The Church of the Brethren’s Children’s Disaster services (CDS) has deployed volunteers to Hawaii in partnership with the Red Cross. The volunteers traveled on Aug. 14-15. They have set up a Children’s Disaster Services Center in a Family Assistance Center in Lahaina, on the island of Maui. The volunteers are scheduled to serve through Sept. 4.
The Brethren Disaster Ministries leadership seminar held May 14-17 at Camp Blue Diamond in Petersburg, Pa., brought together staff, district disaster coordinators (DDCs), and disaster project leaders (DPLs) to review and renew the rebuilding program.
Material Resources staff at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md., have been very busy with a number of recent shipments of relief goods
The Church of the Brethren in Rwanda is receiving an emergency grant to aid those affected by extreme flooding this week. Etienne Nsanzimana, founding pastor in Rwanda, shared that the churches are “overwhelmed by this terrible flood.”
Five Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) volunteers deployed this week to the Little Rock, Ark., vicinity after a series of three tornados hit the area on March 31. One EF3 tornado, with winds of 165 miles per hour, touched down west of Little Rock and stayed on the ground for 34 miles, causing extensive damage.
The staff of Brethren Disaster Ministries have directed recent grants from the Church of the Brethren’s Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) to support aid being provided to families in need by the Rwanda Church of the Brethren; and to support volunteer training by Child Life Disaster Relief.
A silent auction will be held by the Program and Arrangements Committee at the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, this summer.
Children’s Disaster Services has three upcoming training events. Participants completing the 25-hour workshops will have the opportunity to become certified Children’s Disaster Services volunteers. CDS would love to see an increase in the number of Church of the Brethren-related volunteers.
“Please continue to pray for survivors in the affected areas [of Turkey and Syria] who face the trauma of losing homes and loved ones, continued aftershocks, living out of doors without basic amenities/food and in freezing temperatures, and in danger of diseases such as cholera. Their needs are great and will continue to be great for a long time to come. Please also pray for all the official and unofficial responders.”
— Brethren Disaster Ministries
Brethren Disaster Ministries has directed grants from the Church of the Brethren’s Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) to continue the Nigeria Crisis Response through 2023 and to support a response to flooding and conflict in South Sudan.
