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Texas United Methodists commit $1 million to relief

Sep. 2, 2005

NOTE: Photographs and related coverage are available at
http://umns.umc.org.

A UMNS Report
By Ciona D. Rouse*

The United Methodist Church's Texas Conference has committed to raising
$1 million to feed the thousands of people fleeing to the area for
shelter following Hurricane Katrina.

"We have sent an appeal out to all of our churches asking them to take
up a special offering this Sunday (Sept. 4) that would come in here to
the conference office for that million dollars to do as Jesus said in
Matthew 25 and feed the hungry," said Bishop Janice Riggle Huie of the
church's Houston Area.

Through online giving alone, United Methodists and others had donated
more than $900,000 to the United Methodist Committee on Relief as of the
afternoon of Sept. 2. Churches around the country were responding in
other ways to help evacuees from the storm-stricken Gulf Coast and
recovery efforts in that region.

The Texas Conference submitted a separate plea for money specifically to
feed evacuees who have been streaming into the state.

Organizing with the George R. Brown Convention Center and the
Hewlett-Packard Center shelters in Houston, Huie said United Methodists
would volunteer to serve food in addition to contributing money for the
week of Sept. 14-20. Conference volunteers will serve three meals per
day and will need 240 trained servers per shift. Providing 75,000 meals
a day for the week will cost $1 million.

Training for food service begins Sept. 3. Volunteers from out of state
who want to help should contact the conference center at (713) 521-9383.
The bishop also said volunteers would be present to the people for
pastoral care.

"People want to tell their stories. They need to tell their stories. And
frequently what they need is just somebody to sit and listen to them
tell what has happened to them, to hear their loss, to grieve with them
about what has been lost, and to offer a word of hope and healing for
the future," she said.

Susan Silvus, member of St. Luke's United Methodist Church, greeted a
young woman carrying a baby when they stepped off a bus filled with
Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Houston.

"I asked her how I could help her," said Silvus, director of outreach
ministries at St. Luke's. "She handed me a package of diapers and a can
of Similac, and that is all she had. All."

Silvus and other members of her church volunteered to help relief
efforts as soon as the Red Cross sent an e-mail request for help at
their shelter, said the Rev. Jim Moore, pastor of St. Luke's. Thousands
of hurricane evacuees have occupied Houston's Astrodome, arriving on
buses from New Orleans. The city's Superdome was evacuated as conditions
worsened in New Orleans.

"It's unbelievable," Moore said. "My mother-in-law lives in a town with
7,000 people that has a bank, a doctor's office, grocery stores and
such. We have more (people) than that in the Astrodome, and we don't
have any of that there."

Moore said plans were in place to get a Social Security office, a bank
and other services in the Astrodome for the evacuees.

Houston officials expected tens of thousands of refugees to arrive in
the area. Officials originally planned to house 25,000 evacuees in the
Astrodome, but the arena reached capacity at less than half that number.
Houston Mayor Bill White, also a member of St. Luke's United Methodist
Church, opened Reliant Center convention hall to 11,000 people Sept. 2
and was seeking more space in Houston to house refugees.

Churches in the Houston area opened shelters and took in as many people
as they could, providing showers, clothing, food and shelter, Huie said.
Lakeview Methodist Conference Center in nearby Palestine agreed to
accommodate 106 refugees from New Orleans who are mentally challenged.
Lon Morris College in Jacksonville invited displaced students of Dillard
University in New Orleans to attend the college with free room, board
and tuition, Huie said.

The bishop said she was "overwhelmed by the United Methodist response,"
recognizing that recovery will take a long time.

"This is not a sprint. It is a marathon. We are in just the first stages
here," she said.

The conference's Web site, www.txcumc.org, maintains updates on the
needs of the evacuees. The conference is collecting items such as baby
formula, diapers, bottles, towels, socks and other necessary everyday
items.

"There is no doubt that this is our calling and that is why we respond,"
Silvus said. "This is a response from the heart of the (United)
Methodist Church. I cannot express what it feels like to be a United
Methodist right now."

The United Methodist Committee on Relief organizes relief efforts for
the United Methodist Church. Donations to hurricane relief can be made
online at www.methodistrelief.org. Checks can be made to UMCOR,
designated for "Hurricanes 2005 Global," Advance No. 982523, and placed
in church offering plates or sent directly to UMCOR, PO Box 9068, New
York, NY 10087-9068. Donations are also being taken by phone at (800)
554-8583.

*Rouse is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
ttanton@umcom.org.

********************

United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org

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