Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As we all know Hurricane Ike struck the Texas Gulf coast on Saturday, September 13th and caused catastrophic destruction to many areas in the Texas Annual Conference. Thus far the response in the North District to the suffering caused by Hurricane Ike has been primarily sheltering evacuees. The churches in the district have been a major player in receiving and caring for those who fled both Hurricane Gustav and Ike. Thank you all for a job well done.

The Texas Annual Conference has asked churches to respond in three ways: contributions, volunteer teams to help with the clean-up, and flood buckets. A team led by Jonathan Bynum from Greggton UMC left Longview Monday with a small team headed for Santa Fe, Texas in west Galveston County. More will follow. Here is what every church can do:

(1) Receive offerings (more than one!) to help with immediate needs, such as pastoral support of those who no longer have churches or congregations due to damage and/or mandatory evacuation, and the cost of cleaning up and rebuilding. Your checks should be sent to the Conference Treasurer, Dr. Elijah Stansell with the notation “Hurricane Ike Relief – Texas Annual Conference”. Dr. Stansell’s mailing address

is: 5215 Main, Houston, Texas 77002.

(2) Prepare flood buckets – you can bring them to either district office (Williams Memorial in Texarkana or Longview First), Atlanta FUMC, Jefferson FUMC, or Pittsburg FUMC. Let me know how many flood buckets you have prepared – each church should do a minimum of 5 and many can do many more. The link to flood bucket information is: http://www.txcumc.org/news. I have promised the Texas Annual Conference that the North District could supply at least 1000 flood buckets in the next 10 days.

(3) Volunteer to go - Tommy Myrick, pastor of Texarkana-Buchanan UMC, and Jeff Stull, pastor of Daingerfield FUMC, the North District Disaster Coordinators are organizing teams to go to the coast to help with the clean up. Tommy can be reached at (903) 244 - 5158 or you can call the District Office (903) 758 - 7003 or (903) 794 - 6231 to volunteer to be a part of a work team. Every church and every pastor should be involved in some way helping to relieve the suffering inflicted upon our friends and colleagues by this historic storm. Already this Texas tragedy has ceased to be nationally newsworthy because of the current national financial crisis and the upcoming presidential election.

Most of the aid rendered will be Texans helping Texans. I am confident that the North District will shine through this storm as we turn our focus on helping others. Please e-mail me, Anna or Lonna and let us know what response you and your church are making!

Peace and Grace, Bill Taylor