Newsline: Children's Disaster Services puts volunteers on alert, Brethren disaster staff call for pr

[CoBNews <CoBNews@brethren.org>]

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service, News Director Cheryl 
Brumbaugh-Cayford, 800-323-8039 ext. 260, cobnews@brethren.org

Brethren Disaster Ministries monitors storm and calls for prayer, Children's 
Disaster Services volunteers on alert

(Oct. 29, 2012) Elgin, IL -- "CDS is busy," reports Judy Bezon on Facebook. As 
the storm called "Sandy" assaults the East Coast, Children's Disaster Services 
has put volunteers on alert and Brethren Disaster Ministries staff are calling 
for prayer as they monitor the situation.

Brethren Disaster Ministries is requesting prayer for all affected by the 
storm, as it threatens the East Coast of the US after causing damage in a 
number of Caribbean nations including Haiti--where four Brethren families lost 
homes to flooding--as well as the Dominican Republic and Cuba.

Children's Disaster Service prepares to respond

"We are deploying project managers to East Coast locations before Hurricane 
Sandy makes landfall," reports Bezon, CDS associate director. "We've sent out 
an availability request to all our certified volunteers. When we know the 
needs, we'll know who we can send."

CDS has assigned eight project managers to cover five American Red Cross 
regions and help with assessing the needs of children in the many shelters that 
have opened. CDS volunteers will not be able to deploy until Friday at the 
earliest, because of travel restrictions that are in place until the storm has 
passed. The Red Cross anticipates the most urgent need for CDS volunteers will 
be in the New York and New Jersey areas, where they predict shelters will be 
open for some time.

>Brethren Service Center is closed

In the meantime, the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md., is closed 
today and most probably tomorrow.

Roy Winter, associate executive director of Brethren Disaster Ministries, 
reported that most employees are not working today at the Brethren Service 
Center due to the incoming storm. Some disaster staff are working as necessary, 
and maintenance staff are present to monitor buildings for leaks and flooding 
from clogged drains.

>Haitian Brethren congregation is affected

In Haiti, those who lost homes to flooding include four families from the Marin 
congregation of Eglise des Freres Haitiens (the Church of the Brethren in 
Haiti). The Marin church is located in the greater Port-au-Prince area, close 
to a river that apparently moved its banks as a result of the storm.

Three of the families now are staying in the church itself, and one family is 
staying in a storage depot at the church, which used to be a temporary home 
built by Brethren Disaster Ministries after the 2010 earthquake.

Eglise des Freres Haitiens has sent some of its national staff to assess the 
situation in Marin and start a response. Ilexene and Michaela Alphonse have 
delivered rice, spaghetti, beans, and oil to the families in the Marin church.

>Reports still coming in from the DR

Reports are still coming in from Brethren in the Dominican Republic, says Jeff 
Boshart of the Global Food Crisis Fund. In the DR, pastor Onelys Rivas has 
reported flooding in the Bateys, but communication with other parts of the 
country is still not good. It will be some time before Dominican church leaders 
know more about the storm's aftermath in rural areas in the southwest of the 
country.

More about the Church of the Brethren response to Sandy is expected once damage 
reports come in and staff can assess the response that is needed. Contributions 
to the Emergency Disaster Fund will support the church's response to this 
disaster, go to www.brethren.org/edf .

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 celebrated its 
300th anniversary in 2008. It counts some 123,000 members across the United 
States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Nigeria, 
Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and India.

># # #

>For more information contact:

>Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
>Director of News Services
>Church of the Brethren
>1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120
>800-323-8039 ext. 260
>cobnews@brethren.org