More Ways to Respond

response to severe storms continues

Week of Compassion continues to respond to recent severe weather and assess needs for immediate and long-term recovery. 

First Christian Church, Rogers, took on extensive damage from the tornadoes that battered northwest Arkansas. Throughout the last week, church members and neighbors have worked together to clear trees, board windows, and clean up debris - including many who are dealing with similar concerns in their own homes. On Sunday June 2, one week after the storms, with power restored only the night before, the congregation gathered for worship, to pray, sing, hear the Word proclaimed, and share in communion. ​

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Church members and friends from the community stayed after worship to continue working on the church grounds and on church members’ homes. As senior pastor Rev. Shawn Wallace said to those who gathered, “It’s good to see your face! It’s good to see the presence and the life that you bring into this place. … It’s good to have each other. A lot of times we live in our own little silos and we do our own things. I feel like we are being pulled together, that we are all in this together. We feel it together.” 

photos/video stills via First CC, Rogers AR on Facebook

Here are several ways for you and your church to respond, now and for the long haul.

• Become a virtual volunteer – This can be of great help to storm survivors in multiple locations, and will likely be needed for some time to come. Week of Compassion partners with Crisis Cleanup, which provides simple training to manage calls connecting survivors to cleanup assistance. Volunteers serve from home which allows more people to volunteer without overwhelming already over-taxed local coordinators. 
  

• Join a Work Trip for long-term recovery – There are late-summer and fall spots available, with more to come as situations emerge. You can serve right now in communities still recovering from previous disasters! Recent events added to the needs in communities where our partners are working on recovery from the 2021 tornadoes in western Kentucky and from Hurricane Harvey in southeast Texas. 
  

• Become a Disaster Site Leader – Fall training is being scheduled for Disaster Site Leaders, who make these work trip host sites and projects possible. Week of Compassion Disaster Site Leader Charlie Redman, has served for the past month on the leadership team at the Brethren Disaster Ministries recovery site in Dawson Springs and will oversee Week of Compassion teams in Mayfield this month. He shared damage reports and photos from the Dawson Springs area last week:
  

Visit the Week of Compassion Volunteer page for these connections and more; complete an interest form and volunteer profile to receive more information as it becomes available.

As always, we are grateful for your generous response. When you make a gift to Week of Compassion, marked ‘US Storms’, 100% of designated contributions support immediate responses and long-term recovery in these affected communities.

We are grateful to do this work together.

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