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Date: Sept. 1, 2005
Contact: Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
V: 847/742-5100 F:  847/742-6103
E-MAIL: _CoBNews@AOL.Com_ (mailto:CoBNews@AOL.Com) 
 

CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN NEWSLINE
September 1, 2005
 
THE BRETHREN SEND MATERIALS AND GRANT MONEY TO AID HURRICANE  SURVIVORS
 
Sept. 1, 2005 (Elgin, IL) --  The Church of the Brethren has begun  
responding to the needs of survivors of Hurricane Katrina with an initial
grant  from 
the Church of the Brethren General Board's Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF)  and
a 
shipment of relief materials from the Brethren Service Center warehouses  in 
New Windsor, Md. 
 
In addition, board staff Roy Winter, director of Emergency Response, and  
Helen Stonesifer, coordinator of Disaster Child Care, have been requested to 

participate in the coordination of mass care for all the survivors, working
out  
of Washington, D.C., with the Red Cross.
 
On Aug. 29, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the northern Gulf Coast causing  
massive destruction in the city of New Orleans, and in other areas of 
Louisiana,  and Mississippi. The storm also affected the Alabama coast and
Florida  
panhandle, reported Emergency Response/Service Ministries (ER/SM). "The storm
is  
tracking up into the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys, where widespread flooding is

 expected," ER/SM said. According to press reports, death tolls may rise into

the  hundreds, and most of the half-million residents of New Orleans--which 
is being  completely evacuated--will be unable to return home and need 
temporary shelter  for weeks if not longer.
 
A shipment of relief materials left the Brethren Service Center on Aug. 30,  
bound for Baton Rouge, La. The shipment of 5,000 blankets and 5,040 Gift of 
the  Heart Health Kits was prepared for Church World Service (CWS) by the
staff 
of  Service Ministries. Service Ministries also is preparing a shipment of
540 
 Health Kits for CWS to send to West Memphis, Ark.
 
The initial EDF grant of $15,000 responds to a CWS appeal for $300,000 for  
the disaster. The funds will support shipments of Gift of the Heart Kits,  
material aid, and the organization of longterm recovery. CWS anticipates that
 its 
response to Hurricane Katrina may be the largest US relief and recovery  
effort in its history, a press release today reported. CWS executive director
 
John L. McCullough is travelling to Louisiana to personally assess emergency
and  
longterm recovery needs and to meet with area faith leaders. "Church World  
Service is particularly concerned about the plight of what we anticipate to
be 
a  high percentage of poor people, the elderly, and other vulnerable 
populations,"  he said. "Stories of individuals who had to stay in their
homes because 
they  couldn't afford to evacuate personify that crisis." For more about the 
CWS  response, see _www.churchworldservice.org_ 
(http://www.churchworldservice.org) . 
 
Church of the Brethren Disaster Child Care volunteers are standing by, and  
will likely work at shelters as well as in service centers. The child-care  
deployment is being organized and priorities are being set with the Red
Cross,	
Winter said. 
 
A call to remember those in Biloxi, Miss., who received Brethren aid to  
rebuild following a storm in the late 1990s came from Stan Noffsinger,
general  
secretary of the General Board. He recalled in particular a grandmother named
 
Miss Grace, who lived with three generations of her family in a home rebuilt
by 
 the Brethren. It was the first Brethren Disaster Response project after  
Noffsinger became director of the program in 1999. "I was so moved by the  
relationships that we built with the people in Biloxi, dear friends, dear 
souls," 
he said, remembering as well the hundreds of Brethren volunteers who  gave 
hours of aid to Biloxi.
 
Miss Grace's home and others the Brethren helped to rebuild were located  
right behind the casinos that were destroyed along the coast line in Biloxi, 

Noffsinger said. The conflicting images of opulence and poverty highlight the
 
problems that the country, and the church, face following this disaster, he  
said. "In light of the mighty winds, and the mighty waters, the opulence
could  
not stand, but neither did Miss Grace's house. It makes you wonder what 
happened  to the people we worked for, because they've lost everything. Where
do they 
go  now, and how do they recover?"
 
The Brethren who have been calling the Brethren Service Center with offers  
of rooms and hospitality for those displaced by the hurricane were thanked by
 
Noffsinger, but he called for great care to be taken in responding to the 
crisis	so that the church's response is appropriate. "I have confidence in
our  
Emergency Response program, the Disaster Child Care program, and  our
participation in Church World Service," he said. "When we respond it will  be

appropriate, it will be humane, and it will be respectful of the lives that  
we care for."
 
In other Brethren news related to the hurricane, a prayer request was  issued

by Southeastern District for hurricane damage in Alabama. The church  
buildings of Fruitdale (Ala.) Church of the Brethren and Cedar Creek Church
of  the 
Brethren in Citronelle, Ala., were unharmed. A member of Cedar Creek lost 
her 
home, and the daughter of the Fruitdale pastor had a tree fall on one end of 

her mobile home. Steven Petcher, a team pastor at Cedar Creek, reported that 

many trees were blown over by the 60- to 90-mile-an-hour winds, but all
church 
 members are safe.
 
The district is collecting donations toward the disaster. "When you look at  
the whole picture it's just overwhelming," said district co-executive Martha 

Roudebush, expressing concern for all of those affected by the hurricane.
"You 
 can't find words" to share the feelings, she said.
 
Gift of the Heart Health Kits are needed for the relief effort, as well as  
Heart to Heart Kids Kits, and donations to the Emergency Disaster Fund to  
support Brethren efforts to help those in need. Information about kits is  at
 
_www.churchworldservice.org/kits/index.html_ 
(http://www.churchworldservice.org/kits/index.html) .  Donations may be sent
to the Emergency Disaster Fund, 1451 
Dundee Ave., Elgin,  IL 60120. For more about the Emergency Response/Service 
Ministries see _www.brethren.org/genbd/ersm/_ 
(http://www.brethren.org/genbd/ersm/) .
 
The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to  
continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its
faith  in 
community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith  
traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrates its
 300th 
anniversary in 2008. It counts about 130,000 members across the United	
States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Brazil, the  
Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nigeria.
 
# # #
 
For more information contact:
 
Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
Director of News Services
Church of the  Brethren General Board
1451 Dundee Ave.
Elgin, IL 60120
847-742-5100  ext. 260
_cbrumbaugh-cayford_gb@brethren.org_ 
(mailto:cbrumbaugh-cayford_gb@brethren.org) 
 
*****************************************************************
The  Church of the Brethren Newsline is produced by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford,

 director of news services for the Church of the Brethren General Board. 
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