Articles for tag: International Disaster Emergency Service

Church Coping with Suicide (Plus News Briefs)

A few weeks after losing one of his pastors to suicide, Rusty George of Real Life Church in Valencia, Calif., spoke on radio station KHTS’s “Aging With Power” program about coping with the suicide of a loved one. “It was shocking for all of us, and it was devastating,” George said of campus pastor Jim Howard’s suicide Jan. 23. George said Howard had struggled with a mental health issue and was on and off medication for years. “We react the way everyone reacts with something like this—with sadness, with a bit of anger, a bit of guilt. And we just

October 3, 2018

Foscoe Christian Returns Home 4 Years after Fire (Plus News Briefs)

Foscoe Christian Church, Boone, N.C., held services in their just-completed home for the first time on Sunday, more than four years after a Jan. 7, 2014, fire destroyed their church building after a furnace malfunctioned. “There’s a lot of relief, a lot of gratefulness, a lot of thankfulness and a lot of folks we’re indebted to,” elder Chris Calloway told the Watauga Democrat last week. “It’s been a long process, a difficult process, but a very uplifting process. We’ve had a lot of folks step forward and really step up in a multitude of ways.” The brick building includes a

September 17, 2018

Carolina Churches Cope with Hurricane

Hurricane Florence made landfall in Wrightsville Beach, N.C., on Friday and it continues to drop a massive amount of rain in the Eastern United States. Millions of people and thousands of churches have been affected. We encourage church leaders to share news about their churches and how they are coping with the effects of the hurricane. Most importantly, please share how Christian churches and churches of Christ across the county can help. Comment below or send the information to **@********************ia.com. _ _ _ Two Rivers Church of Christ in New Bern, N.C., offers folks a way to contribute to hurricane

September 13, 2017

Florida Churches Respond to Hurricane Irma

By Jim Nieman In the end, no one in Florida””and virtually no property””was safe when Hurricane Irma tore through the Sunshine State on Sunday and into Monday, September 10 and 11. Many churches started warning people about the potential dangers of the storm on Tuesday, September 5. Crosspoint Christian Church in Cape Coral, for example, sent out this message via Facebook at 12:32 p.m. that day: “We need help getting Crosspoint ready to ride out the storm ““ moving furniture, playground equipment, securing the campus. . . .” By early the next morning, Crosspoint lead pastor Jeff Swearingen and leaders

September 6, 2017

Harvey Recovery Efforts Are Ongoing

By Jim Nieman Dale Smith has been very pleased with the Hurricane Harvey flooding-related recovery efforts at Cy-Fair Christian Church, Houston, Texas. “It”s been very, very busy, but it is going fantastic,” the church”s interim lead pastor said. “There are challenges, but God is just showing his favor.” Smith cites some statistics: “157 people in the church have volunteered to help. We have 57 people out serving on 7 teams today.” Some teams are being organized to work evenings, as well. (The church averages 300 to 350 for weekend worship.) Smith said an out-of-state minister told him in recent days

September 1, 2017

Harvey Recovery: News and Notes

We’re getting numerous updates about churches impacted by Hurricane Harvey and its soaking rains that flooded Greater Houston and much of the Gulf Coast area at the end of August, and we’re receiving news from churches and ministries that have launched efforts to help people and churches in those areas. Send updates to **@********************ia.com. (We will also try to share a few photos of recovery efforts; please send the images as attachments, and provide captions, one image per e-mail.) Here are some of the reports we’re receiving, along with some ways to help (we’re placing the newest items at the

August 31, 2017

Houston-area Churches Coping with Harvey Flooding

Also read “Creekside Fellowship Helping Shelter Storm Victims” and “Church Riding Out Storm in Katy, Texas.” ________ By Jim Nieman Tim Liston, senior pastor of New Hope Church, a multisite megachurch with four locations mainly south of Houston, posted a “Hurricane Harvey Devotional” Sunday based on Matthew 8. In it, Liston says, “The best place to be in a storm is with Jesus.” New Hope, like most churches in the Greater Houston area, were forced to cancel onsite services Sunday because of the storm that has dumped, in some places, more than 50 inches of rain since Friday. When we

March 10, 2017

OUR MINISTRY TO REFUGEES: A “˜loaves and fishes” alternative

By Brad Pontius In an effort to help displaced victims of violence by the Islamic State (IS) in the Middle East, Sherwood Oaks Christian Church in Bloomington, Indiana, discovered a different way to assist thousands of Iraqi Christians who have been forced from their homes. An initial effort to host refugees in Hoosierland was transformed into a campaign to provide necessary, life-giving tools to 125,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), Christians who lived in the Ninevah Plains near Kurdistan, Northern Iraq. It all began simply enough: an Indiana University undergrad asked Rawand, a Kurdish student from Iraq, “Can I help you?”

April 29, 2015

You Can Help Nepal

By Jennifer Johnson Many mission agencies and international ministries are working to provide relief, support, and financial resources to those affected by Saturday”s devastating earthquake in Nepal. Central India Christian Mission, which has worked in Nepal the last 15 years, writes, “On a typical Saturday morning, many Nepalese churches meet for weekly worship services. On Saturday, April 25th, at 11:56 am when many Nepalese brothers and sisters in Christ were worshipping, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake occurred. It destroyed almost everything in the country. From Saturday until now, approximately 45 earthquakes have happened in the country. It has brought huge destruction.

August 25, 2014

Colleges & Seminaries Organizations & Events

The Lego Principle

By Matt Proctor Several years ago, two of my nephews accompanied their mom on a visit to a friend”s house. Ben was 8. Brian was 6. Their mother”s friend was a very neat lady, to the point of being obsessive-compulsive. (I have a friend who says, “I have OCD, only I like to call it CDO because then it”s in alphabetical order.”) This woman had a place for everything and everything in its place. Though childless, she did have a few toys and handed Ben and Brian a bucket of Lego bricks: “Here boys, you can play with these.” What”s

July 21, 2014

Church & Ministry Church Leadership Preaching

Put It in Print

By Rick Jett (From our series “The Best or Worst Advice I”ve Ever Received.”) The best advice I ever received was from Alan Ahlgrim, former senior minister of Rocky Mountain Christian Church in Colorado. About 20 years ago, Alan was teaching one of the graduate classes I was taking at Cincinnati Christian University. One lesson was about personal growth of a leader. He said good leaders are constantly growing. They will read, take classes, attend conferences, and interview other leaders. He explained that growing leaders will set goals. He walked us through an exercise of writing goals and action steps

November 26, 2013

Mark A. Taylor

Stewardship & Generosity

Giving to Those Who Can”t Give Back

By Mark A. Taylor Looking for a different way to infuse your Christmas celebration with meaning? Gayla Congdon has an idea. During our November 21 Beyond the Standard BlogTalkRadio program*, she mentioned a program with lots of possibilities. “We”re encouraging families to participate in 24 days of disruption, starting December 1,” she said. “Each day visitors to our blog or Facebook page will receive another idea for family activities to create a meaningful Christmas.” Here”s how Amor”s website describes the challenge: The 24 Days of Advent journey will stretch you. It will cause you to rethink your economy of Christmas

November 23, 2012

Conferences & Gatherings Organizations & Events

Reporting on Restoration Revolution

By David Empson In November 2010, Restoration Revolution was started at the former National Missionary Convention””now the International Conference On Missions (ICOM)””in Lexington, Kentucky. For almost 18 months prior to its launch, more than 100 leaders representing all kinds of ministries among Christian churches and churches of Christ had been meeting to consider what could be done for the kingdom of God over the next 10 years. Here is a report on progress with these goals so far. Restoration Revolution”s vision statement calls it “a 10-year collaboration that desires to share Jesus with all people.” The four points of Restoration

February 21, 2012

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

May 25, 2011

Church & Ministry Community Outreach

Responding to Joplin Tornado Disaster

News this week focuses on the many churches, parachurch ministries, and families affected by theÂ tornado that struck Joplin, MO, on Sunday. Victor Knowles, president of Joplin-basedÂ 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 wasÂ Natalia Puebla, a freshman at Ozark Christian College from Carthage, MO. Doug Welch, a professor at OCC, shared yesterday, “I still had a stack

March 16, 2011

Giving & Fundraising Stewardship & Generosity

Ways to Help the People of Japan

By Jennifer Taylor Several Christian ministries are offering ways to support the people of Japan in the wake of last week’s earthquake and tsunami, and the resulting nuclear uncertainties and concerns. Here are a few opportunities that we are aware of: — International Disaster Emergency Service is still helping residents of Haiti and New Zealand recover from the recent earthquakes there; the ministry is also accepting donations for the many hurting and homeless people devastated by last week’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan. IDES is in contact with many of the missionaries in the country and is sending funds to

February 14, 2010

Georgia Sharpe and Reggie Hundley

A List of Mission Agencies Serving in Haiti

A contact list of missionary agencies serving in Haiti, along with Christian church/church of Christ groups working to provide relief for earthquake victims and their families.

November 29, 2009

Greg Pruett