Articles for tag: Disaster Relief

IDES Working to Help Tornado Victims

International Disaster Emergency Service (IDES) is working with churches around the country to help victims of last week”s tornadoes. “We are encouraging Christian churches and churches of Christ to hold a moment of prayer this coming Sunday to pray for the victims and the volunteers and to take up a love offering for IDES,” the ministry shares. Make donations online or mail checks/money orders marked “U.S. Disasters” to P.O. Box 60, Kempton, IN 46049-0060. In southern Indiana, IDES will be setting up a base camp to help with disaster relief. Although it does not yet know if it will be

Sending, Serving, Reaching: IDES

By Jennifer Taylor IDES (Founded 1973) P.O. Box 60, Kempton, IN 46049 www.ides.org Rick Jett, Executive Director Until 2005, International Disaster Emergency Service primarily received donations from churches and individuals and channeled the money to missionaries or U.S. agencies. When disaster struck, churches knew they could trust IDES to manage the gifts and ensure every penny went to the designated cause. Today IDES is still a “top of mind” organization for charitable giving, especially in response to earthquakes, floods, and other natural disasters, and as much as 70 percent of its ministry is facilitating these gifts. However, the IDES team

Church Continues with Katrina Recovery Efforts

By Jennifer Taylor   Although Hurricane Katrina doesn”t make the news much anymore, Biloxi (MS) Christian Church has not stopped caring for its victims. Biloxi Christian sprang into action immediately after Katrina hit in 2005, opening its building and organizing volunteers and supplies. Today, more than six years later, BCC continues to have an open door for the effort and has partnered with another area church to form New Life Disaster Relief. “People from all over the country and every denomination come to work, and we house them in our building,” says minister John Wester. “We”ve turned our classrooms into

Interview with Jim Phegley

By Brad Dupray Jim Phegley was sitting in the barber”s chair when he heard that a plane had crashed into one of the twin towers in New York City. With half-shorn hair, he saw another airliner strike the second tower and went right to work doing what he does best, ministering to people in his church. Jim has been senior minister of Glen Cove (New York) Christian Church for 27 years. The church on Long Island became a place of solace on the evening of September 11, 2001, and continued as a place of ministry outreach after that. Jim”s heart

Standard Publishing Donates Books, Resources

Standard Publishing has partnered with Matthew 25: Ministries to reach out through church communities ministering in disaster areas around the world. To date, Standard Publishing has donated more than 19 tractor-trailer loads of Christian books and other resources to Matthew 25: Ministries for redistribution worldwide. These messages of hope and Bible truth have gone, for example, to sufferers in the wake of natural disasters in Joplin, Missouri; Alabama; Japan; and Haiti. Each year Matthew 25: Ministries serves more than 12 million individuals in the U.S. and around the world, largely through redistribution of donated goods. “We are pleased to work

After the Japanese Earthquake

By Reggie Hundley On March 11, a powerful earthquake struck just off the island of Japan. The destruction and loss of life from the quaking earth paled in comparison to the cataclysmic power of the resulting tsunami. News of the devastation traveled around the world. And within moments, people were contacting the forwarding agents of missionaries and the offices of Mission Services Association, the National Missionary Convention, International Disaster Emergency Services (IDES), and others. People from around the world wondered how friends and residents of Japan were faring. Perhaps the words of Paul Clark, longtime president of Osaka Bible Seminary,

CIY Leading ‘Engage the City’ to Serve Joplin

From July 4-8 and July 11-15, Christ in Youth (CIY) is leading “Engage the City,” an opportunity for students to serve victims of last month”s tornado in Joplin, Missouri, and learn from the community”s leaders. “CIY will organize projects, programming, housing, meals, materials, and leadership to help these groups best respond to the needs of Joplin,” the organization writes. “There will be outlets to serve but, more importantly, your students will have opportunities to connect with storm survivors and hear their stories. CIY will handle all the details and connect your group with missional leaders to see how they responded

Responding to Joplin Tornado Disaster

News this week focuses on the many churches, parachurch ministries, and families affected by the tornado that struck Joplin, MO, on Sunday. Victor Knowles, president of Joplin-based Peace on Earth Ministries, shares the good news that all 37 Christian church/church of Christ parachurch organizations in Joplin came through the storm without significant damage to their buildings. However, a number of staff from these ministries did lose their homes. And one of the many people killed in the storms was Natalia Puebla, a freshman at Ozark Christian College from Carthage, MO. Doug Welch, a professor at OCC, shared yesterday, “I still had a stack

Through the Ages and Around the World

By Mark A. Taylor Where would the world be without the church? Good question, but it”s far too general. Where would Glen Cove or Tonawanda, New York, be without the church? Or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania? Or Everett, Washington? Or Mesa, Arizona? The stories we are posting this week offer answers to the questions. We tell the stories of Christians in each of these towns, everyday believers like you and me who are helping their neighbors and bettering their communities in Jesus” name for God”s glory. As Mark Moore said in his article we published April 5, “The notion that our churches care

Hurricane Katrina–One Year Later

By Brad Dupray Just one year ago a watchful nation witnessed the power of Hurricane Katrina via televised reports and Internet updates as residents of the Gulf Coast experienced its power firsthand. The result was the greatest natural disaster to strike the United States in its history. Nearly 1 million homes were damaged or destroyed, more than 1,800 people were confirmed dead, and the population of the city of New Orleans decreased by well over 50 percent causing severe economic impact. The Christian Church Responds In the wake of this devastation Christian churches across the U.S. and around the world

Interview with Rick Jett

By Brad Dupray For 26 years Rick Jett preached in local churches in Kansas and Indiana, including 18 years at the Marion (Indiana) Church of Christ. Now, as executive director of International Disaster Emergency Services (IDES), he connects with local churches and missionaries to distribute resources to disaster stricken areas around the world. Rick is a graduate of Ozark Christian College. He and his wife of 26 years, Nancy, have two children, Richard and Rachel. How would you describe the ministry of IDES? The International Disaster Emergency Service is an organization that seeks to be the channel through which Christian

The Samaritan Manifesto

By Paul E. Boatman Secular society does not know what to make of it! Media images had relegated “conservative Christians” to an innocuous corner with “Bible thumpers,” “fundamentalists,” and cultists””occasionally warranting a news item, but outside the mainstream of society. This image persisted through much of the 20th century as devotees of a social gospel claimed the stage of doing good works. However, in the span of a generation a new image is emerging. Christians who are seriously committed to the truth of Scripture are now the vanguard of much of the most socially significant ministry in the world. The

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