As Hurricane Dorian continued to threaten the U.S. east coast, United Methodists were connecting with Methodists in the Bahamas to start relief efforts.
The Bahamas Conference of the Methodist Church already is fielding requests to help those being evacuated from the “unprecedented devastation” to receive basic supplies and find a place to live, says its president, the Rev. L. Carla Culmer.
After striking the island nation on Sept. 1, Hurricane Dorian caused “vast devastation” and left 70,000 people in need of immediate humanitarian relief, says Mark Lowcock, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis called Dorian the most damaging storm ever to hit the island group, Reuters reported. Worst hit was the Abaco Islands in the northern Bahamas and Grand Bahama Island. As of Sept. 5, the death toll was 20.
Culmer’s conference disaster response ministry, Bahamas Methodist Habitat, is based at Camp Symonette on Eleuthera Island. The Rev. Stephanie Gottschalk, a former Volunteers in Mission coordinator for the United Methodist Western Pennsylvania Conference, has served as the organization’s executive director since January 2018.
About 80 miles south of the Abacos and Grand Bahama islands, Camp Symonette escaped major damage from Dorian. But Gottschalk pointed out that, “Everyone is going to know somebody who was affected or who was injured or died.”
She noted that the population of the Bahamas is similar to Pittsburgh and that the 70,000 or so in the Dorian-affected areas “represents about 18 percent of the population … so this is felt nationwide.”
The Rev. Kelli Jolly, a pastor with the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas, on the news of the island of Grand Bahama and parts of the Abaco Islands;
“The videos, the pictures coming out are very horrifying,” Jolly said. “I don’t know if we have ever seen so much devastation all at once.”
Jolly has spent time checking on and trying to encourage congregation members of Nassau’s Methodist Church of the Good Shepherd, which she serves.
The neighborly care she’s seeing — the sharing of food and other necessities — has given her a theological point to emphasize.
“All of this is testimony that God is with us,” Jolly said.
New York Area Bishop Thomas Bickerton, who is president of the United Methodist Committee on Relief’s board of directors, sent a letter Sept. 5 to his fellow bishops about the need for church members to respond to the 2019 hurricane season.
“As we go through the peak of hurricane season, we see so much devastation, especially in the Bahamas,” he wrote. “The United Methodist Committee on Relief, our global humanitarian aid and development agency, is actively providing assistance in the midst of these challenges. However, we are in need of your intentional and faithful support in order to continue this work.
“Hurricanes Dorian, Harvey, Irma, Maria, Michael and Matthew showed us that storms are now more intense and more devastating than ever before,” the letter said, “which means those working in disaster response and recovery must become more innovative and creative. This requires additional resources.”
UMCOR has awarded a solidarity grant to Bahamas Methodist Habitat for immediate, emergency short-term funding to address basic human needs. The relief agency also expects to partner in the Bahamas with the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas.
At this stage, donations to UMCOR are the best way for church members to respond, Bickerton said. Placements for volunteer teams will come later, after conversations with partners and the building of an infrastructure for that work.
To read the full report, click here, https://www.umnews.org/en/news/umcor-starts-efforts-for-bahamas-relief
Brothers and sisters of Christ, we are asking you to reach out your hand and help those who are deeply affected by the devastation caused in the Bahamas. As stated above, donations are very much needed for basic humanitarian relief, i.e. food, shelter, clothing. To make a donation, please write out a check to UMCOR with the advanced number, 982450, in the memo line. Donations can be accepted at Sunday sermons, dropped off at the church office, or mailed to the church at 1232 National Rd, Wheeling, WV 26003.