When Hurricane Katrina blew into the Gulf Coast it first struck the low-lying swamp coastline of Louisiana before it was ever felt in New Orleans or Mississippi. This is an area mostly populated by lower income shrimp and fishing villages where the people are used to the difficulties brought by the storms of the Gulf of Mexico. But 2006 we could deliver a one-two punch.
Katrina took the roofs off of most of the buildings. Then Hurricane Rita hit – and flooded the already ravaged area under 10 foot of water.
Dulac is not the big city of New Orleans, and Dulac is not the highly populated area of coastal Mississippi. Dulac is a small, hard-working community, poverty-ridden area of Terrebonne Parish. The majority of the population is either Cajun or Houma Indian, who have been there for generations.
It’s also an area where United Methodist volunteers have been coming ever since Hurricane Andrew back in 1991. In more recent years, Dulac has flooded in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005.
The Louisiana Annual Conference is making an important commitment to Dulac by creating a permanent Relief Station for volunteers to come to. The UMVIM Committee of the California-Nevada Annual Conference is supporting this endeavor in the following ways:
- We have begun a financial support campaign to purchase a much needed pick-up truck and trailer for the Relief Station. We need to raise $30,000 for the total package.
- Several teams are being formed to go to Dulac, beginning in January 2007.
For information on helping with the Dulac Campaign, please contact the UMVIM office at (916) 374-1584. Or umvim@calnevume.org (www.cnumcvim.org)
New Location for Resources
On January 1, 2007, the new Mission Resource Center will open in Dallas. Formerly serving customers as the “Service Center” the Women’s Division has partnered with UMR Communications and will provide United Methodist Women members with quality mission resources, while maximizing cost-effective production processes and offering careful attention to customer service. The transition of the Women’s Division publishing and service operation in Cincinnati to the Dallas-based center began in September. This partnership will be fully operational by January 2007. The Service Center will close by the end of 2006.
The toll-free number – 800-305-9857-- will remain the same during the transition and beyond. Orders can continue to be placed at the e-store at www.umwmission.org.
Mission Resource Center is asking you to send your contact information. They want name, mailing address, phone number, email address, local-church name and address, and the district and conference of the United Methodist Church in which you worship.
Their contacts are:
Email: cs@missionresourcecenter.org
Mail: Mission Resource Center, P.O. Box 660275, Dallas, TX 75266-0275
Alternatives Resources
The pre-Christmas 2006 Resource Guide from “Alternatives for Simple Living” is available now for holiday planning for more simple celebrations and for events that use less of the earth’s resources.
Alternatives’ founder, Bob Kochtitzky developed the concept one Christmas when he informed family and friends of his intent to send a donation to a peace and justice cause in their name, rather than to gift them with expensive presents. The unusual idea found him on TV programs, and other media outlets.
Kochtitzky says, “In 1973, I created Alternatives out of anger toward corporations and individuals who were prostituting society’s soul by exploiting all our celebrations for profit and privilege… I had never published anything and had no clue about how many to print of this new Alternate Christmas Catalogue. I was compelled by hope as Vaclav Havel, the president of the Czech Republic, defined it: Hope is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out…The most memorable moments were: the Episcopal Church woman from Virginia who drove up in her Mercedes and brought catalogues for 100 friends; helping the CBS Evening News with their five minute story Christmas Eve on families practicing alternative Christmas... and two appearances on the Donohue Show. Those were heady times… What excites me most about the adulthood of my dream is the commitment that so many different people breathed into the organization over 20 years to keep the vision of simpler, more compassionate lifestyles alive.”
Alternatives, after locating in several cities, can now be reached at:
Alternatives For Simple Living
P.O. Box 340 Sergeant Bluff, IA 51054
Phone: 800-821-6153
www.simpleliving.org |
