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.

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

Wil and Yolanda

Greetings from Costa Rica!  We hope that this update finds all of you doing well.  In January we started work on our first project of 2013.  We’re building two Sunday school classrooms, a church kitchen and a battery of bathrooms at the church in Pavones.  The congregation has been forced to meet for the last three months under a tarp in front of the parsonage because the existing facilities were not up to the Health Ministry’s specifications.  We have already re-wired … Read More at Costa Rica Mission Projects. 

“When I served as a missionary at the Robeson County Church and Community Center,” says NC Conference Outreach Team Coordinator, Steve Taylor, “it was one of my true blessings to partner with dozens of youth and adult work teams in the Center’s housing ministry.  I was always amazed at the passion and energy of the youth and young adults as they ministered to poor people in Robeson County who often had few options and little voice.  The young people’s willingness to engage the ‘hard spaces’ of ministry was a vital witness to Jesus who always goes to, enters in, and calls us to be with those whom he calls ‘the least of these.’  And I was always reminded that these young folks are some of the best of who we are as United Methodists.”

There are so many opportunities for young people in our United Methodist Church.  It is simply a story we must tell and make available.  Young adults have long-term opportunities to serve in ministries of love and justice that fully reflect a deeper call to Christian living.  To name a few:

The Mission Intern Program is a missionary ministry designed to place young adults in a cultural setting different from their own.  The three year ministry allows the participants to spend half their time outside of the United States and half of their time in cross-cultural settings inside the U.S.  It is a ministry designed to allow young adults to live out a radical expression of servanthood, justice, and walking inside the life of Jesus.

US-2 Ministry Program provides a missionary opportunity for young adults to serve in cross-cultural experiences in ministries of service and justice within the bounds of the United States.  Participants work in a myriad of different settings, living out a witness of love and advocacy in the name of Christ.  Young adults spend two years in ministry at their placement sites engaged in work that is transformational for the community and for the participant.  They live out the witness and incarnational presence of Jesus.

You can read more about these opportunities of missionary service as young adults tell their own missionary stories of life and hope and wonder.  

Of course, there are many other opportunities for youth and young people.  In short-term mission programs, like Global Justice Volunteers, young people in mission make a difference.  Whether participating in a program to raise awareness of social issues, networking with others around the world, volunteering in a clinic, or dedicating their lives to long-term missionary service, young people transform their communities.

And not to forget, UMVIM and other volunteer opportunities through our local congregations.

So … Go for it!  Be Mission!

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.  

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: