DISASTER RESPONSE

The city of Centralia, Ill., (located east of St. Louis) has reached out to Illinois Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) for assistance with muck-and-gut and clean up related to recent flooding. If your congregation or organization can assist, please contact the response manager, Robert Moulder, at 618-214-1855 or at rmoulder@cityofcentralia.org. Please let VOAD know if you respond at voadillinois@gmail.com.

Brethren Disaster Ministries (BDM) is organizing a special short-term, two-week response in Spruce Pine, N.C. (near Asheville) the weeks of May 11 and 18. The area was hard hit by Hurricane Helene this past fall. There are openings for the first 12 volunteers to respond for each week. Housing (at a local church), meals, tools, and transport to project sites will be provided. The deadline to sign up is May 1. To sign up, contact Kim Gingerich at 410-635-8730 or kgingerich@brethren.org.

BDM is also continuing work this year at a rebuilding site in Letcher County, Ky. Information is at: https://www.brethren.org/bdm/rebuild/schedules/. Illinois/Wisconsin is scheduled to assist with a team Dec. 7-13. A YouTube video about the Letcher County site is at https://youtu.be/gmKy5PDf4PE. A second project site is expected to open later this year.

Our prayers are also with those in central and northeast Illinois who have been affected by storms this spring. As best we know, no district congregations or families have experienced damage; if anyone has other updates, please contact the district office. A Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) team of four volunteers (three from Iowa and one from Missouri) provided disaster child care in Multi-Agency Resource Centers (MARCs) in areas of Missouri hit by tornadoes in March. The team spent two days each in MARCs in Rolla, Poplar Bluff, and Piedmont from March 25-30. Another team was planned for St. Louis the following week.