Union Members Provide Support Following Hurricanes

Story by V. Michelle Bernard

Fourteen Columbia Union Conference members, including 11 sponsored by the union’s Adventist Community Services/Disaster Response (ACS/DR) Department, spent up to two weeks sorting supplies, distributing water and praying with residents impacted by Hurricane Harvey. This initiative took place at North American Division’s ACS-sponsored distribution center at the World Harvest Outreach church in Houston.

Volunteer Lastavius Darby, a member of Allegheny East Conference’s Calvary church in Newport News, Va., says, “Some [who were served] expressed surprise and delight that the church was working at such a grand scale to help the community, and one even came back to sweep and help clean up in appreciation.”

Thirty-two members from several conferences also recently participated in crisis care training at Chesapeake Conference’s Frederick (Md.) church. “This training will allow us a larger pool of individuals in the future, as well as [provide] us more skills to offer to our communities during disasters,” says John Belliveau, ACS/DR coordinator for the Chesapeake Conference.

Churches across the union are also collecting supplies for those impacted by hurricanes in the Caribbean. Minnie McNeil, (ACS)/Disaster Response coordinator for the Columbia Union and ACS director for AEC, reports that a YMCA, Rotary Club and African Methodist Episcopal church near AEC headquarters in Pine Forge, Pa., are also donating supplies for the effort.

Click here to donate to NAD ACS. Click here to donate to ADRA International, who is also helping out with relief efforts around the world.