Relief agency calls for response to churchwide appeal
12/4/2003 News media contact: Linda Bloom · (646) 369-3759 · New York
By Linda Bloom*
Hurricane
Isabel created a breach on North Carolina Highway 12, isolating the
Village of Hatteras (N.C) on Sept. 18. The breach is 1700 feet wide and
10 ft. deep. North Carolina Conference Disaster Response delegation
viewed the damage on Sept. 23. A UMNS photo by Bill Norton. Photo
number 03-508, Accompanies UMNS #581, 12/4/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
Downed
trees and power lines were common in Baltimore and other East Coast
cities after Hurricane Isabel. Massive power outages left thousands of
people without electricity. A UMNS photo by Melissa
Lauber/UMConnection. Photo number 03-509, Accompanies UMNS #581,
12/4/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
NEW YORK (UMNS) - When Hurricanes Lili and Isidore
damaged the home of an 88-year-old Louisiana woman this year, members of
First United Methodist Church in Slidell made repairs and built a
wheelchair ramp.
In Kokomo, Ind., church volunteers removed
carpet and tile from a woman's flood-damaged home, assisted her with an
aid application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and
installed new carpeting and tile.
Home repairs and rebuilding by
United Methodist volunteers have occurred throughout the Jackson, Tenn.,
area following a May tornado there.
The United Methodist
Committee on Relief supported these relief efforts and many more as a
variety of natural disasters - including the recent Hurricane Isabel and
southern California fires - plagued the United States in 2003. The
agency is a unit of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
However,
a lack of funds is severely restricting the agency's ability to
continue responding to such needs. The relief agency's "Churchwide
Appeal for USA Domestic Disasters," launched in October, had only drawn
in tens of thousands of dollars in donations by early December, far
short of an anticipated $2 million goal.
As a result, making
decisions on Hurricane Isabel recovery work in Maryland, Virginia and
North Carolina is difficult, said the Rev. Tom Hazelwood, the agency's
domestic disaster coordinator.
"What I'm really concerned about is we can hardly get off the ground with Isabel," he said.
Hazelwood
noted that local pastors often are the main channels for funds raised
by the United Methodist Committee on Relief, and he urged them to hold a
special offering for the churchwide appeal during Sunday services.
"If
the people in the pew know what the needs are, I think they'll support
it," he said. "Too often, we don't give them the information." He added
that such special offerings usually do not detract from regular Sunday
offerings because church members "know it is second-mile giving."
Local
churches can obtain information on the appeal by logging onto
http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor, the agency's Web site. Items that can be
downloaded from the site include a bulletin insert, brochure, appeal
letter and two newspaper ads.
Most churchwide appeals bring in an
average of $3 million to $4 million, according to Hazelwood. The appeal
for Hurricane Mitch in 1998-99, which devastated parts of the United
States, Caribbean and Central America, brought in nearly $12 million.
The
Churchwide Appeal for USA Domestic Disasters covers disaster relief for
those affected by Hurricanes Lili and Isidore, which hit Louisiana
within days of each other; the 500-some tornadoes that ripped through
the Midwest and the South; spring and summer flooding and wind damage in
Florida; summer flooding in Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia; and
Hurricane Isabel, which caused damage in North Carolina, Virginia and
Maryland in late September.
The United Methodist Committee on
Relief has distributed nearly $1.5 million to the denomination's U.S.
annual (regional) conferences for disaster response work since September
2002 and already had requests for another $1.1 million in funding
before Isabel hit.
Some smaller conferences, even those with
strong United Methodist communities, simply don't have the resources or
ability to generate funding for disaster relief. "They are dependent
upon UMCOR to support whatever response there is," Hazelwood said.
Money
raised by the appeal becomes part of the agency's domestic disaster
fund, which also will be used for any future recovery work related to
the California fires. "We're still really evaluating what the long-term
response is going to be in California," he added.
Donations
should be designated for "Churchwide Appeal for USA Domestic Disasters,"
UMCOR Advance No. 901670. Checks can be dropped in church offering
plates or sent directly to the United Methodist Committee on Relief at
475 Riverside Dr., Room 330, New York, NY 10015. Credit-card donors can
call (800) 554-8583, and online donations can be made at the Web site
listed in this story. # # # *Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.