Your Support is Requested | Disaster Response

Advent is a time of hope and anticipation, but December storms have again brought deep sadness to the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference.

Thousands of people were impacted by the tornadoes that devastated several communities in our episcopal area last weekend. We mourn the individuals who died and pray for their families and friends.

Three churches within our conference were damaged: Fellowship UMC in Clarksville,  Bellshire UMC in Nashville, and Saundersville UMC in Sumner County. All were tended to quickly by their congregations and other congregations in the area.

Our conference disaster response team immediately began its work to learn how best to support the survivors of these storms. Our United Methodist connection is helping in this response and will impact these communities for years to come in their recovery efforts.

We appreciate the prayers of support and the monetary contributions that have come in from friends across the connection, near and far.

TWK Early Response Teams (ERTs) have been deployed and some of our UMCOR-trained “Connecting Neighbors” churches have sprung into action. Several United Methodist conferences have contacted us to offer the boots-on-the-ground support of their ERTs, and some of those teams will be on the ground as early as next week.

Opportunities to safely volunteer are being assessed as are the supplies that will be needed. It will be communicated on our conference website and e-newsletter as we know more.

In the meantime, financial support is essential. Monetary donations made to TWK Disaster Response enable our team to quickly procure what is needed to respond to the needs of survivors in our area: https://twkumc.org/donate

I encourage your church to take a special offering for disaster support and to share the donation page address with others.

Together, we can be the hands and feet of Christ through our United Methodist connection. Our dollars will make a difference in the lives of many. Thank you for your support.

Bishop McAlilly

Photos courtesy of church Facebook pages.