Patrick Murphy, Pastor of Discipleship at Front Street UMC, joins Aaron and Laura to discuss J.R.R. Tolkien and his great work The Lord of the Rings. They discuss Tolkien’s life of trauma and friendship and what Tolkien’s work of fantasy has to teach Christians about fellowship, power, and courage in the most unlikely places.
Announcements
Disaster Recovery Ministries – March 2019 Update
With ongoing operations continuing across the conference and the opening of our eighth Disaster Recovery Center, we are seeing encouraging strides in our recovery/rebuild efforts. Through March 2019, our Disaster Call Center has scheduled over 5,458 volunteers who have offered over 198,288 hours of service. The Call Center has also scheduled an additional 7,000 volunteers to come and support our efforts through December 2019.
Each Disaster Recovery Center is busy working with our long-term recovery clients, in getting them home again. As we find additional funding sources for operations and materials, we are able to increase the monies offered to the recovery/rebuild efforts of each client. Our unique model of volunteer labor gives us the best opportunity to increase our dollars in recovery/rebuild efforts. Grant funding is currently being offered through UMCOR, Golden Leaf, Lowe’s, Red Cross, Cumberland Community Foundation, North Carolina Emergency Management and other organizations.
One of the issues that the Call Center and each DRC has noted is an increase in the number of calls asking for assistance for the first time. We have noted over 50 calls since March 1 asking for tarps and ERT work to be started. In addition, we have 830 cases still pending as “open” in our operations databank, persons still asking for assistance.
STATE STEP – In December, 2018, over 16,000 homes were listed by FEMA as STEP qualified. STEP (sanitary, temporary, essential, power) was a program designed to quickly get low-income homeowners back into their storm damaged structures. FEMA closed the federal program on April 2, 2019 with only 2,500 homes being touched. NCEM decided to continue the program and asked for our assistance.
The North Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church along with the Baptist’s Men have agreed to continue the “State STEP” program as a way to offer our services to those affected but also as a way to stretch our funding dollars, allowing us to offer financial assistance to more homeowners affected. Through the use of state funds first (up to $17,000/home) in the recovery effort (ERT), we can offer more funding to the rebuild process (long-term recovery) through our grants.
CHURCH/PARSONAGE RECOVERY – Hurricane Florence damaged 97 churches and 33 parsonages across the conference. We are finalizing a report for UMCOR on the extent of the damage for each and a cost estimate to repair these facilities. The report took in information on the extent of damage, the amount of insurance offered, the deductible amount of the policy, any gifts or other funding amounts received and the amount of funds needed to finalize repairs. As of today, we are showing approximately $2.5-2.8M are still needed for these repair efforts. This information will be sent to UMCOR as a separate grant request for assistance. We are very hopeful from our conversations with the UMCOR staff to receive some funding for this effort.
WILMINGTON DRC – We finally realized our goal of having eight Disaster Recovery Centers across the state with the opening of the Wilmington DRC on March 30,2019. Ed Sundy, a longtime Early Response Team Leader, agreed to become the Site Manager and is busy hiring staff to meet the needs of the surrounding communities. Their area of operations will include parts of New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties, with Satellite Recovery Center being developed in the Burgaw and Southport communities.
DISASTER RECOVERY CENTERS – Each Disaster Recovery Center is staffed with a Site Manager, two Case Managers, two Construction Managers, Material Handlers and Office Staff. Comprehensive Case Management is our driving force in offering assistance to those affected by the storms and is offered at every DRC. Through our Case Management process, we establish a needs assessment, scope of work and financial plan for each person. Once we have these items completed, we will sign a “covenant” with the homeowner, establishing our bond with them to help in their recovery.
Construction Management begins next in the recovery/rebuild process. Site Managers working with the Disaster Call Center will create a schedule of volunteers for the DRC, showing the number of volunteers coming, skill level and needs. Construction Managers will take this information and establish a work schedule for each team based upon the center’s needs within the home recovery/rebuild scope of work.
All Disaster Recovery Centers will offer office space for staff and housing for team volunteers to include a kitchen, sleeping and bathing facilities. Satellite Recovery Centers will act as a housing location for teams of 10-20 people, placing them closer to our area of operations.
Disaster Call Center- 888-440-9167
Watercooler Christianity – Episode 8: That’s What Amie Said w/ Amie Stewart
In this episode we are joined by Amie Stewart, Associate Director of Ministerial Relations, to talk about “The Office.” Sit with us while we discuss friendship, awkward conversations, accountability, our life of faith, and “The World’s Best Boss,” Michael Scott.
Watercooler Christianity – Episode 7: “I’m Just A Girl” // Captain Marvel
Laura and Aaron discuss “Captain Marvel,” the importance of friendship, empathy, and the power of changing your mind.
Disaster Recovery Ministries- February 2019 update
Submitted by: Al Miller III, Director of Disaster Ministries, NCCUMC
The harsh reality of Hurricane Florence, five months after the storm devastated our state, is coming into focus for many of our churches, our communities and their members. Many North Carolina counties, cities, small towns and crossroads have all been affected by this storm. In a few instances, communities may not be able to recover from the damage. The loss of residents who have damaged homes, the loss of business and industry due to structural damages, community infrastructure (roads, bridges) needs and the uncertainty of what lies ahead has only exacerbated the problem for these areas. In many ways, these are the people and communities that the North Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church is reaching out to help through Disaster Ministries programs.
As we continued our efforts through January and February, we were seeing an increase in the number of volunteer groups responding, as we spread our call for assistance and an increase in the needs of those requesting assistance, as word of our programs reaches them. Over 234,000 hours of volunteer assistance have been documented to date and 6,128 volunteers are scheduled to offer assistance over the next 7 months, with additional volunteer groups being added daily. By partnering with many Long-Term Recovery Groups and affiliated VOAD agencies, we are focused in several critical need areas across the state, setting-up Disaster Recovery Centers with Site Managers, Case Managers and Construction Managers. In addition, we are developing multiple satellite centers for hosting teams so we can be closer to the areas of immediate need. These satellite centers will operate under the direction of the local DRC for both Case Management and Construction Management. We are committed to our goal of “helping people find their way back home,” rebuilding their lives, churches and communities.
Since the start of the 2019 calendar year, Disaster Ministries is now operating out of seven regional Disaster Recovery Centers (Fayetteville, Lumberton, Tarboro, Washington, Swansboro, Newport and Whiteville). In addition, a DRC will be opened in the Wilmington area to work in both Brunswick, New Hanover and Columbus counties. Satellite centers are being developed for Burgaw/Pender, Swan Quarter/Jones and Aurora/Pamlico counties at this time and hope to be open within the next 5-6 weeks, while several ERT centers (Wesley Memorial, Trinity, Partners in Ministry) are still open and hosting teams for response activities. Each of these sites have contributed to the recovery effort in these respective communities and have been instrumental in providing valuable feedback on the tremendous needs that have not been met.
The setup, logistics and operations of a Disaster Recovery Center or satellite center are extremely costly. Set-up cost include the purchase of trucks, trailers, tools, and materials needed for rebuild at each DRC so the necessary equipment will be available for our volunteers. In addition, through our Case Management services, we offer the homeowner an opportunity to use our Case Managers as a partner to develop a financial plan and assessment to completely rebuild their property. We will use whatever funds that the homeowners have available along with other grant funding resources available for their area to find the monies needed for rebuild.
Disaster Ministries has continued to research any and all grant opportunities to find the funding necessary for our operations. To date, UMCOR- US Disaster Response has been our number one funding source for our Conference-wide operations. We have applied for additional UMCOR grant funding to continue operations through December 2020. In addition, we are actively seeking grant opportunities with The Golden Leaf Foundation, Red Cross, Long-Term Recovery Groups, other VOAD programs and business/ industry resources. Lowe’s Home Improvement has been an essential partner through both their regional offices and their corporate office programs in both direct and in-direct programs. We understand that this will be a long-term recovery program (5-7 years) and are committed to continue our efforts, as long as funding is available.
NCCUMC Disaster Ministries has been working with the North Carolina Baptist Men Disaster Group and the North Carolina Emergency Management Office in utilizing and implementing the NC STEP program. Overall, more than 16,000 homes were identified immediately after the storm as needing the assistance of this program. The STEP (sanitary temporary electric power) program will give qualifying homeowners up to $17,000 for rebuild efforts to quickly get those displaced back into their homes, as long as specific qualifying conditions are met. This opportunity allows us to establish a relationship with these potential new clients as they merge into our casework files using state monies while allowing us to divert conference and local funds to the underserved and under-insured members of our communities.
Disaster Ministries is currently beginning an assessment of churches that were affected by the storm. In a survey immediately after Hurricane Florence, over 97 churches and 33 parsonages were reported to have some damage from the storm. We have begun to contact those churches to gather more specific information detailing the damaged each sustained and any efforts that have been taken to mediate or repair their facilities. UMCOR has offered additional grant opportunities for church repair and we will seek their assistance once we can better finalize our needs.
The North Carolina Conference of Disaster Ministries program is actively involved in Hurricane Florence recovery/rebuild, but we need the help of our local churches, pastors, congregations and communities in our efforts. Through NCCUMC programs/services, local district sponsorships and programs such as Neighbor to Neighbor, Early Response Training, Long-Term Recovery, UMVIM, NOMADS, etc., we are asking you to join us as we strive to “help people find their way back home.” Doing this as we live the mission of the NC Disaster Recovery Ministries, “providing a caring Christian presence in the aftermath of disaster and serve as a voice of conscience among United Methodists to act in the relief of human suffering by focusing on rebuilding the homes and there by the lives if disaster Survivor’s.”
Watercooler Christianity – Episode 6: Cleanliness Is Next To Godliness w/ Tobi Nguyen
In this episode, Aaron and Laura are joined by Tobi Nguyen, Pastor of Nurture and Discipleship at University UMC in Chapel Hill, NC to discuss the Netflix show “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo,” cleaning up, organization, and grace in the messiness of life.