UCC Disaster Ministries has been hard at work in 2018
The year 2018 has kept UCC Disaster Ministries very, very busy across our country and around the word. Here is a brief summary of this work. For details click here.
Funds totaling nearly $443,000 were released in September, October and November and included:
- $258,000 for Hurricane Maria recovery in Puerto Rico. PA Southeast Conference will support this work with 2 work camps in 2019.
- $100,000 for Hurricane Harvey recovery in Port Arthur, Texas, where UCC Disaster Ministries is working in partnership with the Southeast Texas Community Development Corporation to rehabilitate over a dozen affordable housing units.
- $5,250 to 21 UCC congregations in the form of $250 matching grants for assembling CWS Kits and Emergency Cleanup Buckets. Several PSEC Congregations received these grants.
- $2,000 to the UCC’s Southern Conference for early response to Hurricane Florence and subsequent flooding.
- $3,000 to First Church UCC in Ipswich, Mass., for families who lost all their perishable food due to a gas explosion in Lawrence and Andover. The First Church youth group is providing 126 affected children in the Community Day Charter Public School with food vouchers.
- $3,000 to the UCC’s Northern California Nevada Conference for gift cards for survivors of the Carr Fire in the Redding area in July 2018.
And internationally, disbursements September through November included:
- $16,724 to the Theological Community of Mexico for library roof repair following the earthquake earlier in 2018.
- $12,000 to the United Church of Christ Philippines to respond to the needs of families impacted by Typhoon Ompong in Luzon.
- $3,000 to Global Ministries partner PGL responding to the Indonesia earthquake, providing food, medicine and roof tarps.
- $20,000 for clean water and drinking facilities in areas of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, affected by the earthquake, tsunami and aftermath.
- $15,000 to help Church World Service build 60 houses and a public school in earthquake-battered Northwest Haiti.
- $5,000 through the ACT Alliance partners for food, clean water and repair and maintenance of a water distribution system for families in El Salvador & Honduras displaced by heavy rains and flooding.
Click here for information about earlier 2018 funding.
During 2018 a great many Church World Service Emergency Cleanup Buckets where shipped from warehouses to places with great need. UCC Disaster Ministries in order to help replenish the now depleted reserves has extended the Matching Grant offer of $250 through June 2019.
Finally, you are encouraged in 2019 to volunteer yourself and donate to One Great Hour of Sharing and/or Disaster Ministries through your local church. You can
BE INSPIRED – Create community. Practice discipleship. See God and other people and creation in new ways. Resources to help you prepare your group are available at UCC Mission Trip Opportunities.
LEARN – You are an important part of a larger system of response and recovery. Explore the networks in place for disaster response and recovery. Contact Rev. Karl Jones, our Conference Disaster Coordinator. Follow UCC Disaster Ministries on Facebook at One Great Hour of Sharing (UCC).
SHARE – Your skills help rebuild and repair homes and lives. Construction skills: Framing, Plumbing, Roofing, Painting, Electrical, Landscaping.
ADVOCATE – Use the authenticity gained by this experience to be a public voice for a just world for all in your local, state and national media and government bodies. Join Justice and Peace Action Network!
