March 2024

ARDF is pleased to introduce our new Domestic Disaster Response Newsletter! Curated by our Network Director, Tommy Lamb, this is a great opportunity to hear about upcoming domestic mission trips and other ways local ACNA churches are helping their neighbors in times of distress. We are excited to share this first newsletter with you, and if you want to continue receiving these updates, you can opt in to the mailing list here!

 
 

Friends of ARDF's Domestic Disaster Response Network,

Welcome to the first of our monthly newsletters, designed to bring you the latest in domestic disaster mission and ministry from around our Anglican Province!  It was twenty months ago in Falls Church, VA, that ARDF announced our disaster response pilot was going live, and God has been good! Two hundred and twenty eight of you are now engaged in disaster response, representing fourteen dioceses and thirty-two parishes! In conjunction with four partners, six disaster response trips were completed in 2023, with over ninety volunteers, serving storm survivors in FL, KY, and LA. Thank you, Jesus, for your servants' hearts!

None of this is possible without the generosity of so many. Because of your stewardship, over $65,800 was granted to our dioceses in 2023 for relief after the following events:

  1. Brownsville, VT - flood recovery
  2. Clarksville, TN - tornado recovery
  3. Dawson Springs, KY - tornado recovery
  4. Ft. Myers, FL - Hurricane Ian recovery
  5. Grand Isle, LA - Hurricane Ida recovery
  6. Hazard, KY - flood recovery
  7. Little Rock, AR - tornado recovery
  8. Maui, HI - Lahaina wildfire recovery
  9. Perry, FL - Hurricane Idalia recovery
  10. Rolling Fork, MS - tornado recovery
  11. Spokane, WA - Gray wildfire recovery

Another $15,000 was granted to parishes for equipment, such as cargo trailers, tools, and cots. You enabled ARDF to support the construction of a supplies warehouse in Spring, TX, with three others being planned. Thanks be to God, so much has been accomplished that a document has been created and posted on our website.

God’s timing is perfect, whether in materials, money, or manpower; He always provides at just the right time! For this reason, this corner of our newsletter is dedicated to God’s provision of resources in disaster response, giving thanks to Him for guiding us in a journey of faith and service, accomplishing his purpose in us and through us. In next month’s newsletter, our first connection story describes how a chance encounter with a trailer mobilized ministry after Hurricane Ida, and was the catalyst for an enduring partnership.

God's peace!

 

Upcoming ARDF Domestic Disaster Network trips to FL, MS & TN*

Does your parish have a group interested in serving survivors of a natural disaster?  Please join ARDF, our Team Leaders, and our long-term recovery (LTR) partners! No experience is necessary, only a willing heart, and all gifts and talents are welcomed!

Hurricane Ian relief, Ft. Myers, FL w/Adventures in Missions

March 16-22, 2024

Tornado relief, Rolling Fork, MS w/Rolling Fork Rising

June 9-15, 2024

Many times the best decisions are last minute!  Come join Tony Niles, Parish Disaster Response Coordinator, Truro Anglican, Fairfax, VA, as he leads ARDF's fifth trip to Fort Myers to serve survivors in the Harlem Heights neighborhood! Woody+ Volland, St. James House Church, Mt. Dora, FL, will be Spiritual Care Provider.

 

Join Team Leader Bill Sorem, Parish Disaster Response Coordinator, Apostles Anglican, Houston, TX, as we serve the survivors of Rolling Fork's March 24, 2023 tornado. Our partner strives to bless former renters with home ownership through their innovative non-profit made of local churches, businesses, and individuals.

 

Tornado Relief, Clarksville, TN w/Fuller Center Disaster ReBuilders

August 25-31, 2024

Tornado Relief, Clarksville, TN w/Fuller Center Disaster ReBuilders

September 1-7, 2024

Join ARDF Executive Director, Rev. Dr. Jake Stum, ARDF Staff, Team Leader Doug Lee, and Disaster ReBuilders as we serve the survivors of the December 9, 2023 tornado that struck Clarksville, TN. We are excited to be serving alongside Church of the Resurrection Anglican and Fr. Cliff Syner, who's parish responded quickly after the tornado, serving food, providing blankets, supplies, and other individual needs in the tornado's aftermath.

Join ARDF Disaster Response Task Force Chair and Parish Coordinator Doug Lee as he leads the team to serve survivors of the December 9, 2023 tornado that struck Clarksville, TN. We are excited to be serving alongside Church of the Resurrection Anglican and Fr. Cliff Syner, who's parish  responded quickly after the tornado, serving food, providing blankets, supplies, and other individual needs in the tornado's aftermath.

*ARDF is implementing a standard disaster response trip fee of $500 per volunteer, effective this year. This fee, after assessing one year of supporting mission trips in the Domestic Disaster Response Network, helps offset trip costs such as transportation, meals, tools, t-shirts, printing, and other administration.  As our disaster response partners also have a trip fee, ARDF is covering our partners’ fee with ARDF’s fee, regardless of the amount.  In 2023, our partners’ fees have ranged from $50 to $445 per volunteer per week.  Thank you for your continued support of mission and ministry in disaster response.

 

Fundraising Ideas for Mission Teams

Fundraising for mission teams is nothing new. As a matter of fact, when talking about overseas trips, or a congregational partnership with a sister parish, diocese, or province overseas, fundraising is expected, and usually all the cost, or sometimes a percentage of the cost, is to be raised by the missioner on a peer-to-peer basis. Some of the cost may be shared with the parish from a designated missions budget. Either way, many times the cost to serve is shared among family, friends, and parishioners, with the missioner sharing their story and expressing what is hoped for through their future experience.

When it comes to volunteering in domestic disaster response, my experience is that many times the opposite is true. The missioner pays all the cost associated with serving survivors of natural disasters, and if they can’t afford to, they just don't go.

That is why Dave Wright, ARDF Domestic Disaster Network Task Force member, wrote Fundraising Ideas for Mission Teams. Dave has thirty-seven years’ experience in student ministry and currently leads the Engage Initiative, a discipleship model aimed at equipping the church to engage younger generations. 

In Fundraising Ideas for Mission Teams, Dave suggests three ways to get started in mission fundraising, including establishing a budget, determining funding sources, and determining each member’s financial responsibility. Once this is accomplished, Dave proposes fundraising be approached in two different ways: individually, and as a group. There are advantages to each, and a parish may choose to do both. Dave lists strategies and activities that can empower and mobilize a congregation in mission. 

Finally, Dave exhorts one not to “be apologetic or ashamed to raise funds for mission work or disaster relief.  In doing so, you are not asking for a handout, rather you are inviting people into partnership with you. Raising funds expands your support base of the work you are doing and creates awareness such that others may decide in the future too join you.” For more details, you may find Dave’s paper on the ARDF.org website here.

ARDF welcomes Dana Holladay to the new role of Volunteer Coordinator!  Dana and her family attend St. Andrew's in Mt. Pleasant, SC. Having recently retired as a director of a medical non-profit organization, Dana was looking for a service opportunity where she could use her gifts.  In the Volunteeer Coordinator role, Dana will be assisting the Director with managing volunteer information prior to a disaster response trip. Thank you, Dana, for your willingness to serve!

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The Anglican Relief and Development Fund
140 N Ocoee St Ste. 102 | Cleveland, Tennessee 37311
724-251-6045 | admin@ardf.org

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