wfn.org | Texas Disciple to coordinate

["Wilma Shuffitt"<wshuffit@oc.disciples.org>]

Honduras relief efforts
Date: March 26, 1999
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Clifford L. Willis
Email: CWillis@oc.disciples.org
on the Web: http://www.disciples.org

99b-19

	INDIANAPOLIS (DNS) -- A Granbury, 
Texas, man has been appointed by Church 
World Service to oversee hurricane 
relief efforts in Honduras.

	Don Tatlock will work with the 
Christian Commission for Development in 
Honduras as co-coordinator of the 
Hurricane Mitch mission team. He begins 
the new assignment in late June and 
will be based in Tegucigalpa. 

	Tatlock, whose parents were Christian 
Church (Disciples of Christ) 
missionaries, has led numerous work 
trips to Honduras. The Disciples member 
is a student at Brite Divinity School, 
Fort Worth, Texas.

	Week of Compassion, the church's 
disaster relief ministry, has received 
more than $700,000 for long-term 
assistance in Central America following 
Hurricane Mitch. This amount nearly 
triples  the $250,000 WOC officials 
estimated would be needed to fulfill 
emergency requests, according to the 
Rev. Johnny Wray, Week of Compassion 
director.

	From those funds, a $55,000 grant to 
Interchurch Medical Assistance helped 
to provide more than $1.6 million in 
vaccines, antibiotics and other 
medicines. A $75,000 Church World 
Service grant funded two shipments of 
humanitarian aid valued more than 
$750,000. WOC resources also enabled 
CCD to purchase two four-wheel-drive 
vehicles, allowing staff to reach 
remote communities in need of their 
services. 

	Disciples interested in volunteer work 
in Honduras or Nicaragua, where 
hurricane relief efforts also are 
taking place, should contact Glenn 
Rogers, a CWS Hurricane Mitch work team 
coordinator based at the Sager-Brown 
Center in Louisiana; phone: 
888-283-6113. Work groups interested in 
assisting Disciples partner churches -- 
the Evangelical and Reformed Church in 
Honduras and the Christian Mission in 
Nicaragua -- should contact the Rev. 
David Vargas, DOM executive for Latin 
America and Caribbean at 317-635-3100. 

	WOC and Homeland Ministries' 
Volunteers in Mission program are 
sponsoring a leader training work trip 
to the region in August, according to 
Wray. Week of Compassion also is 
providing $1,000 partner grants to 
Disciples work groups. For 
applications, contact the WOC office at 
317-635-3100, ext. 435, or send an 
electronic mail message to 
johnnywray@ecunet.org. 

	                                 -- 
end --