Dear HFUMC Family,
We have been working diligently over the last 10 days to coordinate with the many faith based organizations providing relief efforts in our Hendersonville and surrounding areas. We have been present in planning with the Church of Christ, Long Hollow & First Baptist Churches, United Way, Presbyterian Church, and a number of fellow UM churches formulating our overall district UMCOR response (http://www.umcor.org).
Part of our long term mission in recovery is to come along side of existing structures of relief effort and fill in the gaps.
Currently we have three basic areas of need:
1. All volunteers who wish to do the hard labor of cleaning and mucking out homes will work through Long Hollow and First Baptist Churches. They have been conducting ongoing assessments and have a number of targeted areas in need of help. If individuals or teams wish to help in this way, Long Hollow Baptist Church and First Baptist Church will deploy groups at 8 am this Saturday and additionally on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, in the coming week. Due to the potential toxic nature of flood waters, it is discouraged to have any volunteer in homes or dealing with flooded areas under the age of 16.
- We will have our own UMCOR recovery in place to ‘fill in the gaps’ starting next week
- UMCOR has distributed 2,800 buckets so far and have now replenished our supply with at least 1,500 on hand. Jason Brock, TN Conference UM Relief Coordinator, urges us to please stay safe and look for future updates by email listserv and at http://tnumcrelief.blogspot.com/
2. Feeding the volunteers is an enormous undertaking and where HFUMC will serve along with some of the other churches. Starting this Saturday, we will put together lunches for volunteers working in homes through our volunteer deployment areas. Please contact merrilee.wineinger@hfumc.org, so she can anticipate your presence. We have these current needs:
- 15-25 Volunteers at 9 a.m. Saturday, May15 at HFUMC to help make lunches in assembly line manner.
- 35-45 Driving Individuals or Families at 11-11:30 a.m. Saturday, May 15, to help deliver lunches to work sites and teams.
- This can be an excellent avenue to get involved, if family or physical limitations prevent service in labor details. Infrastructure support is appreciated and vital to the relief efforts.
- We hope to provide lunches, as needed, through the week; flexibility will be important as the demand is fluid and dependent on changing needs.
3. Assessments are the tools used to determine immediate and long term recovery assistance. There is a need for people willing to go out into the community and conduct assessments of property damage.
- If interested in learning how to conduct an assessment, please plan to attend an orientation and training session at 4:45 p.m., conducted by Paul Gardner, this Sunday, May 16 in the HFUMC sanctuary. This training will follow the Pre-Annual Conference Meeting for our Cumberland District.
There are other organizations working in relief efforts and we wish to be in contact with them. If you know of other contact persons please direct them to us so that we may coordinate with them.
Our UMCOR response will be as an umbrella to what is happening here in Hendersonville as well as surrounding areas. We will strive to make sure our neighbors from Madison, Old Hickory, Goodlettsville, Mt. Juliet, Hermitage, Lebanon, Trousdale County, Cheatham County, and our own Sumner County are taken care of. We see this as partnership walking alongside those organizing the short term relief efforts and keeping with affected families for the long term recovery. We anticipate hosting work groups and getting involved beyond our Hendersonville borders. We are currently developing a web presence that will be a portal to pertinent information and updates to our district recovery efforts. We hope to have that available by the end of the weekend.
We hope this letter gives you some good information to work with, as we know many of you are eager get involved this weekend and in the future. Monetary donations to UMCOR, Local Missions, In Christ’s Way, and Joseph’s Hands are tax deductable and appreciated.
Sincerely
