Good morning…
Wisdom lingers within me from yesterday’s post, When We Feel Broken. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence (Ephesians 1:20-23, MSG).
I am so grateful to be a prayerful part of Christ’s living body, God’s creative, collaborative church on this earth.
“Sue,” wrote our Senior Pastor, Dr. Bill Burch, after yesterday’s post, “if you are looking for a way that your readers can concretely respond to Dorian, the United Methodist Committee on Relief will be active in the islands. 100% of donations made to UMCOR go straight to disaster relief. Northside also has an Emergency Response Team. While people must be trained in order to participate, they could begin the training for the next disaster. We promote that people can go by giving or give by going.”
His email spurred me to reach out for more details from Northside Church’s Director of Missions, Lynette Brown. Here is her response: “Thank you for helping get the word out that right now prayers and financial support are the best ways to help. This Sunday we will encourage financial donations to UMCOR. I know you have blog readers all over the country now and they may want to use the UMCOR link to donate. Here is part of what our North Georgia Conference Disaster Coordinator sent out yesterday.
- Prayer: Please join us in praying for all those already impacted by this storm and for those in its path.
- Giving: Donate to our North Georgia, domestic disaster fund using #4390 or UMCOR Domestic Disaster Response #901670. To help the recovery effort in the Bahamas, give to UMCOR International Disaster Response #982450.”
She continued: “Our Disaster Response Team is preparing and will respond when invited by neighboring conferences. Right now it is too early. The First Responders need to secure the area (remove down power lines, stop gas leaks…) then the immediate community and conference responds to the needs. If the need is too big for the community/conference then the call (invitation) goes out for ERT teams to come. As stores and hotels reopen nonERT teams are welcomed to assist also. So right now we prepare and wait.”
She concluded: “I’ll keep you in the loop. I know the women you touch have big hearts to help.” If you have any more questions about “going by giving or giving by going,” Please reach out to Lynette directly, LynetteB@NorthsideUMC.org.
As we each do our own part in God’s restorative work …let us grow up in all things into Him [following His example] who is the Head—Christ. From Him the whole body [the church, in all its various parts], joined and knitted firmly together by what every joint supplies, when each part is working properly, causes the body to grow and mature, building itself up in [unselfish] love (Ephesians 4:15b-17, AMP).
…Sue…
