Crisis

I

Icthus

Active Member
Ok well here goes and hang on....

As many of you know I am a Pastor in the Dallas-Ft Worth area. Due to the crisis in New Orleans a flood gate broke today. We, the local population, have found out we will have somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 displaced residents from LA, 25,000 of those will be refugees.

A note, a refugee is someone who did not leave NO, but had to be evacutated and are living in shelters in the area. There are an incredible number of people living in hotels at the moment. It is only a matter of time until money runs out and they have no where to stay.

If you think about this for a moment, this is an incredible undertaking. Local school districts, services, feeding of these people and such. It is massive in scope and unbeleivable difficult. But, it is also an opportunity.

Today at 2pm central a large number of Pastors and ministers are gathering to discuss what we as the church can do to help.

I have called a church meeting for tomorrow at 9am for our local body to talk about what we can do as well.

The needs appear to be massive. We already have about 5,000 people in local shelters and 15,000 coming to Dallas and 5,000 coming to Fort Worth.

There are three levels we are looking at right now-

1. Immediate- these people have no clothes or food
2. Intermediate- getting them longer term stay and getting kids registered for school and finding jobs for able bodied people. Meeting the daily needs of this group for 2 to 3 months.
3. Long term- putting teams together to rebuild NO and the Gulf Coast


Please pray for the local churches in the surrounding areas as we attempt to be an Acts 2 church. I will keep you updated.


Needless to say, Sunday's sermon will be very different from what I had orginally planned.
 
You've built your foundation in the strong rock, and it will now come to serve you. Prayers and blessings to you, your family, your church and team and to all those touched, helped and ministered to by you and those that surround and support you.

† God Bless †
 
You've got it matt.. don't forget our larger body here and try to keep us up to date in the prayer forums ....... more prayers can only help. Blessings,"Angel"


( Tek or Admin please move this to prayer forums.)
 
We will keep you in our prayers Icthus. Avon is also working to raise funds for the victims of this storm. I am taking a very active part in helping them to do this and you all can also no matter where you live. Read below to see what Avon and I am doing and if you want to take part and help call your local avon rep. or email me and we'll tell you how you can help. (I know the email update starts off by talking about victims who worked for Avon but the money and the disaster relief packets are for all the victims that were effected. Just an FYI)

Avon Hurricane Katrina Update: Our People, Our Contributions, and Our Fund-Raiser for the Victims
What Avon Is Doing! Efforts Underway to Locate, Assist Avon Representatives. Since Hurricane Katrina broke, personnel at the Avon Atlanta Branch have been making every effort to locate Avon Representatives, Managers, and Associates affected by the storm.

Despite the destruction of phone and internet lines, we have managed to reach and assist several Avon people who have suffered losses, and we are doing our best to help get them back on their feet.

Our efforts will continue until every Avon person affected by Hurricane Katrina is accounted for. We have established Hurricane Emergency phone lines for Representatives impacted by the disaster. They can call us at (877) 251-2866 toll-free, or they can place a toll call at (513) 551-2473.

Avon Foundation Donates $250,000, Company Sends Supplies. The Avon Foundation has announced a $250,000 cash donation to the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts and a special fund-raising product will be available in the coming weeks. Look for further details to be communicated soon.

What You Can Do!

Take Part in the Hurricane Katrina Fund-Raiser. As we have in the past, Avon is teaming up with Gifts in Kind to provide disaster relief kits in this time of need. Click the links below to get the fund-raising flyer -- front and back.

FRONT PAGE BACK PAGE (see links below)

100% of the proceeds obtained by this fundraiser will go to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

Each Disaster Relief bundle costs just $10. It includes five toiletries- On Duty 24 Roll-On Deodorant, Moisture Therapy Hand Cream and Moisture Therapy Lip Balm, Skin-So-Soft Bug Guard Plus and Skin-So-Soft Shower Gel. Avon will immediately contribute $4 to the Hurricane Relief fund for every Disaster Relief bundle sold. We will send the product bundles once authorities approve shipments to the area.

Use the flyer to collect orders. To order printed flyers, use line 078-260: 75¢ per pack of 10. To order kits, use line #167-519.

GIVE. The Avon Foundation has identified the following organizations, approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as accepting donations to assist the hurricane victims. They are:

American National Red Cross, 2025 E St NW, Washington, DC 20006, www.redcross.org

Second Harvest, 35 E Wacker Dr, Suite 2000, Chicago, IL 60601, www.secondharvest.com

Together we know we can make a difference in this terrible disaster. Thank you for everything you have done and will do.
 
I am in the Grapevine/Southlake area. We are north of the airport.

We met today and tomorrow the entire sermon will be about the disaster and our response as a church. Here is what we are doing...

Immediate needs-
* We are collecting items needed clothing, dry foods, underwear, hygiene items and such.
* We are working on getting prepaid cards to people in need (there are massive amounts of people pooring in to our area) things like phone, gas and store cards to help people get items.
* We are looking at providing a mobile church service to go to areas that might need a Sunday evening. We would basically load up what we do and move it to another location sound system and all.

Midterm (60 days to 9 months)
* we are looking at adopting 2 to 4 families into our church family. We would house them and provide the above materials to them.
* we would help get them assimulated to our area
* help finding jobs and schools and the like

Long Term
* We are putting together a group to head to MS or AL to rebuild


I have two meetings on Tuesday with local city officials to determine the strains on the community and how to make everything work.

Keep praying for all of us.
 
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