Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) has entered into a covenant agreement with the Synod of the Sun and its 11 presbyteries for coordinated disaster response.
Following hurricane Ida’s South Louisiana landfall late last month, the New Orleans Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) site turned a learning relationship with the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe in Terrebonne Parish into a service opportunity.
On Tuesday, Richard Williams, Interim General Presbyter of the Presbytery of South Louisiana, was assessing damage from Hurricane Ida and delivering supplies when he came upon the Pointe-au-Chien Tribe southwest of New Orleans.
As they are wont to do, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has sought out the voices of Louisiana residents impacted by Hurricane Ida. The result was Thursday’s half-hour Facebook Live panel discussion hosted by Darla Carter, communications associate for the Presbyterian Mission Agency, and featuring the Rev. Jim Kirk, PDA’s Associate for National Disaster; Richard Williams, interim general presbyter for the Presbytery of South Louisiana; the Rev. Barry Chance, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Hammond, Louisiana, and Chip Chiphe, a ruling elder at First Presbyterian Church of Scotlandville in Baton Rouge.
Monday’s remarkable edition of “Between Two Pulpits,” the weekly webinar put on by Special Offerings’ Bryce Wiebe and Lauren Rogers, paired the Rev. Jim Kirk, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance’s Associate for National Response, and the Rev. Jennifer Burns Lewis, visioning and connecting leader for the Presbytery of Wabash Valley in Northern Indiana.
I still remember the first words from the first church leader I met as I first arrived in Manila: “You are welcome here, but you are not needed here.” Those words, spoken with wisdom and love almost two decades ago, would go on to shape the course of my time as a Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) in the Philippines. I didn’t know it then, but that same sentiment shaped the YAV program at its inception. And it continues to guide our current vision for the program as volunteers serve around the world and witness the holy ways the Spirit is leading them.
