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Disaster Response
Disaster Response and Recovery is a vital part of our church
mission. We are called to love one another. One of the ways we can
show the love and the hands, feet, and face of Jesus is through the
efforts we make in the community and around the world. Response
and Recovery happens on six levels at once:
- Other Conference support through UMVIM
- Conference-wide efforts
- Advise and finances from UMCOR
- District response and recovery
- Local church efforts
- Community support.
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For information about our Conference-wide efforts, please visit
the links to the left and above for news about what we are doing in
response to specific disasters, to view our Conference Disaster
Plan, find contact information for conference and district disaster
team members, and view announcements of training events.
Preparing for Disaster
Every church has
the obligation to develop a plan for responding to a natural disaster and
in doing so achieving three things:
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Be ready to care for the church family. That
includes adopting a plan for staying in contact even when
communication lines are down.
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Be a mission station. Every church can do something
to help, such as prepare flood buckets, use your facilities such as
receiving work teams, etc.
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Be ready to stay connected to your neighbors. Take
care of all those who live around you.
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Ten questions for
your church to answer in order to prepare for the event of a
disaster.
- How will you contact
your membership, particularly if power or phone service is disrupted?
- How will you help
yourself and your congregation evacuate or prepare if the event threatens your area?
- How will you secure
and back up your church records?
- How will your church
be a “mission station”?
- How will you partner
with neighboring churches?
- How will you tell
your story?
- Do you have adequate
insurance for all church facilities, including parsonage, and do you
know how to contact your insurance carrier?
- Clergy, is your
personal emergency contact information (including your cell number and
your e-mail address) up-to-date with the conference and your district
office?
- Do you know the list
of emergency items and essential supplies to request/collect before
and following a storm? (Hint: No clothes!)
- How are you preparing
for the next disaster/storm season?
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When you have answered
these 10 questions, you’re well on the way to forming your local church
disaster response plan!
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North
Georgia Conference Disaster Response Ministry