2007 Compassion Response Fund Report

Thursday, July 19, A.D. 2007

Greetings from Week of Compassion, and thank you for your continued support of WOC. Your generosity, concern and prayers bring help and hope to countless people throughout the world. We are grateful: many are grateful.

Within the WOC budget, the single largest line item is the Compassion Response Fund. Through this allocation (and special designated accounts), WOC is able to respond promptly to emergencies, disasters and other urgent humanitarian requests as they arise. Below is a brief summary of responses we’ve made through June 30 from the Response Fund and from certain designated disaster accounts. This does not include resources we are providing for long-term development projects, partners, etc., but is an overview of the many emergency relief and recovery needs to which we Disciples are responding. In the first six months of 2007, WOC has provided $714,381 in relief and recovery grants from these accounts and has responded to a variety of humanitarian appeals on the average of once every 1.9 days. (Already July '07 is proving to be one of our busiest months ever. In the first 18 days, WOC has made 27 emergency responses - an average of 3 responses every 2 days!)

More than 750 Disciples congregations have now requested the new WOC interactive map/poster to track emergency and long-term development responses on a weekly basis. It is a great way for Disciples to see how our gifts to WOC are used around the world, around the year. A complete list of those responses is on the WOC website: www.weekofcompassion.org. For a complimentary map/poster, contact Elaine at 317.713.2442 or email her at ecleveland@woc.disciples.org.

Letters to Share

Of course, the real story is not so much in facts and figures but in the personal stories behind the numbers. Here are two recent letters we would like to share with you:

Johnny,

The church in Mahomet wants to thank Week of Compassion and all of the Disciples churches that work together to help in situations like the one we are facing. We are not homeless or hungry, but we do have limited resources in a situation that many are facing in our area because of flooding water. We thank you and our spirit is good and we will survive.

Wally Brown, Pastor, Mahomet CC, Bertram, TX

Johnny,

I recently had a conversation with Alan Doswald of ESA/Love INC about the money that came from WOC for freeze relief. Alan was very excited about the size of the Disciples contribution; no other church in Fresno gave as much as we did. The money went to buy food and pay bills for people in the community. As the churches did not limit the funds to church members, the churches have experienced growth. There are at least 20 new families in these 8 churches, and more than 50 contacts have been made with people in the community. The Church met the physical needs, and now those in need are willing to let the Church meet spiritual needs as well. What a joy to have been part of this.

Natalie Chamberlain, Pastor, United CC, Fresno, CA

Second Quarter Response Fund Report

Africa: [$146,500]

2,000 - Angola, cholera outbreak
6,000 - Burundi, relief and recovery
6,000 - DR Congo, emergency relief
6,000 - Madagascar, cyclone
9,500 - Mozambique, earthquake and arsenal explosion
100,000 - Sudan, Darfur crisis
6,000 - Uganda, refugee assistance
5,000 - Zambia, floods
6,000 - Zimbabwe, emergency transportation

East Asia and the Pacific: [$13,000]

5,000 - China, earthquake
8,000 - Solomon Islands, tsunami

Latin America and the Caribbean: [$30,000]

7,000 - Colombia, floods and volcanoes
5,000 - Dominican Republic, health emergency
18,000 - Mexico, hurricane housing

Middle East and Europe: [$6,000]

6,000 - Lebanon, emergency relief

Southern Asia: [$173,438]

3,000 - Central Asia, disaster mitigation
114,938 - India, tsunami recovery
43,500 - Indonesia, floods and earthquakes
12,000 - Sri Lanka, civil violence

General: [$6,000]

6,000 - Church World Service, Community Arise Project

Domestic: [$339,443]

250 - Alabama, fire
5,000 - Arizona, emergency water relief
23,755 - California, winter freeze and food relief
17,500 - Florida, tornadoes
500 - Georgia, tornadoes
10,000 - Kansas, ice storms and floods
90,938 - Louisiana, hurricane recovery
85,000 - Mississippi, hurricane recovery
4,000 - Missouri, ice storms
1,250 - Nebraska, ice storms
5,500 - New Jersey, floods
2,500 - New Mexico, floods
5,750 - New York, floods and winter storms
1,000 - North Carolina, church fire
1,500 - Oklahoma, floods
5,000 - Ohio, floods
24,500 - Tennessee, hurricane housing project
36,500 - Texas, hurricane recovery, floods and tornadoes
5,000 - Washington, winter floods
14,000 - U.S., CWS spring storms and tornado appeals