Everybodys Asking...Where is UMCOR?

from Micheal Selleck


Note: Micheal Selleck is Director of Connectional Ministries for the North Georgia Conference. Here he shares his feelings (based upon experience)about UMCOR and the long-term recovery of the Gulf Region.

There is much confusion it seems about who is doing what among helping organizations in these early days of relief efforts, especially it seems, between the American Red Cross, et’al, and the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR.) Let me try to shed some light on this,in my own way.

UMCOR and the RED CROSS don't typically cover the same ground at the same time in disaster work, but not because they don't get along. Red Cross is an early response organization. They arrive at every disaster in the first hours and we see them front and center. After the initial situation is stabilized in days, weeks, (sometimes months), they will leave and hurry to other recent disasters. They move on! They have a clear mission of early response and they stick to it. No apologies, that's what the American Red Cross is designed to do.

UMCOR on the other hand sets up with a different mission. UMCOR helps community groups within a disaster area organize themselves in such a way that allows the folks directly affected to rebuild their lives. Because this rebuilding can takes years, UMCOR is designed to stay for years, long after the Red Cross has moved on to other disasters.

Red Cross sets up big bright tents in open spaces so folks can find them quickly in the chaos of the immediate aftermath. The news and press corps’ can easily find them too, displaying them prominently in the early days of a disaster in print and video. UMCOR can tell you quickly that a bright tent in an open field isn’t close to suitable for long-term relief.

UMCOR specializes in coordinating local community agencies, bringing together all churches in an area, community leaders, neighborhood groups, and government workers, to begin long-term strategies and actions for complete recovery. UMCOR sets up in old buildings, or church basements, or empty warehouses, places that can be low cost or rent free, where they can establish themselves for the long grind ahead. UMCOR work is not dramatic or splashy enough for most news video bites. Meetings of volunteers sitting in metal folding chairs, drinking lukewarm coffee, eating two day old donuts, talking, planning, and praying isn’t nearly exciting enough to sell papers in today’s age. Usually by the time UMCOR is in place to do the dirty work of digging out and putting peoples lives back together, the press corps and news satellite up-link vans are long gone. Where is UMCOR? They are staging right now, that is, they are scouting sites for long term assistance, places from which they’ll offer to the community guidance, infrastructure, building materials, work teams, cash, support, and keeping Christ in the midst of it all.

UMCOR and the UMC have a storied history of excellence in long-term recovery. The American Red Cross has a storied history in matters of immediate relief. Different approaches, common hope; help people get their lives back. Both have a place at the table, but not necessarily at the same time or in the same way.

In regards to the present consternation we’re experiencing between agencies in this current devastation, let’s keep in mind that all of us are in ‘uncharted waters’. With the enormous scope of this disaster, the American Red Cross may have hastily painted UM's with a broad “UMCOR long-term" brush -- probably unfair, but in a crisis of this magnitude, they aren’t ready to take the time to split hairs. I encourage all in the midst of this thing to be gentle with all folks who are trying to help, even when they're exasperating and short tempered. We UM’s have our moments too! These are trying times and it behooves us all to be EXTRA patient and gracious in a manner befitting the nature of Jesus Christ whom we represent to the world.

We stepped into the immediate relief arena because in the face of such daunting hardship and danger, we needed to so something; we did and we continue to do so. Now the imminent danger to displaced persons has subsided somewhat with the bulk of the victims in some form of shelter. We should now consider the prudence of moving into a “support” role for agencies that handle these shelters and providing care for those within. Likewise, we may now begin to mobilize our collective energies toward the looming long term tasks for which we’ll be required; building up houses and homes, hearts and spirits, of those devastated by the storm and subsequent fallout. We will not only need cash and supplies, we’ll need new leaders to emerge from with the Conferences of United Methodism, persons to rise to the occasion for the years ahead.

Not to trivialize the situation but it’s important we UM's, who choose to work under the umbrella of UMCOR, remember we are marathoners in disaster work. Sprinting runs the risk of sapping our tenacity and resources for the long term. The opportunities to do what we do best are ahead – unfathomable numbers of opportunities. Yes, we can help immediately, and we are! Yes, we send in early response teams to the disaster sites, they are coming and going, and they’re helping. But on the whole of it, UM's shine in the long term work, in the month to month rebuilding, year after year, helping people put their lives back together, stick to brick, prayer by prayer, hand in hand.

I was born into a UM parsonage. I’ve been inside the workings of the UM church for 54 years, and I’ve never witnessed anything close to the magnificent power that has been shown by this conference in the first week of this catastrophe. As I write, I see the powerful stirrings in our churches for the rebuilding tasks; collecting necessary cash, mustering work teams, coordinating dates of travel throughout the coming autumns, winters, summers, and springs, gathering the supplies that will be needed by the tons upon tons in the months ahead, and the many other aspects of long term recovery in this unparalleled natural disaster. Our church is glorious in this role because we are fervent people of God, servant people!

I invite you to rise up for the long work of rebuilding people’s lives at the points where they became disconnected: all along the gulf coast and all to the honor and glory of a loving God of hope whom we all serve.

Until me meet, vaya con Dios mi amigos.

Micheal Selleck
Director of Connectional Ministries
North Georgia Conference
United Methodist Church