United Methodist Church responds to Connellsville flooding
The Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church has early response teams in the Connellsville area helping flood victims.
The Rev. Stephanie Gottschalk, missions coordinator, explained, “The United Methodist Church has a network for the ministry of volunteers in disaster response and rebuilding that is a partnership between local churches, the United Methodist Committee on Relief and United Methodist Volunteers in Mission. Early response teams are specifically trained to work with the coordinated response of EMAs and other disaster organizations to assist homeowners with immediate needs to make structures safe, secure and sanitary and to prevent further damage. They do not do repair or rebuilding work but will take down information about who is interested in volunteer assistance to rebuilt later by other VIM teams.”
Bishop Cynthia Moore-Koikoi, who became the new bishop of the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church on Thursday, visited Connellsville Friday morning, said Gottschalk.
Other Western Pennsylvania conference leaders who have been involved in response to the Connellsville flood include Gottschalk, Spore, the Rev. Calvin Cook, Western Pennsylvania disaster response coordinator; the Rev. Bill Blair, Connellsville district superintendent; and Chip Rowan of Connellsville Area Community Ministries, in addition to volunteers from around the region.
The conference is also holding an early response team training from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday at Wesley United Methodist Church in Connellsville. Those planning to attend must register at www.wpaumc.org/VIMtraining. Cost is $20.
The Rev. Beverly Spore, Connellsville District disaster coordinator, explained, “The training is for the relief phase to stop on-going damage from water, mildew and mold and to get ready for the recovery phase, which will be rebuilding.”
Gottschalk noted, “The ERT training is open to members of the community to learn the information but only members of United Methodist Churches will be badged and deployed through our UMCOR-UMVIM system.”
Gottschalk again noted that anyone planning to attend the training must register online.