SPDR

Dear Family in Faith,

In the last decade, disaster relief and assistance has become more complicated—partly because our region has been afflicted frequently by disasters of all kinds and their consequences.  Hurricanes and tropical storms that not only afflict the gulf coast, but travel far inland; winter-weather outbreaks in far south Texas and Louisiana even that leave lasting consequences; the failure of infrastructure that provides power and needed resources; tornado outbreaks that are shifting not only from regular times of the year but also from the Oklahoma plains and more often including the Mississippi Delta region; flash flooding events with spring storms—or lasting flooding from storm systems that don’t move.  Storms have gained strength and power and come more often—disrupting the abilities of communities to cope and straining response systems. 

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) has always been a mainstay in disaster relief and recovery, but resources have been stretched and stretched; sometimes we’re fighting multiple disasters happening at the same time, and in recent years COVID has prevented having familiar “boots on the ground” to help Presbyteries and congregations cope. 

One of the things our Synod has recognized is that we as Presbyterians in our region could do something TOGETHER as Presbyteries and the Synod to help the work of disaster preparation, response and recovery.  Particularly over the last 5 or 6 years, the Synod has been cultivating conversations between Presbytery leaders and PDA to develop the possibility for a full-time Disaster Assistance Coordinator who can work in our Synod, with and within our Presbyteries, to both prepare for disasters and lead immediate disaster assistance efforts.  And last month, the Synod of the Sun approved a new covenant agreement called a Synod Partnership for Disaster Relief—or SPDR.  At its meeting on February 12^th, the Presbytery of the Pines became one of the first Presbyteries in the Synod to adopt the Partnership agreement—which will include among other things a commitment of $5,000 to the partnership for the next 4 years.  As both one of our Presbytery’s commissioners to Synod and as a member of the Presbytery of the Pines, I was excited to be able to vote TWICE in favor of the partnership!  And I’m looking forward to what it will mean for our ministries in Presbyteries and congregations across the Synod! 

What we’re initiating is a pilot program—where PDA is providing resources and funding, our Synod is providing resources and funding, and our Presbyteries are providing funding and working together—to fund a disaster assistance coordinator based in our Synod, who can be the face of disaster assistance and recovery.  This staff person will raise awareness, help locate and direct support and resources, coordinate efforts, and engage us in being responsive to whatever needs arise.  We won’t be waiting for a national coordination team to come and set up shop when something happens—we’ll have somone accessible who can begin even before storm clouds gather.  We won’t just be responding to nation-wide appeals for assistance, we’ll be asked to help sister congregations and presbyteries respond in real time.  We will hear about disaster assistance more—and be given ways we can help.  We’ll be offered resources to help us PREPARE for disasters ahead of time—before crisis-response is a necessary reality. 

Beyond the work we expect to accomplish together in responding to disasters, the partnership involves the consent of all 11 Presbyteries and the Synod, AND PDA.  It’s hard enough to get 11 Presbyterians to agree on any one specific thing, let alone 11 Presbyteries and the Synod approving a document and a concept that can’t be ammended!  We’re cautiously optimistic this can become a way for more of us to work together to accomplish good things for the Kingdom of God in a way that can lead us into more ways of helping one another respond to God’s calling. 

And it strikes me that these are the kinds of building blocks for ministry that we’ve been witnessing in Jesus’s ministry and calling of people to respond to God’s claim on their lives.  Before Jesus was ever walking across the Sea in the midst of a storm, where he says to the Wind, “peace” and to the Sea, “be still” in front of the disciples struggling in the boats, before Simon Peter can ever ask to also walk on the Sea—Jesus has demonstrated healing diseases, casting out unclean spirits, and helping people in need, and teaching us what it means to LOVE one another.  Especially when there are times of need.  That is, before we ever get to monumental tasks of disaster-proportions—in starts with recognizing another’s need and choosing to respond in love. 

Jesus loves us.  Jesus’s love of us is supposed to move us to love others.  Loving others is the power that changes the world.  Hear that?  Jesus is calling—inviting you to look beyond what’s right in front of you, to the distant horizon.  “You will catch people,” Jesus says.  My grandma always said, “You catch more flies with honey than you do vinegar.”  It just makes sense that having been loved, we should love.  If we do, in every way we can, we will change the world.  ”See you” in Church.  

g—inviting you to look beyond what’s right in front of you, to the distant horizon.  “You will catch people,” Jesus says.  My grandma always said, “You catch more flies with honey than you do vinegar.”  It just makes sense that having been loved, we should love.  If we do, in every way we can, we will change the world.  ”See you” in Church.