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Ecclesia Relief Efforts After Hurricane Ike

Posted Sep 15, 12:55 AM | 2 comments | by Editor | Link

By Chris Seay, re-posted from Facebook:

Friends,

I could not be more grateful for the expressions of love and concern that have pushed back the winds and flood waters for those of us searching for the best ways to move forward after Hurricane Ike. Because 99% of our region is out of power (more than 4 million people) communication has been very difficult. But we do know that the needs over the coming months will be significant. These storms are always most devastating for the poor, or those living from paycheck to paycheck. Many of you have asked how you can help, and while we do not know all of the needs that will arise. There are three needs that we are confident we will need to address. Primarily these involve demolition in flooded and damaged areas, reconstruction, and financial assistance.

If your church is willing to send a team of people skilled in demolition (either interior home demolition or a chainsaw crew to clear the thousands of fallen trees) and/or construction teams, we can begin to coordinate the logistics and local needs. This will likely include work in Houston and Galveston on churches that have been damaged as well as residences. If you would like to make a contribution to help with reconstruction and financial assistance to families suffering from the storm, Ecclesia will be creating an Hurricane Ike Relief Fund.

We see this storm as an opportunity to share the love of the Liberating King with those in our community, city, and the entire gulf coast region. Ecclesia is rising to the occasion and I am confident that the outpouring of love from our sister churches across the country will leave an eternal impact on my great city. Will you send me an email to chris@ecclesiahouston.org if you are willing to help in some way?

Chris Seay is pastor of Ecclesia in Houston, Texas, and the president of Ecclesia Bible Society.

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1chris holeman 09/24/2008 02:11 AM

As i know this really isn’t your concern. I have listen to you talk before and you really seem like you care. There are people here in Southeast Texas getting left behind.

Being one of those people who never ask for help i already hated having to ask for help, but because we have a 9 month old i couldn’t leave her out. Once we got evacuated to Austin we called redcross and they kept telling us all the shelters were full, called back and still the same thing. We slept in the car the next day trying to get help they sent us to foodbanks which all we got was ran in circle in a town we don’t know. Trying to find a hotel nothing and nothing.

So we tried to head back to houston to look for a shelter and i got stuck in rising water, now it only goes 20 mph.. Transmission goofed up. My trailer was gone too and the place of employment was unable to reopen due to the storm. So i can’t even make the money back i spent on evacuation and all other costs occured during ike.. I almost died in my car so thought everything would be ok when i got back. So very wrong. Redcross was rude and inhumane and that was the worst until i got to talk to fema and they couldn’t really give a damn. Even tried to get food stamps for temp relief and denied. All i know is i might as well died because this was and is one of the worse things that ever happened to me.

I just thought you should know how we really are being treated out here.. We still need help

chris holeman
4270 n hwy 105 – before ike
150 stanley rd. – after ike
vidor, tx 77662

409-786-2761 temp home
409-454-5573 cell

2Dianne 07/15/2009 03:57 AM

I am sorry to hear Chris Holeman’s experience was so negative. I hope he got some help. I found the good people at Red Cross to be life savers. FEMA was also very helpful but it depended on who you spoke with, you had to keep calling and document everything and it did take 3 months to get temporary housing. There were volunteers coming in on weekends to help and people seemed to pull together like I’ve never seen before. It is now 10 months after Ike and I am still living in a FEMA trailer. I wish there were some volunteers around now to help those of us who couldn’t begin rebuilding right away either for financial or logistical reasons.

Dianne