Greetings in Christ.

Hurricane Ian made landfall west of Fort Myers, Florida on Wednesday September 28 as a Category 4 storm. It has impacted EFCA churches across the state. I have heard from one staff worker that 20 EFC churches were in the path of the storm. Crisis Response has been assessing the situation and is now prepared to receive their first teams at Fort Myers.

In Cuba, our ministry partner, Los Pinos Nuevos, reports that many families have lost homes and belongings during Hurricane Ian.

What can churches do at this time?

PRAY:

• Pray for communities and churches in the affected areas.
• Pray for safety and wisdom as the Crisis Response team reaches out to impacted churches.
• Pray for our partners in Cuba for the many families that have been affected by the hurricane.

SERVE:

Teams can begin to go and serve at the Ft. Myers EFC Church for one week. They can have up to 10 men and 10 women serving for a week. Teams will be focused on working on homes in and near the communities of Naples and Ft. Myers. There will be the opportunity to do relational outreach. This will include spending time with homeowners and doing neighborhood prayer walks. The physical ministry will be mostly home repairs such as drywalling (no specific skills needed), painting and roof repair. We appreciate any skilled trades that volunteers bring such as cooking, counseling, electrical or plumbing. Email respond@efca.org for more information.

Could you serve for 1-6 months? We need additional staff to help with working in homes and churches, with hosting teams, administration, and trauma care.  Email crisisresponse@efca.org.

GIVE:

Crisis response needs funding to support their initial efforts and assessment phase. They have set a goal of raising $100,000.  As of this writing they have raised $40,158.

To give go to https://www.efca.org/hurricane-ian-response.

SHARE:

Share this information in your church, with your church leaders, with your mission team, and with your friends.

Blessings,

Steve Austvold