Creative disaster relief partnerships emerge among denominations, faiths By Jean Gordon

Robert Hill navigated an all-terrain vehicle through the aisles of a 350,000-square-foot Jackson warehouse surveying pallets of supplies: generators from Japan, food from Italy and crates of every imaginable brand of bottled water.

A skilled warehouse manager, Hill has traveled the country — and the world — responding to natural disasters. But the Birmingham native is not an emergency worker. He's a business consultant trained by the Seventh-day Adventist Church to cope with large-scale catastrophes. "Disaster relief is our small piece of what is done," he said. "We're just one little cog in the wheel."

A network of creative partnerships has emerged from Hurricane Katrina's wreckage. Church organizations are working with government agencies and the region's diverse faith communities have pulled together despite denominational boundaries.

Among the cooperative efforts between the sacred and the secular is the state's main collection and distribution site in Jackson, where volunteers from the Seventh-day Adventist Church and Catholic Charities move bulk supplies to affected areas.

The bustle of workers in the area includes church volunteers, AmeriCorps workers, state employees and prisoners.

"Something this large cannot be handled by one organization," Hill said.

Hill's volunteer work stems from his church's 125-year-old history providing disaster relief.

The church-affiliated organization, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, trains church members to work on humanitarian projects.

Hill's church deployed him to Jackson, where he worked 144 hours the week after the hurricane struck. He sleeps on a cot at the warehouse.

Since the hurricane, his parents have been working at a feeding center on the Mississippi Gulf Coast while his 15-year-old son spends his days there sweeping mud out of stricken homes.

Catholic Charities of Jackson has partnered with the Seventh-day Adventist organization in the Jackson-based relief effort.

Derrick Hemphill moves loads of relief supplies Tuesday at the Mississippi Multi-Agency Staging Area in Jackson. The warehouse is a church-state partnership formed to respond to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

"Catholic Charities is just trying to do whatever they need," said Roger Vincent, a Catholic Charities advisory board member.

Church members from local Methodist, Church of God in Christ and African Methodist Episcopal congregations show up regularly at the warehouse to volunteer.

In Utica, the Union for Reform Judaism established a hurricane relief project called Jacobs' Ladder at its Henry S. Jacob Camp.

The camp is collecting relief supplies from Jewish congregations and organizations throughout the country and is working with the town of Utica to store and distribute the items through local ministries and relief centers.

"American religion has really been the first responder on the front line," said Rabbi Daniel Freelander of the New York City-based Union for Reform Judaism during a visit to Jackson. "All of the organizational talent got focused on something very godly, very universal. It shows the universality of religion and the notion of one God."

The Union for Reform Judaism is the largest Jewish movement in North America and represents an estimated 1.5 million Jews. The first week after the hurricane, Reform congregations raised $1.2 million for hurricane relief.

"It's twice what we collected for the tsunami," Freelander said. "We've never had an outpouring like this."

The aftermath of the storm has helped fortify interfaith efforts such as the newly created organization Lutheran Episcopal Services in Mississippi.

"The organization is growing exponentially as each week goes by," said executive director the Rev. Carol Stewart. "Local Lutherans and Episcopalians are stepping up to the plate."

In the hurricane's aftermath, the interdenominational agency established coastal staging areas for feeding, medical treatment and for housing relief volunteers.

In Jackson, it provided pastoral care at the Mississippi Coliseum, and later worked with evacuees on resettlement.

Long-range plans include rebuilding the communities ravaged by the hurricane, Stewart said.

Jackson's Muslim community also has forged alliances with other faith groups.

Members of the Mississippi Muslim Association collected $2,700 to buy relief supplies to be distributed by Christ United Methodist Church in Jackson.

"It's been a national tragedy," said the association's president, Azzam Abumirshid. "As American Muslims, we want to respond."

In Houston, Texas, members of 20 mosques and Islamic organizations served food Sunday — the fourth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — to evacuees at the city's convention center.

Some interfaith efforts have been smaller in scale, but have had a big impact on volunteers.

Amanda Frankel drove with her mother-in-law through the night Monday from her home outside of Chicago to Jackson with a truckload of relief supplies.

Before her trip south, Frankel had organized a four-day drive at her synagogue and neighborhood and collected such supplies as sunscreen, batteries, insect repellent, phone cards, diapers and formula.

She delivered the items to one of Christ United Methodist Church's supply staging areas, where she prayed with the church volunteers.

"Everybody was excited that we as a Jewish community were working with a church because we all believe in one God," she said. "This has completely transcended religious, racial and socio-economic boundaries."

From: Clarion-Ledger

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