Greetings friends in Christ,
Disaster recovery is a very long process, as our colleagues in Presbyterian Disaster Assistance regularly remind us. Long after the rest of us have moved on to other worries, the victims are still living in a state of emergency. Several of our colleagues were in New Orleans this week to meet with the South Louisiana Presbytery Administrative Committee overseeing the recovery efforts. Helen Locklear, Deputy Executive Director, Gary Torrens, Coordinator for Middle Governing Bodies, James Thomas, Associate Director for Evangelism and Church Development and Ben Blake, Vice-President for Sales and Marketing, represented the GAC and PILP at the meeting. Gary's comment in a telephone conversation with me was simply, "Overwhelming."
Helen and Gary are leading a GA Interagency Task Force to coordinate the support efforts of the six GA agencies and to coordinate and increase support for rebuilding churches. Each of the six agencies has been amazing in quickly responding in unique ways to support congregations in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. We have all responded independently and now want to be sure we keep each other informed of our ongoing efforts.
More importantly, the cost to rebuild church buildings will be huge. Some of the hurricane relief funding that has, and is, flowing into Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (and that total is now up to $20.5 million, and growing) will be used to help the church rebuilding effort. However, the demand for these funds is so varied and large that the rebuilding of church buildings can only claim a portion of what is available. Consequently, the Interagency Task Force will coordinate the GA agencies' efforts to assist in funding for the rebuilding of churches.
Helen will write the Weekly Letter next week and will share some of what she and Gary experienced on their trip to New Orleans.
By the way, as of today we have received and processed $20.5 million in contributions to hurricane relief. Even better news is that our colleagues in the Central Receiving Services group are still counting. Manager Steve Sexton tells me that there is still a huge volume of year-end contributions that are just now reaching us. So Steve expects the total received to keep on increasing.
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