Description
We are working with both the South Alabama Presbytery and the Presbytery of Mississippi to make sure we can help as many as possible in this campaign. A Savannah Presbytery "scout" team will be going down to the Gulf Coast on September 22nd to meet with the representatives from the Presbyteries and to begin to get an idea of the most immediate needs. From there we will begin to form response teams that will change from month to month to address the concerns which are most needed. Each month we will need a different configuration of workers, with different skills and differing skill levels. Also, each work team will go to their work sites with all of the supplies they will need to both sustain the crew and complete the work at hand.
There is a Presbytery camp in Stockton, Alabama that will house nothing but work crews coming in to offer assistance in the coming months. The cabins and cafeteria are air conditioned. This sounds like an adequate facility to clean up, relax and renew after a hard day of work at the site.
Here is what you can do NOW.
Start gathering those with interest in helping. Our work teams can be all from one church. If you have a group large enough, we can set you up with a partner church in the Gulf and organize a date for you to go and work. Or, a group can be made up of people from several different churches, and we will set up with the Presbytery the task of the month and collect the supplies to send you on the way.
Collect names and skills from volunteers for your church, and send that information to Karl Branch at spda@savannahpresbytery.org .
We have asked that there be a Disaster Assistance Coordinator designated from each church in the presbytery, to use as a contact person. This contact will be kept abreast of the latest needs of both people power and supplies for the upcoming work teams. Watch for weekly updates in the e-newsletter, and monthly updates in the Savannah Presbytery newsletter, as well as communications through your church office.
Our goal, as Presbytery staff, is to help you find what needs are in this part of the Gulf Coast, and to gather groups of people from Savannah Presbytery that can fill the need. The more volunteers we have, the more work teams we can assemble and the more needs we can fulfill.
After speaking with our contact in Southern Alabama he said, "Right now we have 2 weeks worth of supplies, and people calling with truckloads full of things they want to bring and drop off! We don't need supplies right now. But we aren't sure if those truckloads will be there in a month or two when we really start to need them!" If we can help these people for the next year, and let them know that they are not forgotten, it would be a powerful witness to what a "community of faith" can truly mean.
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