeff and Kathy
7.
A proposal for establishing and managing a collection center for
goods – (volunteer needed)
For recent news (both printed word
and a video clip) on the work of Christus Victor/Lutheran
Disaster Response, Ocean Springs MS, see: http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=4952119&nav=6DJI
May 4, 2006
-- From The Hoergers
Katrina blew ashore on August 29, 2005. After 10 hours of wind,
rain, and flooding, recovery work began. Involved in that
immediate effort in Mississippi were Bethel Lutheran in Biloxi, Grace in Long Beach and Christus Victor in Ocean Springs.
Even
before the Red Cross or FEMA arrived on the scene members of
these congregations and citizens of the community were sending
out teams into their neighborhoods with water and medical
supplies. By and large this was a lay-led effort, as it
continues to be even today. Wind and water decimated Waveland,
Bay St. Louis and a good part of Biloxi. Wind, water from the
Gulf and also from the Bayous flooded areas never before
threatened in Ocean Springs. That night, each congregation was
housing refugees from the storm, feeding them, offering medical
care and beginning casework to assess needs. These elements of
care continue today in one form or another. Lutheran Disaster
Relief, as recently as Monday of this week, is still projecting
that recovery will take 8 years. Lutheran Social Services of
the South has now assumed directions of the operation in Biloxi
and Ocean Springs and LDR will continue its ministry of support.
Up until this point, free medical care is currently offered
at both sites. Free meals are available three times a day
at Christus Victor. Clean-out and rebuilding crews are sent
out daily to those who have passed through necessary
casework. All these
activities are staffed by volunteers who come from all over
the lower states, Alaska and Canada. All these ministries
have been underwritten by contributions from congregations
and individuals.
Faithful from Gethsemane, Holy Trinity, Zion, N. Manchester
and St. Mark, Auburn are among those who have already made
the scene. Sweatshirts, blankets, food, and money have
arrived from many more throughout the Conference. That
presence, and those gifts,
are potent signs to those on the Gulf Coast that the Body of
Christ cares. We are so happy to learn that the caring from
Northeast Indiana will be continuing. God bless you!
CHRISTUS VICTOR, OCEAN SPRINGS,
MS IN NEED OF BOTTLED WATER AND FOOD
Brenda Montgomery, a disaster response
coordinator at Christus Victor in Ocean Springs, MS sent this e-mail
last night;
"We are in dire straits for food for our
distribution center and bottled water for our volunteers going out
on work crews. We received a semi of food last week and it is
essentially gone, and there is nothing else on the horizon. Can you
help us?"
Please e-mail Bob Montgomery at Christus Victor if you can help:
bbmonty@mindspring.com.
Also needed, extra large, heavy-duty contractor clean-up bags.
St. Mark's, Monroeville and Eberhard
...will be taking a youth trip July 9-15 to Western Louisiana to
do relief work. Due to LDR's (Lutheran Disaster Relief)
age requirements for volunteering we have been forced to find an
alternative organization to work through. Lutheran Social
Services of the South has been working with those displaced by
the hurricane that have been unable to return home. They are
offering day camp opportunities throughout the summer in a
number of areas. Our youth will be staffing one of these
camps during that time.
A Letter From the Gulf
Greetings from
Mississippi!
We wanted to update you on just a few of the incredible experiences
we have had down here the past 5 days. First, the television
does no justice to the overwhelming damage of property and lives
that we have seen in the short time we have been down here.
You have to see it to believe it. Even 7 months after Katrina,
there is debris and destruction everywhere... from million dollar
beach homes reduced to only a fireplace and a slab, to an inner city
house in East Biloxi where the storm surge got the water inside the
house to 7 feet high and then was closed up until 4 days ago.
(Guess who was on the crew to muck that house out...boy do we have
stories!) The awesome thing is that you also see people down
here from all over the country who have come to help. The
church parking lots down here are tent and RV cities, filled with
folks who have traveled to be part of the rebuild effort.
Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists...we have heard over and over again
from people down here (even the FEMA people) that the the rebuilding
effort wouldn't be so far along if it weren't for the faith based
organizations.
There is hope. We were working on a house in Ocean Springs on
Monday. The family had just returned about a month ago when
their FEMA trailer (they are a lot smaller than they look when they
pass by on the train on the Manchester tracks!) finally arrived
(they had been living in Alabama). We were hanging and mudding
sheetrock, and the home owner was talking and she said, "I can see
hope...this is looking like a home!"
Anyway...enough of these ramblings. Besides working we are
having a great time. Met new friends from all over, (we have
been adopted by a group from Georgia... they are teaching me how to
talk, y'all), have eaten some of the best barbeque and fried shrimp,
seen some beautiful sunsets over Mississippi Bayous (hurricanes
can't ruin those!). Thanks to all of you who sent stuff
along...the distribution Center that your supplies went to services
over 130 families each day. (In the coming months we will be working
to fill a semi to send down here, but that is a story for another
e-mail.)
Blessings
to you...we will be home on Sunday.
Kathy and
Jeff Hawkins
Zion Lutheran
Church, North Manchester, IN.
Contact: Ruth Ann
Schlitt, 260-982-2391
A trip to
Louisiana to work on rebuilding projects has been scheduled for July
7-16, 2006. They will be lodged at the church in Picayune,
Ms., and working in Louisiana. Ten persons will be traveling
with the assistance of Christian Service International, based in
Muncie. Donations are welcome and accepted. Prayers encouraged!
St Mark’s Lutheran Church, Auburn, Indiana
In October we collected food and requested items—5 pallets of
materials--and transported to Christus Victor in a van.
Cost of transportation: $600. Also sent $2,000 from Partnership
Fund of Lutheran Foundation to St Mark’s, Metarie, LA. And an
additional $250. Sending additional gift of money to Christus
Victor.
Pastor
Richard Hartman, Epiphany Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne,
Indiana
Contact:
Epiphany at 260-485-5122
I
will be traveling down to Ocean Springs, MS the week of May
14-18, 2006, along with three other people from Epiphany, to
do hurricane relief efforts in the area. We will be taking
down as many supplies as we can gather. Currently we are
collecting: bottled water, heavy gage trash bags, and canned
foods.
I am
also currently planning for an addtional trip, June 11-16
with our youth and adults to the same area. As information
becomes available I will update you on the trip.
If
any one would like to help with supplies for either trip
they are encouraged to check out the Lutheran Disaster
Response website at:
This
site changes on a regular basis of the needs in the area.
Thanks
Pastor Richard Hartman
Sr.
Elsie Fregeau, Calvary Lutheran Church, Cromwell, Indiana
As a part of our on-going support of those who have lost so
much in the Hurricane, our "blanket sew ladies" who
normally would ship out over 60 quilts in the fall to LWF,
decided instead to ship off 50 or their quilts to the
Hurricane relief effort. We delivered these quilts in March
to Gethsemane so that they might be delivered when their
truck made the trip.
We have also purchased cleaning supplies, shovels and other
tools which went down in February from Auburn. We also
collected pocket change in our "noisy bucket" in February
for the disaster relief fund.
Click
HERE to send information on your relief
efforts
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