wfn.org | Disciples pastor named disaster resource consultant

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

Date: August 21, 2001
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Curt Miller
E-mail: cmiller@cm.disciples.org
on the Web: http://www.disciples.org

01a-45

   WICHITA, Kan. (DNS) - "Prepared to care" -- those are the watchwords of 
the Rev. Tom Davis Jr., a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) pastor 
recently commissioned by the Church World Service (CWS) Emergency Response 
Program as a volunteer disaster consultant.  The commissioning service was 
held at Hillside Christian
Church, Wichita, with Linda Reed Brown, associate director, CWS Emergency 
Response Program, officiating.

   Davis, chaplain for Hospice, Inc., Wichita, is part of a network of more 
than 50 trained volunteer consultants scattered across the U.S. mainland 
and Puerto Rico. He will work year-round in partnership with interfaith and 
ecumenical groups throughout Kansas helping churches and communities 
prevent and prepare for disasters -- and to help organize recovery 
following a disaster.

   Davis is no stranger to disaster recovery work. On Oct. 30, 1998, severe 
storms caused flash flooding in south central Kansas, resulting in more 
than 2,300 relief applications to Federal Emergency Management Agency 
(FEMA). One of the most severely affected areas was Augusta, Kan., where 
Davis was serving First Christian Church.  For more than a year, Davis 
served as the interfaith director and the impetus behind faith community 
recovery efforts in the Augusta area, receiving recognition from local 
officials and the FEMA Region VII office in Kansas City.

   "I'm so pleased that Tom has entered into this disaster ministry with 
the CWS Emergency Response Program Disaster Consultant network," said Reed 
Brown. "I remember clearly when Tim Burke, then FEMA VII
voluntary agency liaison, said he had met this person named Rev. Davis and 
that he would make an excellent CWS consultant.  I've awaited this day 
since I met Tom for the first time in early 1999."

   CWS Disaster Resource Consultant Cherri Baer, a United Methodist, has 
served as a mentor during Davis' initiation and training.  Both worked with 
faith community responders following natural gas explosions in Hutchinson, 
Kan., in early 2001.

Sponsored by Week of Compassion, the Disciples disaster relief and 
humanitarian assistance fund, Davis joins four other active Disciples 
disaster response consultants: Terry and Tina Wesbrook in Virginia; Lura 
Cayton in Oklahoma; and Abigail Rosado in Puerto Rico.

CWS-trained volunteer disaster consultants serve in the ministry of the 
Church World Service and Witness Emergency Response Program.  CWS carries 
on relief, development and refugee assistance programs in the United States 
and more than 70 countries around the world on behalf of its 36 member 
communions.

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