As a lifelong Disciple I have always been proud of our little denomination, but in these last three weeks that has simply multiplied. Your prayers, your donations, your calls and emails, your trips to Joplin to lend a helping hand have reminded us of the significant family ties among those of us who call ourselves Disciples.

Over the coming months we will continue to work with the Area Office to keep you updated on the progress here in Joplin and the ways you can help. As we continue on this journey together and as you seek to find ways to reach out, let me share a few thoughts:

• We will always say yes to your love and kindness, but sometimes we will need to say no to the ways you are offering to show it. Please remember the difference.
• Things change nearly every day. What that means is that we ask your patience. For instance, if you are wanting to come volunteer next month we won’t be able to tell you what sorts of jobs are available until much closer to the time.
• Your prayers really do matter. When you pray for Joplin, you are doing something important. Never feel like prayer isn’t enough.
• Week of Compassion does wonderful work. Please remember this not only in crisis, but each year as we take routine offerings.
• We are overwhelmed, sometimes even by the kindness of the broader Church. What this means is that sometimes it takes a while to return calls or emails. Sometimes we simply forget. Again, remember your care is appreciated even when we forget to acknowledge it.
• The Area Office is a great resource and can answer many of your questions. Jeni has been wonderful and stays in close contact with us. Although we don’t want to inadvertently overwhelm her, do remember that she is available, too.

More information will be coming next week about the progress that’s being made here in Joplin as well as more ways you can reach out in care to those who were affected.

Meanwhile, Mary Lin (director of the Distribution Center at First Christian) let Jeni know today that we could use the following items: Bath towels, mops, cleaning supplies, glass cleaner, laundry detergent, laundry baskets, and Depends pads (not pull ups). We are overwhelmed with water and clothing, so please do not bring more of those items.

Thank you for being the body of Christ with us!

Rev. Jill Cameron Michel
South Joplin Christian Church

Prepare: It may sound odd to say that an appropriate way to respond to a disaster is to prepare. Yet consider that most “spontaneous volunteers” who jump in their car and drive to a community hit by disaster are ill-prepared for what they will experience and do. These well-meaning people often create an added burden because, for example, they were unaware that a large portion of the community was without power, or that the entire community was under a boil-water advisory. Yet training programs are offered for a wide variety of responses that prepare people to be a part of relief, response, and recovery efforts (Disciples Volunteering offers one such training). Use the desire to jump into action in the face of the latest desire as a motivation to prepare for the next one. Good preparations also lead to good mitigation, making a community more resilient should they be affected by disaster. Also, many organizations that provide immediate relief are better able to respond because of support they receive year round. Giving to Week of Compassion’s Compassion Response Fund enables immediate solidarity grants to be sent to those impacted. Church World Service sends truckloads of emergency clean-up buckets and hygiene kits to communities beset by disaster, yet their supplies are running low. Preparing for the next disaster is just as important as responding to the current crisis.

Care: Care enough to ask what help is really needed before jumping into action. A recent article revealed one recovery operation in Alabama is shipping truckloads of donated goods to Missouri. This may be a positive sign that the local recovery received more than they had need; however, some of what they are shipping probably was just not helpful (read: worn out clothes, dirty underwear, broken toys, and patio lights). Care enough to follow a community’s progress long after the headlines have faded; long after everyone else’s attention has moved on to the next disaster. Communities responding to recent disasters are often overwhelmed by offers for assistance while those who were affected just a few months prior find their support quickly drying up. It takes several months for communities to organize a full-scale recovery – and that is when mission teams are most needed. Before planning a mission trip, care enough to make sure your desire to serve best matches the opportunities available.

Share: It cannot be said enough, financial gifts are critical to both immediate relief and long term recovery. Financial gifts, as to Week of Compassion’s Compassion Response Fund, allow the immediate response to be flexible and best meet needs as they emerge. Financial gifts also enable realistic planning for the long term recovery. For a community to know whether they will have the resources to staff a recovery organization or rely on volunteers is critical for appropriate planning. It enables the difficult decisions regarding the distribution of aid to be made. It is always more popular to donate materials or designate gifts for those materials, but without some basic infrastructure there will be no one to see that the nails get pounded and the sheetrock hung. Material gifts and gifts-in-kind are always needed, of course, as are gifts of water, clothing, non-perishable food items, toiletries, and more. As the recovery progresses, more specific needs for goods (like furniture and appliances) and materials (like paint, sheetrock, and two-by-fours) will be known. Again, care enough to make sure that any gift will meet a need before it is sent. And share by preparing, as has already been mentioned, through the donation of kits like emergency clean-up buckets and hygiene kits through Church World Service. By sharing in advance of a disaster, Church World Service and other relief organizations can have much needed supplies on the ground before the dust settles or the waters fully recede.

Be in prayer: Prayer is needed throughout the long recovery. People in the thick of a disaster are buoyed by the prayers of others and long term responders are sustained. Any reaction or response should begin with a prayer that invites our steps to be led by the One who knows all needs rather than by our desire to help. Pray that as we respond we may truly be servants, putting aside our own egos and agendas to be present to those we meet. Pray for hope and healing for individuals, families, and communities affected. Above all, pray for the endurance of compassion that faithful servants will continue to prepare, share, care, and be in prayer in ways that extend God’s grace as we seek to serve as the hands, the feet, the heart of Christ.

Disciples Volunteering represents the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in our programmatic response to disaster. We support the local recovery as it unfolds by matching resources to identified needs. Sometimes, that means structuring our own response through a congregational Mission Station. Other times, it means channeling resources through ecumenical partnerships. Our greatest resources are the congregationally based mission teams that answer the call to serve and our long term Servant Leadership Team. Other resources exist and as those offers of support are received we do our best to match them to identified needs.

As responses to recent disasters come together, from North Carolina to Washington and many places in between, Disciples Volunteering will extend the call to Get Dirty for Jesus and partner in the long mission of disaster recovery. Thank you for hanging in there with the people who are recovering from disaster. Disciples are only able to be present and bring hope, healing, and a hand because of the vision, patience, and compassion of individuals and congregations to serve in mission for as long as there is need.

That is why the greatest help that can be provided immediately following a disaster is the gift of money. Faithful giving to Week of Compassion’s Compassion Response Fund enables the whole Church to be flexibly present however that presence is needed: immediate solidarity grants fill gaps and provide temporary housing, meals, and clothing; they support relief efforts so that critical needs are tended to when they arise; and they reassure people that the Church is standing with them.

When disasters of this magnitude take place, people swing into action. Most all of it is good intentioned. People want to help. But sometimes our actions can make the situation worse. This kind of usually well intentioned but ultimately problematic behavior takes two basic forms: donating items that are not useful or showing up to help without being completely self-sufficient.

Every disaster spawns its share of stories about, again, usually well intentioned people who ultimately exacerbate the problem they thought they were helping. The Associated Press ran one such story yesterday, describing the mountains of junk items and dirty clothes that people have sent. It takes an incredible amount of time and energy to sort through such donations. In these circumstances, a little bit of common sense would go a long way. Giving to disaster victims is not an excuse to clean out a closet or garage or storage unit without any consideration for what people truly need. (A three foot Santa? Really?) The problem is not limited to dirty underwear or backyard junk. People also send medicine of all kinds: expired prescriptions, bottles of mixed pills, and even bottles with no labels to identify the drug.

The other common “second disaster” or “disaster within a disaster” that happens is when people show up without a clear plan for helping others and without making sure their own needs are met. It’s bad enough when people in the community are suddenly homeless and need a place to stay, food to eat, and time to sort things out. But when out of town help shows up and needs food, water, gas for their vehicle, and a place to sleep, that increases the strain on what is obviously an already stretched infrastructure. Sleeping in your car is not a good idea in a community that is now very attractive to criminals, and not tolerated when a curfew is likely to be in place. This is not to say that people don’t appreciate spontaneous volunteers (they do) or that there isn’t work to be done (there is). But imagine if a hundred people showed up in the same small town to help. Now imagine if a thousand people did. It was recently reported that in one small town, the people who just “showed up” to help actually outnumbered the town’s residents. Obviously, people had to be turned away. Even some that stayed felt unneeded or unappreciated.

This isn’t to say that goods aren’t needed. It isn’t to say that help isn’t needed. Before you dive into the back of your closet, however, or jump in your car and start driving, ask yourself: Whose needs am I really trying to meet? Then ask: What do the people facing this disaster really need?

Four easy actions sum up the steps of an appropriate response: Prepare. Care. Share. And be in prayer. These will be described in a follow-up post.

(*The pictures accompanying this post were taken during a recent visit with affected communities; the sign asking for no more clothes comes from the warehouse in Eclectic, AL, whose mayor is quoted in the AP article.)

More information and a registration form are available at the Yakama Mission Blog. Or Contact Brenda Tyler (888-346-2631) for a registration form or David Bell (509-874-2824) with questions.

This week, mission teams from Timberlake Christian Church, Lynchburg, VA and Michigan State University are hard at work on Mexican Christian Church’s parsonage. I’m looking forward to some great pictures on their work. Right now, here are a few highlights from last week.

Thanks to Dwight and Bernie Elrod for sending the pictures!