On May 20, Moore, Oklahoma was devastated by a massive tornado.  Over 20 people were killed and more than 200 were injured.  Earlier in the week, several tornadoes roared across central Texas killing at least 6 and injuring almost 100.  Families have lost their homes and lives have been shattered.

This is a horrific reality and it is a reality into which the love of Christ will flow.  You can respond in several ways:

• Pray for those who have been so deeply hurt.  Pray for their families, for their communities, for our United Methodist Churches in the area as they respond, and for the first-responders who are offering care through the crisis.  
• Give through your United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR).  You can do this through several avenues:
  • You can make a donation on-line now for Disaster Response, United States Advance #901670.
  • You can also donate via telephone by calling 1-888-252-6174.
  • You can make an immediate $10 donation, you can text RESPONSE to 80888.
  • You can also donate through your local congregational offering by noting on your check or offering envelope:  UMCOR Advance #901670 – Tornado
  • You can send your check directly to the NC Conference Treasurer at:
    • NC Conference, PO Box 60053, Charlotte, NC 28260.  Make check payable to: NC Conference designated as Advance #901670 – Tornado
  • You can give directly through the Oklahoma Conference.  See information and directions at this link:  Oklahoma Disaster Response You can give directly through the Central Texas Conference at Central Texas Disaster Response.
• When the appropriate time comes for recovery and rebuilding homes (watch the Oklahoma Conference website and the Central Texas Conference website for this information), consider sending an UMVIM workteam from your church.

Here in the North Carolina Conference, we know what it means to experience the trauma, the loss, and the heart-break of disaster.  In the past 2 years, we have received $1.5 million in relief funding to assist in our response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Irene.  This gift came from the hands and hearts of brothers and sisters across our United Methodist connection.  Now is the time for us to do the same.  Please respond generously.  It is the mark of love expressed as the Body of Christ.

April 19, 2013—After a powerful explosion Wednesday night at a fertilizer factory in Texas flattened homes and caused dozens of casualties, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) approved an emergency grant to the Central Texas Annual (regional) Conference of The United Methodist Church to assist in relief efforts.

While needs are still being assessed, those who would help are being urged not to go to West, the tiny town, population about 2,500, where the disaster occurred.

Updated:  5-07-2013 at 12:45 PM

Hurricane Irene Recovery

Waves break over railings of a home’s raised deck. Storm surges were up to 8 feet in some areas.

The NC Conference continues to have an on-going operation for disaster recovery.  Over 27,000 homes were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Irene in August 2011.  We have hundreds who remain unable to move back into heavily damaged or destroyed homes.  We have deep need for work teams to do both repair/reconstruction and new construction.  The NC Conference disaster recovery call center can place your team in an area where people continue to desperately need your help.   We have had over 350 teams respond and we need many, many more.  We are deeply grateful for the efforts and gifts of these wondrous servants.  We have been staggered by the generosity of those who have responded in such manner.   Please join us.  Your efforts will make a difference.

Anyone wanting to volunteer should email disasterresponse@nccumc.org or call 888-440-9167.

We continue to need additional funds for the recovery work.  Please also consider reaching out financially by giving to NC Storms Emergency Response – NC Advance #S-00176. 100% of every gift to this Advance will go to storm response.  You can give online at:  Hurricane Irene Giving

You can also send funds to:  NC Conference, P.O. Box 60053, Charlotte, NC 28260.  Please be sure to note Advance #S-00176.

— Steve Taylor/Outreach Team Coordinator

Calls for Prayers, Peace, and Humanitarian Aid in Eastern Congo

United Methodist Bishop Ntambo Nkulu Ntanda (front left) testifies before a U.S. House foreign affairs subcommittee asking the U.S. government to help end conflict in eastern Congo. Seated with Ntambo are Mark Schneider (center) and Jason Stearns. UMNS photos by Jay Mallin

“This is a wake up cry we express at this moment…war atrocities are now hitting home in this part of our Episcopal area,” wrote Bishop Gabriel Unda Yemba, who leads the East Congo Episcopal Area of The United Methodist Church.

Over the last two decades, there have been few places on earth that have experienced the level of violence and death as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.   Many of our fellow United Methodist brothers and sisters have suffered an ongoing nightmare of the carnage of war — burning, bombs, bullets, rape, and mutilation.  Please hold them all in prayer.  Pray that peace will prevail.  Pray that leaders will find wisdom and compassion.  Pray for the safety of all, especially the most vulnerable – the women, children, and elderly.  Pray for a change in the hearts and souls of those who would perpetrate such horror.  Pray for the intervention of God’s saving Spirit.  And pray that we will have the eyes to see and the will to act where and when we can.

One such way we can respond is through our United Methodist Committee on Relief and the Congo (DRC) Emergency as we work in partnership with the United Methodist Church in the Congo to provide aid, hope, and comfort for the victims if this ongoing war.  You can make a donation here.  

You can also make a donation through your local United Methodist church offering by simply noting on your offering envelop or check, Congo Emergency – Advance #198400.

Additionally, you can mail your gift to:
NC Conference, PO Box 60053, Charlotte, NC 28260.

Make check payable to:
NC Conference – Congo Emergency #198400

100% of your gift will go to our emergency work in the Congo.

For more information about our ministry in the Congo, please see United Methodists in DR Congo
Read a blog by Linda Bloom, United Methodist News staff writer – Goma once more needs reason to hope.

Waves break over the railing of a raised deck as Hurricane Irene storm surge flows inland, flooding, damaging, or destroying thousands of NC homes.

North Carolina United Methodists, more than most, understand the pain and suffering that our friends to the north experienced from Hurricane Sandy.   In response, United Methodists across the NC Conference have donated tens of thousands of dollars and have shipped thousands of cleaning buckets.   Additionally, as the response phase moves into long-term recovery, we are certain that many will feel the call of God to go and stand with our friends in New York, New Jersey, Delaware  and other devastated areas.

As we pray and respond to the disaster north of us, we also remember that here in North Carolina, many of our next-door neighbors continue to suffer the affects of Hurricane Irene.   Several hundred volunteer work teams, United Methodists and many other denominations, have assisted in our recovery efforts and we have completed repairs on over 200 homes.  For this we give God deep thanks, and we NEED several hundred more work teams and monetary donations to continue the work on over 350 more homes or build new homes, with families who desperately need our help.

Home with internal walls washed away from Irene storm surge.

So, as we pray for and respond to the needs of our neighbors north of us, let us also join with our neighbors here in North Carolina who continue to live inside the disaster that is Hurricane Irene.   As Jesus tells us, when we minister to those who are in such deep need, it is Jesus himself to whom we minister … and Jesus will in turn, minister to us.

To help, please contact Ann Huffman at the NC Disaster Call Center – 888-440-9167 or: disasterresponse@nccumc.org to schedule a work team for a day, a week or longer.

We continue to need additional funds for the recovery work.  Please also consider reaching out financially by giving to NC Storms Emergency Response – NC Advance #S-00176. 100% of every gift to this Advance will go to storm response.  You can give online at:  Hurricane Irene Giving

You can also send funds to:  NC Conference, P.O. Box 60053, Charlotte, NC 28260.  Please be sure to note Advance #S-00176.

Be the hands and feet and heart and voice of Jesus, Be the light!  Help our neighbors return home.  

Volunteers unload cleaning buckets to distribute to flooding victims.

3MC – The Methodist Men’s Ministry Center, in partnership with Goodwill Industries of Durham, and many, many NC Conference United Methodist congregations, has recently shipped 4335 cleaning buckets for Hurricane Sandy storm victims.  The cleaning buckets were distributed through UMCOR in Egg Harbor and Ventnor in New Jersey, and through the Salvation Army in Bethpage, NY.  Additionally, another 110 buckets were picked up by St. Francis – a Catholic disaster response organization in NY.

Because of this massive shipment, we have an immediate and continual need for FULLY assembled flood buckets to continue to meet unmet needs and also to back-fill our depleted stocks.

Please do not send partially completed buckets or supply items.  We need fully assembled buckets ready for immediate shipment.  Your group is invited to bring materials and buckets to 3MC and use the packing area/tables to assemble your cleaning buckets.  The 3MC staff is available to answer questions and offer guidance in the packing process.

Please deliver the assembled buckets to the 3MC warehouse at 676 Community Dr Goldsboro NC between 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM, Monday through Saturday.

Please contact:

Sim Honeycutt (919) 552-8274 sim@tygof.com
3MC Facility (919) 739-9167 

They will ensure someone is available at the warehouse to receive your donation.  Also, if needed, they can arrange for someone to pick up you cleaning buckets for transport to 3MC.

Please pack the bucket as noted on the UMCOR Relief & Supply website.  Follow the link for Cleaning Bucket and also please check out the video on Cleaning Buckets.

We have begun receiving calls and emails regarding possible material donations for those victims of Hurricane Sandy and also generous servants wishing to go to the disaster zone and serve.

Our first advice is this:  If you are not trained and certified in Early Response, please do not go to the disaster area at this time.  In many places you will not be allowed to enter the affected areas and if you do get in, the area could pose significant danger to you.

This is the information as listed on the NY Conference Disaster Center website:

NY Conference UMC Disaster Response Coordinator: Rev. Joseph Ewoodzie

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This information is from the New Jersey state website: