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Hurricane: Monetary Support Most Effective Relief Tool

By Don Meyer

CHICAGO, IL (September 7, 2005) - More than $31,000 had been donated as of 10 a.m. today through the online Covenant World Relief effort to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Those gifts were joined by stacks of mail containing donations that began arriving at Evangelical Covenant Church offices yesterday following the long Labor Day weekend. "The mail response has just been overwhelming," says Joey Ekberg, administrative assistant to the president of the Covenant, Glenn Palmberg. Those totals will not be known until the gifts have been formally processed.

"I am overcome with emotion as I witness the way in which our Covenant family is responding with compassion and love and support, becoming personally involved in the hurt and sorrow experienced by those suffering in the aftermath of the storm," says Palmberg, who today visited three Covenant World Relief projects in Colombia as part of a World Mission initiative reaching out to the poorest of the poor in that area.

"Covenanters expect to see their church respond quickly and become deeply involved in relieving the suffering of the victims of this hurricane," Palmberg added. "They expect to see us there – and we are."

Temporary housing and volunteer labor are other topics much on the minds of Covenanters and others these days, notes Don Meyer, executive minister of Covenant Communications, who has been working closely with Jim Sundholm, director of Covenant World Relief, in interacting with donors.

"We have received dozens of emails asking how individuals and churches can assist," Meyer notes. "Many of them offer vacant or second homes for use as temporary shelter for displaced families from the Gulf coastal areas. Others want to send work teams immediately and want to know how to orchestrate their efforts with those of other groups."

The challenge in housing, Sundholm points out, is not physically matching displaced families with available housing. Rather, it is one of timing – not putting the solution ahead of the families' immediate concerns. It is a highly emotional time for these people as they cope with the stress of having lost everything – in some cases family members – and trying to sort through options.

"A high percentage of people say they want to stay – at least until they determine where they stand with respect to their homes and loved ones," Sundholm points out. For some, the trauma is not dissimilar to that faced with the loss of a loved one and the need to see the deceased in order to accept the finality of the truth. "Some say, 'I need to see my place with my own eyes . . . and if it's gone, then I need to see that.' "

While the desire by concerned donors is to move quickly to offer homes for housing displaced families, that offer of help often needs to come once the affected families have come to grips with the reality of their situation – accepting the fact that they may never be able to return to their former neighborhoods and will need to move on with their lives. "That is something that each person has to work through at their own pace," Sundholm says.

One must also be sensitive to the other emotions that are at work in these situations, including the feeling on the part of many displaced people that they are losing control over their own lives and destinies. "We offer assistance with the best of intentions, but we must be careful that those affected do not see the offers of relocation and other assistance as another potential loss of control over their own futures," Sundholm observes. "It is a sensitive time."

Sundholm does see movement, however. "I received two calls this morning from people who expressed openness to receiving help – I sense a growing openness on the part of others as well," he adds.

Other challenges are becoming increasingly apparent. "People don't know what to do with the rubble," Sundholm reports. "They don't know where to put it. They can't bury it because of the high water table. And haul it? Where? How?"

Handling offers of volunteer help also can be tricky. The natural urge is to want to put a group together with hammers and saws and go down and do something, Sundholm notes. Two groups recently thought that to be a good idea, until they reached a point where the bridges are washed away and there is no practical way to reach the inner areas of greatest devastation and need. Timing of volunteer help is important, as there needs to be basic infrastructure to support their needs for food, water, shelter, construction materials, tools and transportation.

Sundholm encourages groups and churches interested in volunteering labor at the appropriate time to contact him – he says nearly 75 churches have done so already. He is keeping lists of those offers to match with needs when it is appropriate and safe to move into those areas.

A special form is being developed for those offering housing – it is expected that process will be completed and the form posted as part of this online Covenant news report tomorrow.

"Though it feels a bit impersonal, there is no question but that the biggest concern is dollars," Sundholm stresses. "Money can be easily transferred or even carried into needy areas – it grants the most flexibility in delivering relief to the people," he says. Monetary contributions to the hurricane relief effort remain the fastest and most effective means of support at this point in time.

There are two ways to donate to the Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund established by Covenant World Relief. Checks made payable to Covenant World Relief and earmarked for hurricane relief may be sent to Covenant World Relief, 5101 N. Francisco Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60625. Donations also may be made online using a major credit card at Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund. All online gifts will receive a charitable acknowledgement by mail for tax purposes.

Editor's note: For those who never want to miss one of these update reports or other news about Covenant ministries involving local churches, conferences and shared denominational initiatives, we offer a free service called Newswire. To those who sign up, it delivers one email each day containing the headlines and a few lines of copy for each story posted to the online Covenant news report during the previous 24 hours. To register for this free service, please go to Newswire.

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