Presbytery Meeting Offers their Blessing and Support

The Presbytery Disaster Response Committee Work Mission Trips being planned for October, November and December were given the unamous blessing and support of those attending the Presbytery meeing in Athins Sunday.

Here is a copy of the Memo they supported.

MEMO

TO: PRESBYTERY
FROM: Presbytery Disaster Response Committee.
RE: Hurricane Katrina Disaster Response
DATE: 09/18/05

Motion: The Presbytery of East Tennessee votes to bless and support the efforts of the Presbytery Disaster Response Committee to plan and send mission work trips in the Hurricane Katrina affected areas of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana under the following guidelines:

WHO
Supervision will be provided by the Presbytery of East TN Presbytery Staff and the Disaster Response Committee of Presbytery. (D.R. Committee is currently composed of Fritz Shilling-Chair, Cindy Benz, Charles Montgomery, Rob Mellgard) and the Presbytery Mission Work Planning Team (Coordinated by Rick Kuhlman)
Participants will be all members of any Presbyterian Church in The Presbytery and those who wish to join with a Presbyterian Church for these work trips. The UTK and UTC trips will be specifically for students of these 2 campuses, students of other college campuses and leaders as needed.

WHAT
Mission Work Trips to the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Our Presbytery work parties will focus on assisting with the rehab and repair of Presbytery properties, local mission sites, local Presbyterian affiliated organizations and the people of the area. All work will be coordinated with the Presbyteries on scene representatives.

WHERE
a. Assembling at various points in the Presbytery we will move together to the affected areas. (Bring your UT window flags)
b. The trips will go to South Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana (Exact locations still to be determined and coordinated with the on scene Presbytery contacts)

WHEN
October 13-16, UTK fall break weekend, October 21-25 UTC fall break weekend. College age students and campus leaders work trip.
Date to-be-announced possible last week of Oct or first week of Nov. - All Presbytery Mission Work Trip
December 26- January 1, 2006 - All Presbytery Mission Work Trip. (Get your high school youth groups aimed at this trip!)

WHY
To serve God by loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.
Because we can
Because we should
To connect the Presbytery in a joint, hands on, mission effort.
To focus and be good stewards of our Presbytery wide resources.
To set a precedent and organize for these efforts in the future.

HOW
With the support of all the churches of the Presbytery of East Tennessee and their members through the giving of time, talent and treasure. For the giving of treasure see the accompanying page.

$$$

Presbytery of East Tennessee Disaster Response
Local Giving Opportunities

P.E.T. Disaster Relief within the bounds of the Presbytery of East Tn. Fund# (PET84000)
This fund is specifically set up to receive and administer funds here in East Tennessee to assist with the Katrina Disaster relief efforts of Presbyterian churches and organizations. The funds will be used to help with the sheltering and assistance needs of displaced persons and the work to house and care for those displaced persons wishing to stay in the East Tennessee area

P.E.T. Disaster Mission Work Trips Fund# (PET84500)
This fund is specifically set up to receive and administer funds to assist with the planning and support of work mission trips to the areas of the Gulf Coast hard hit by Katrina. Funds will be used for administration, planning, transportation, food, housing, materials and other support as needed for work parties.

Oversight of the two funds above will be provided directly by the Disaster Response Committee, which will regularly report to the Presbytery Budget and Finance Committee, which will regularly report to the Presbytery.

Funds remaining in these P.E.T. Katrina Disaster accounts will be held by the Presbytery for the Disaster Response Committee to be used for funding future disaster relief and disaster relief preparedness in the Presbytery of East Tennessee or in support of Presbytery disaster relief response outside the Presbytery.

Funds are for Presbytery wide use in responding to disasters. Funds will not be used to support individual churches disaster work trips without the consent of the Budget & Finance Group. Churches are encouraged to join in the Presbytery organized events for disaster response.

The attendees at Presbytery went on to offer over $1,200.00 to back up thier vote.

NOW WHAT?

The Disaster Response Committee will work to get to all churches a Bulletin insert for use Sunday and an application that can be filed online for those willing to go on a work mission trip or provide special services or materials to help plan and send the trips.

Questions can be communicated thorugh e-mail - Katrina@presbyteryeasttn.org

Thanks for the support!Now let's take this to the pews and the people who will make it work!

Presbytery Meeting Offers their Blessing and Support

The Presbytery Disaster Response Committee Work Mission Trips being planned for October, November and December were given the unamous blessing and support of those attending the Presbytery meeing in Athins Sunday.

Here is a copy of the Memo they supported.

MEMO

TO: PRESBYTERY
FROM: Presbytery Disaster Response Committee.
RE: Hurricane Katrina Disaster Response
DATE: 09/18/05

Motion: The Presbytery of East Tennessee votes to bless and support the efforts of the Presbytery Disaster Response Committee to plan and send mission work trips in the Hurricane Katrina affected areas of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana under the following guidelines:

WHO
Supervision will be provided by the Presbytery of East TN Presbytery Staff and the Disaster Response Committee of Presbytery. (D.R. Committee is currently composed of Fritz Shilling-Chair, Cindy Benz, Charles Montgomery, Rob Mellgard) and the Presbytery Mission Work Planning Team (Coordinated by Rick Kuhlman)
Participants will be all members of any Presbyterian Church in The Presbytery and those who wish to join with a Presbyterian Church for these work trips. The UTK and UTC trips will be specifically for students of these 2 campuses, students of other college campuses and leaders as needed.

WHAT
Mission Work Trips to the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Our Presbytery work parties will focus on assisting with the rehab and repair of Presbytery properties, local mission sites, local Presbyterian affiliated organizations and the people of the area. All work will be coordinated with the Presbyteries on scene representatives.

WHERE
a. Assembling at various points in the Presbytery we will move together to the affected areas. (Bring your UT window flags)
b. The trips will go to South Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana (Exact locations still to be determined and coordinated with the on scene Presbytery contacts)

WHEN
October 13-16, UTK fall break weekend, October 21-25 UTC fall break weekend. College age students and campus leaders work trip.
Date to-be-announced possible last week of Oct or first week of Nov. - All Presbytery Mission Work Trip
December 26- January 1, 2006 - All Presbytery Mission Work Trip. (Get your high school youth groups aimed at this trip!)

WHY
To serve God by loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.
Because we can
Because we should
To connect the Presbytery in a joint, hands on, mission effort.
To focus and be good stewards of our Presbytery wide resources.
To set a precedent and organize for these efforts in the future.

HOW
With the support of all the churches of the Presbytery of East Tennessee and their members through the giving of time, talent and treasure. For the giving of treasure see the accompanying page.

$$$

Presbytery of East Tennessee Disaster Response
Local Giving Opportunities

P.E.T. Disaster Relief within the bounds of the Presbytery of East Tn. Fund# (PET84000)
This fund is specifically set up to receive and administer funds here in East Tennessee to assist with the Katrina Disaster relief efforts of Presbyterian churches and organizations. The funds will be used to help with the sheltering and assistance needs of displaced persons and the work to house and care for those displaced persons wishing to stay in the East Tennessee area

P.E.T. Disaster Mission Work Trips Fund# (PET84500)
This fund is specifically set up to receive and administer funds to assist with the planning and support of work mission trips to the areas of the Gulf Coast hard hit by Katrina. Funds will be used for administration, planning, transportation, food, housing, materials and other support as needed for work parties.

Oversight of the two funds above will be provided directly by the Disaster Response Committee, which will regularly report to the Presbytery Budget and Finance Committee, which will regularly report to the Presbytery.

Funds remaining in these P.E.T. Katrina Disaster accounts will be held by the Presbytery for the Disaster Response Committee to be used for funding future disaster relief and disaster relief preparedness in the Presbytery of East Tennessee or in support of Presbytery disaster relief response outside the Presbytery.

Funds are for Presbytery wide use in responding to disasters. Funds will not be used to support individual churches disaster work trips without the consent of the Budget & Finance Group. Churches are encouraged to join in the Presbytery organized events for disaster response.

The attendees at Presbytery went on to offer over $1,200.00 to back up thier vote.

NOW WHAT?

The Disaster Response Committee will work to get to all churches a Bulletin insert for use Sunday and an application that can be filed online for those willing to go on a work mission trip or provide special services or materials to help plan and send the trips.

Questions can be communicated thorugh e-mail - Katrina@presbyteryeasttn.org

Thanks for the support!Now let's take this to the pews and the people who will make it work!

Another way to serve

Work parties from other states are calling the Presbytery of East Tennessee, looking for a place to stay overnight on their way to Katrina relief work areas. If your church is convenient to the interstate and you are willing to let these groups spend the night, please contact the presbytery office (office@presbyteryeasttn.org or 865-688-5581 or 800-542-4246). We will keep a listof willing hosts. When a call comes in, we will give them the contact information for several willing host churches and ask them to contact you directly to make arrangements. Most groups are asking just for a "floor" to roll out sleeping bags. If you have other amenities to offer (showers, kitchen, cots, etc.) let us know.

AS OF WEDNESDAY 09/14

POINT PEOPLE AND RESPONSE LEADERS - SHELTER VOLUNTEERING
Here are 2 E-mails we have received from Daniel Watson of Compassion Coalition HQ - Dan is the schedualing boss for the shelters here in Knoxville.

E-mail #1
Hello everyone. We have already seen some trouble at the coliseum with people being scheduled under a position on the web and then when they get to the coliseum they are needed somewhere else. Please make sure that you people understand that they are not guaranteed a position through the web they are just listing a preference. We need to help them understand that they are operating as a servant and need to be flexible for us to be able to see the effort through. The shift supervisor is in charge when they are down there. Thanks so much.

Your Friend and Servant,
Daniel
http://www.compassioncoalition.org/


E-mail #2
Because of the 8 hour shifts we have had a problem with churches being able to man whole shifts at the coliseum so we are freeing you up to schedule your people whenever they desire to work. Please follow the instructions here to start scheduling your folks. Once they have been entered in the system we are fully expecting them to show up for the scheduled time they are to work. They need to be committed to the time and the date before you plug them in. Make sure to read the instructions very carefully before you proceed, and call me if you have any questions (300-6806).

We also have an immediate need for people to work the midnight shift tonight and tomorrow night so please get on the horn with some of your people and get these slots filled up. Please check back because more dates will be available tomorrow within the scheduling system. IMPORTANT NOTE: Please do not schedule anyone for Thursday the 15th because those slots have been filled from First Baptist Concord and others (we just haven't had time to enter them into this new system yet)

Below are instructions to use an internet web based signup for your volunteers. For now, we can only signup people through this Sunday, September 18th. Hopefully by the end of the day we will have this expanded by another week or so.

Steps for using the volunteer signup on the web:

go to: http://www.compassioncoalition.org/katrina_projects/list_Services.php
Once the webpage appears it will open immediately to the list of current projects needed for the Coliseum Shelter. This list is separated by the date and shift time. Each entry has three parts as follows:
Service Project - which is simply the name of the project; clicking on the name will give you a description of that project
Time - this is the start and end time for the shift you are signing up for. Please note when it says 12:30am-09:00am on Wednesday, Sept. 14th it means you are signing up to appear 30min after midnight on the 14th (30min into the 14th). This is the shift considered "graveyard shift" for Tuesday, Sept. 13th.
Openings - this part informs you in real time of how many spots are open to serve. By clicking on the orange letters "serve" you can sign yourself up for the given project. When no more spots are open it will read full.
Removing Yourself form/Canceling on a Project - Once you sign up for a project there is no way for you to remove yourself from the project, if for a reason beyond you're control you need to cancel on the project you signed up for you'll want to contact us by email (katrina_webmaster@compassioncoalition.org) with a 24 hour notice if possible. In your email include the following information:
your first and last name
date, time, and name of your project
Signing up for a project - to do this:
click the orange letters "serve" for the project you want to serve on. Be sure the date and time are correct for when you want to serve.
A yellow form appears after clicking "serve". Fill in the needed information (First and Last name, Phone, email, zip code, and your group affiliation if any).
You will then be asked to verify that the information is correct
After verifying that it is correct you'll be taken to a screen thanking you for signing up and providing you the information regarding the project you just signed up for.

Your Friend and Servant,
Daniel
Volunteer Coordinator
www.compassioncoalition.org

MISSION TRIP INFO
We really are planning 3 Presbytery wide Mission Trips to South AL - South MS.
#1 will be from Saturday to Saturday in Mid-October (Specific date yet to be determined)
#2 will be over the UT fall break weekend starting October 13. This is paticularly for UTC and UTK students who will be on their fall break.
#3 will head off over Christmas break - probably the 26th, returning for the start of school.

MONEY MATTERS (really it does)
- There are three funds that GA has set up for Katrina relief. You can donate directly to them at GA or through PET - be sure to clearly note your intended destination for these funds. Check the GA web site for info.
- Presbytery is setting up 2 donation lines. One, to assist with Katrina relief here, within the bounds of PET and the second to support the mission work trips PET is sponsoring.
- More info on all these funds will be available at the Presbytery meeting on Sunday.

Saturday 09/10

Thanks>>>
We had a good meetig at the New Hope Presbyterian Church last night. If you couldn't be there please be sure to send this office the name of your church Disaster Relief Point Person and the names of people who have received red cross training for shelter work and other volunteers willing to work with the relief efforts. Send: Names, Addresses, E-mail, and Phone for each.

Mission Work Trips:
We are beginning to organize two trips. First one will be ASAP to help clean up and relief efforts in the Presbyteries of the Katrina hit areas. Second trip, will be in December over Christmas Holidays. Plan to get the whole church involved with funding, and sending volunteers. This will be a big effort all of us can be part of.

Shelter Volunteers:
We are working with the Compassion Coal. and Red Cross to fill shelter volunteer needs and will be in contact with the church point people as soon as we have info nailed down.

Friday 09/09 Notes and News

TODAY IN KNOXVILLE:
> Knoxville received 3 plainloads of evacuees (and 30 pets) that were taken to the Coliseum downtown. The shelter is now open and will need volunteers trained in shelter work by the Red Cross.
> There are no NEW sessions for training shelter volunteers at this time. Saturday training on Oak Ridge is ON see below for detials.
> NO donations of materials are being received at the shelters. Cloths and other materials are being received at the Salvation Army beside the Big Lots Store in Fountian City, on N. Broadway.
> FOOD is being received and sorted at the Second Harvest building in Knoxville off Rt. 275.

MEETING TO COORDINATE PRESBYTERIAN EFFORTS:
Tonight, Friday 09/09 at New Hope Presbyterian Church, 1705 Merchants Drive, Knoxville at 7:00 PM - we will have a chance to coordinate our shelter trained members to work together with other churches to provide for staffing a shift. We will also be talking about Presbyterian plans that are already in the works to do 2 all church work camps one ASAP and one over Christmas break coordinating with the Presbyteries along the golf coast to bring needed workers and support right to the hardest hit areas. We already have a coordinator for the work camps and want to build a significant network of people willing to join in. YOUR CHURCH SHOULD BE SENDING A POINT PERSON OR A REP TO THIS MEETING SO WE CAN TALK OVER YOUR PLANS AND MATCH THEM WITH OURS. BRING THE NAMES OF YOUR CHURCH VOLUNTEERS AND WHEN THEY CAN WORK.

COMMUNICATION:
> The City of Knoxville is keeping up to date info on their web site - www.ci.knoxville.tn.us .
> The Compassion Coalition is also a good place to find info - www.compassioncoalition/katrina_blog/index.php .
> To reach us here at the Presbyterian Releaf Coordination Office - head to presbyteryeasttn.org and go to the link. (I know - if your reading this you already know this last one, but to write us an e-mail use - katrina@presbyteryeasttn.org)

Wednesday New Info...

As of Wednesday at 11:00 AM the following info is critical...

DONATIONS:
> All school supplies go to the Salvation Army (In Knoxville)
> All food goes to the Second Harvest Food Bank (In Knoxville)
> All clothing, health items, baby needs, personal items and childrens toys goes to a wearhouse opening today in Fountian City beside the Big Lots Store, 4825 North Broadway (Knoxville)
> $ can come to the Presbytery office directed to Katrina relief, it can go to GA to several funds described on their web page, it can go to the Local Red Cross for East TN work, or to your local shelter assistance organizations.

TRAINING:
> Thurs. 10:30 AM at the Red Cross office, Middlebrook Pike
> Thurs. Greater Warner AME Zion Church, 3800 Martin Luther King Blvd. 6-9 PM
> Other times and locations will be posted on the American Red Cross web page.

YOU NEED TO DO RIGHT NOW:
> Appoint a point person for your church
> Get people trained
> E-mail the above names and contact info to us at the presbytery office, katrina@Presbyteryeasttn.org Tell us what your church is up to so we can connect people and efforts together.

WEB PAGES YOU NEED TO LOOK AT:
> presbyteryeasttn.org - look for the link at the top left of the home page
> compassioncoalition.org - this group is coordinating the church response - their e-mail address is info@compassioncoalition.org
> Also check out your local chapter of the American Red Cross.
> pcusa.org has info about donations and GA response.

CHATTANOOGA AREA
> Mark and Beckey Downs are helping coordinate things in your area. Contact them at
Beckey work - 423-894-3773 northminster@comcast.net
Mark Work - 423-400-9685, revmarkman@comcast.net

WHAT CAN CHURCHES AND INDIVIDUALS DO NOW?

Prepare for receiving the hundreds of displaced persons that will be sent to shelters here in East TN --
- Get American Red Cross training as a shelter volunteer.
- Collect $ to assist here in our own local work efforts.
- Think about making clothing and other necessities collections. (wait for the word about what's needed so we don’t flood the system with things that will go to waste)
- Team up with other PC (USA) Churches so we have larger groups of trained volunteers who can go into the shelters together.
- Pick a time (shift) of not less that 4 hours and try to fill it with volunteers each week for the next 8-12 weeks.
- Listen and watch for updates here and through E-mails to churches and pastors.
- Think of the future:
> Housing for Displaced People
> Jobs for DP
>Work parties to go south after the situation stabilizes. (We will coordinate with
churches and presbyteries there for this part of our service)
> Communicate – communicate - communicate!

We are trying to build up our resource and volunteer lists here in the Disaster Relief Office located in the PET office. Keep us informed of your efforts and how we can help and let us help you hook up with other efforts that are underway. E-mail is best --- We need NOW the list of trained shelter workers from your church and the name and contact info of your point person. katrina@presbyteryeasttn.org

Katrina Relief Coordination Presbytery of East Tennessee

TO: Churches and Disaster Contact Persons, Presbytery of East Tennessee
FROM: Fritz Schilling, Cindy Benz, Charles Montgomery, and Rob Mellgard
SUBJECT: Knoxville Area Hurricane Katrina Relief Update
POSTED: September 7, 2005 12:30 pm
A huge thanks for your response to our call for money and assistance on Sunday, September 4. Obviously we have no figures, but we hope you have become aware of our Presbyterian efforts to respond to Hurricane Katrina's tragic aftermath. The denomination immediately sent $500,000 from our One Great Hour of Sharing offering and more is on the way thanks to generous individual and church donations. As coordinator for the Presbytery of East Tennessee's Disaster Response Network, I, The Rev. Fritz Schilling, along with Elder Charles Montgomery of Fountain City Presbyterian Church, have asked the Rev. Cindy Benz (on staff of Sequoyah Presbyterian and wife of our Executive, Steve Benz) to help coordinate this particular crisis. We want you to know several crucial; things about our involvement in the local relief efforts.
1) 750 or so evacuees are expected to come by bus to Knoxville on Wednesday, September 7. The shelters set up for them as of this date are the Knoxville Civic Coliseum and Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church. Small shelters with evacuees who have come by auto are running at Central Baptist of Bearden and First Baptist.
2) We desperately need groups of volunteer caregivers (minimum age 17) to work in shifts in these shelters. If you have volunteers please send them for Red Cross training and send their names, along with a point person’s contact information to the Disaster Relief office (disaster@presbyteryeasttn.org or the presbytery office)
3) Volunteers MUST have training. The first training session was held Monday, September 5 at Cedar Springs. Other training opportunities are 6-9pm Tuesday, September 6 and Thursday, September 8 at Greater Warner Tabernacle AME Zion Church at 3800 Martin Luther King Boulevard. We anticipate more training centers and times. We will keep you posted but we need to have these shelters manned by Monday, September 12.
4) We want to put trained caregivers in groups of 25-30, so we will try to hook up smaller church groups with larger ones. 120 caregivers per shift are required for the Coliseum shelter alone! We would like to put shelter staffing groups together through the following churches: Erin, Farragut, First Knoxville, Fountain city, Lake Forest, Lake Hills, New Providence, Oak Ridge, Second Knoxville, Sequoyah Hills, and Westminster. Other churches with shelter volunteers PLEASE contact the office of one of the above and hook up with the group forming there. We will check in to make sure you get connected. Shift times will probably be 8-hour ones and the shelter will need 24-hour coverage. (The Cedar Springs shelter will house 250 and is being managed by them and caregivers are being solicited also at each training meeting).
5) We need a Coordinator from each church for this particular disaster. It may be the current Disaster Network Contact Person who was hopefully already designated from your congregation.
6) Food and other supplies for the shelters will be handled by bringing materials to your church - and only those requested through your Coordinator and delivered where specified. We don't want to waste resources nor overload the system.
7) We are setting up a special Presbytery Website for getting out information. We will let you know when it is up and what is happening via weekly (or more often) e-mails.
8) Take note of three essential websites:
presbyteryeasttn.org (link to Presbytery Disaster Relief in the top left hand corner, says Hurricane Katrina for information)
compassion coalition.org (managing group, with Red Cross, of Coliseum shelter) pcusa.org/PDA (Presbyterian USA Disaster Assistance)
9) There is a special and urgent need for volunteers who are Child Care Workers, Nurses, or Mental Health Workers. Please e-mail or call Cindy, Fritz, Charles or Rob with names and contact numbers for people in these categories.
10) We are setting up a Katrina Disaster Relief office to coordinate Presbyterian efforts at the Presbytery office. By Monday, September 12, we will have a dedicated phone number; we will send this by email as soon as possible. Between now and Monday you may call the presbytery office (865-688-5581 or 800-542-4246) or email (preferred!) to Katrina@presbyteryeasttn.org. We will try to staff the relief office Monday through Friday during business hours. If you are available to help staff this office, please use the contacts given.
11) Emergency contacts for information: Fritz Schilling 865-691-4548 or fbschill309@knology.net; Cindy Benz 865-966-5256 or cindybenz@aol.com; Charles Montgomery 865-694-1722 or montymontgomery@comcast.net; Rob Mellgard 865-687-3911, cell number 865-216-3425 or nhpc@bellsouth.net.
NOTE - This scenario evolves by the hour, so please keep abreast by way of the previously mentioned websites. Notification concerning Presbytery teams going to the disaster areas will come later.
Thanks for all your variety of gifts.
Fritz Schilling Cindy Benz Charles Montgomery Rob Mellgard

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Informaiton-- Hurricane Katrina

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has established an account for funds to assist areas struck by Hurricane Katrina. If you would like to contribute financially, you may make contributions to your church, which in turn may send the contribution, marked Katrina Relief # DR000169, to the Presbytery office, and it will then be sent to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. You may check the website (www.pcusa.org/pda) for more details of relief efforts.Disaster Contacts: Please make an appeal to your congregations for people interested in joining a Presbytery relief team (or teams) to assist in clean up or rebuilding efforts. Please send names and contact phone numbers to Connie at the Presbytery Office (connie@presbyteryeasttn.org) by September 10. This is an appeal for those interested, understanding that as plans take shape, not everyone interested in going will be able to participate. So, if there is any level of interest, please include them in the list to be contacted. Plans will be made in coordination with Presbyterian Disaster Relief, which has plans to organize the teams and match teams to where the needs are the greatest.