I'm sure you've been keeping up with another crazy hurricane season. I present you with two opportunities, one for giving and one for praying. The first is, if you would like to donate to relief efforts for damage done by Hurricane Gustav, remember my friends Kelly and Tabitha Kapic? I posted earlier about Tabitha's cancer? The Kapics' church in Chattanooga (www.newcityfellowship.com) is a large urban church and has a staff person named Brian McKewon who does disaster relief. See Tabitha's note below if you want to give directly to the efforts.
The second opportunity is for you to pray for our friends in Haiti, especially in the northern city of Gonaives. Pray for our dear friend DouDou as well as the orphans up north. Haitian Pastor Dony St. Germain e-mails:
"Thanks so much for your prayers as Hurricane Fay and Gustav passed over Haiti. Everyone that we know of is well. Lots of road were flooded over and made impassable, but everyone we believe is safe. However, we just received a call from DouDou (Pierre/Peter) that Gonaives is already under floodwater due to Hurricane Hannah. Many people are evacuating Gonaives, including DouDou who was up there visiting the work. You may remember the 2004 flood due to Hurricane Jean that brought the seawaters in that washed away over 3000 people. Pray that this is not repeated and that God will keep our dear friend, DouDou, and all the people safe. The Gonaives orphans are all on the second floor. Pray that Hannah will move away quickly. Forecast shows it sitting over Haiti and moving only at two miles."
Regarding Gustav relief, here's the note from Tabitha:
Dear friends and family,
Kelly and I have donated to the hurricane Gustav response this morning and are asking you to pray and consider doing the same. $50, $100, $200 - all of these amounts are very helpful.
Below is an email from friend and fellow church member, Brian McKeon. Brian coordinates disaster response for our church and has worked on several recent disasters like the Iowa floods, Katrina, the earthquake in Peru and the Tsunami. Our family has become more and more drawn to helping in these situations.
Money donated is tax deductible through our church and will be used for disaster response and rehabilitation. Please do consider if you can commit to a gift today through this or some other organization. If you are in a position to give, please do the following:
E-mail (Tabitha.Kapic@covenant.edu) with the amount you are sending so that I can communicate this to Brian. He is planning the trip and buying supplies. Knowing what he has to work would be very helpful. Alternately, you can contact Brian directly (bmckeon@newcityfellowship.com) or just send something in without contacting anyone. It will get to the right place.
Make your check payable to "New City Fellowship" and write "Disaster Response" on the memo line.
Mail your check to:
New City Fellowship
c/o Brian McKewon (Gustav Disaster Response)
2424 East Third Street
Chattanooga, TN 37404
Brian will be taking the first assessment team down tomorrow (Sept. 2nd) or Wednesday (Sept. 3rd). This team will provide immediate help with tarps, food, water, removing debris, etc., but will also be assessing the situation to know what further teams should be sent. Brian is very good at determining what is already being done in a situation (by the Red Cross, FEMA, other churches, etc.) and how his teams can and should fit in.
I want to thank you for even considering this. I know you all give to other things so please don't feel any pressure, Relief work has got my heart and I just appreciate you listening. Please do pray for those in Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and our country being affected by this storm and the one right behind it. Thank you so much!
Warmest thanks,
Tabitha & Kelly
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