A Ready Hope

Effective Disaster Ministry for Congregations

Kathryn M. Haueisen, Carol Flores

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Year: 2009
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781566994620
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

A Ready Hope: Effective Disaster Ministry for Congregations is an introduction for people of faith who are new to the ministry of disaster preparedness and response. Authors Kathy Haueisen and Carol Flores have both personal and professional experience dealing with the tropical storms and hurricanes that have roared through the Gulf Coast region the past decade. Residents of Houston, Texas, they have worked closely with ecumenical faith-based and other nongovernmental networks, governmental groups, judicatory leaders, and congregations as they have assisted those affected by these disasters. A Ready Hope provides an overview of existing disaster-response networks, details the predictable phases of disaster recovery at both the individual and community level, lifts up helpful and unhelpful ways that congregational leaders and members can be involved in disaster response efforts, and provides resources to prepare congregations to respond appropriately to a disaster in their community. A variety of organizations bring help when disaster strikes. Faith-based organizations also bring hope to the survivors of the disaster and to the other rescue and relief workers who leave home to assist. This book will help people of faith equip themselves to be part of God s heart and hands when a disaster occurs.

Table of contents

• Foreword by Kathy Smith
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Acronyms for Common Disaster Response Terms
• Who’s Who in Caldwell
• Get Trained, Get Ready, Get Going
• The Calm before the Storm: Before Disaster Strikes
• Hunker Down or Get Out of Town: When Disaster Is Imminent
• D-Day and Taking Stock: Communications in Chaotic Conditions
• Calm Down! Emotional Responses in a Disaster
• A Completely Different World: Congregational Roles in Early Relief Efforts
• People, People Everywhere: National Response Organizations
• Bring in the Volunteers: Government and Nongovernmental Agency Roles in Disaster
• The Community that Weeps Together: Long-term Recovery from a Disaster
• Suffer the Little Children: How Trauma Affects the Youngest and the Oldest
• No Going Back: Resiliency and Disaster Recovery
• A Future with Hope: Congregational Life after a Disaster
• Justice, Kindness, and Walking Humbly: Why Engage in Disaster Response?
• A: Red Cross Sheltering
• B: Emergency Kits
• C: Suggestions on Offering Basic Spiritual First Aid
• D: The Role of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in a Disaster
• E: National Nonprofit Disaster Response Organizations
• F: What to Know before You Volunteer
• G: Disaster-focused Time and Talent Survey
• H: Sample Congregational Plan
• I: A Place for All Sizes