This morning finds me in Conway, Ark. I’m getting ready to head back to New Orleans. My visits went very well yesterday.

My first stop was with Pastor Kapler in Mountain Home, Ark. I arrived there at 9:30 a.m. after a three hour mountain drive through freezing rain. Not fun. I met with Pastor Kapler and five members. One member, Shawn Taylor, is the region’s Thrivent Representative and one of the first volunteers into New Orleans after Katrina. After much discussion, they concluded that they would like to organize a clean up/rebuilding effort similar to New Orleans, but felt they had enough local volunteers to accomplish it. Mr. Taylor will check into Thrivent matching funds. They realize that FEMA and the Red Cross are handling the short term needs and they are focusing their efforts on the long term. They have appointed a coordinator and they will begin to try to identify the families they will assist. I told them we stand ready to assist them with consultation and possible additional funding. I toured the area with Pastor Kapler and the newly appointed coordinator and then took them to lunch. I recommended that they open a separate bank account for the money designated for their project. Pastor Kapler had noted that he was already receiving donations.

I left them at 1:30 p.m. heading for Russellville, Ark., (two and a half hour trip). Got there at 4 p.m., just in time to meet with Pastor Schwerin. The church in Russellville is very small with only about 18 active members. We toured the area near Atkins, Ark. This tornado was much more powerful than the one in Mountain Home - (F4 vs F2). He discussed a few possibilities as candidates for relief funds, which all sounded appropriate to me and I encouraged him to use his discretion as to the distribution of funds. He then asked about giving some of the funds to a local Bank that had set up a “General” relief fund that would disperse funds through an application process. He said they had about $40,000 in the fund and they were anticipating about 100 applicants, which means each applicant would only get about $400 a piece. He wondered if some of our funds could be given to that. I told him that would be fine.  After our visit he said he felt clearer about how the funds should be used and thanked me for helping him identify some prospects that could use some assistance. He said he would contact Pastor Schupmann about the bank possibility and that he would send in the transfer information. I left him at about 6 p.m. more convinced than ever that “in person” visits are vital (when possible).

In Christ,

Mark S. Vance
Disaster Relief Project Coordinator
WELS Committee On Relief
mark.vance@wels.net