It is the season when volunteer work trips kick into high gear as groups from churches and other partners of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance show their love and compassion by helping with rebuilding projects in communities affected by disasters.
For groups that have one of these trips in their future, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has put together a free, downloadable how-to guide to assist with planning.
Lisa Baker has a promise for those pondering the idea of becoming a member of the National Response Team (NRT) of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance.
“It might seem daunting, but the reality is, you’ll get more than you give in this ministry,” said Baker, who’s part of the team. “Your heart becomes larger with every deployment.”
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is helping the church to understand healthy volunteerism through training that it also calls “decolonizing volunteerism.”
One year ago Saturday, a deadly outbreak of tornadoes ravaged several states in the South and Midwest. Western Kentucky took the brunt of the damage from the storm, which took lives and destroyed homes and property, including the historic Presbyterian Church in Mayfield.
After tornadoes devastated large swaths of Western Kentucky and the Midwest last December, the 10-person congregation of First Presbyterian Church of Calvert City knew it wanted to help, but wasn’t sure how.
On the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Maria’s devastation to Puerto Rico, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance personnel on Tuesday were describing a different scene despite the record rainfall that Fiona brought to the island over the weekend before turning toward the Dominican Republic and smaller islands in the Caribbean.
