Today's episode is part one of a two-part episode of a Sunspots’ Disaster Partnership Conversation. This episode features Jim Kirk, who serves as the Associate for Disaster Response in the U.S. for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, and Michelle Muñiz, who serves as the Disaster Recovery Coordinator for the Presbytery of San Juan in Puerto Rico.
In this episode, Jim and Michelle share with us how they each came to the roles they now hold in disaster ministry and describe how the gifts of countless Presbyterians given through the One Great Hour of Sharing Offering are empowering congregations and rebuilding the lives and communities of those impacted by disasters.
“There are those events that are smaller in scale, that do not get a lot of recognition, and that are not federally declared disasters. And we’re able to provide immediate support for church damage and immediate need directly because of the One Great Hour of Sharing offering. So if the only way we could respond is to have an appeal, it would be weeks or months before we could get support into the field, but because of the OGHS we have the infrastructure in place to get emergency grants out the door within days. The real life example is that there are fires burning in the Synod of the Sun as we speak in the panhandle of Texas and in Oklahoma.” - Jim Kirk
“Through this funding, churches [in Puerto Rico] were able to develop new ways to respond or to actually expand the services that they were already doing, but we also were able to partner with organizations that were not necessarily connected to our church and even with organizations that were working in communities where there are no Presbyterian presence.” - Michelle Muñiz
Learn more about the PC(USA)’s One Great Hour of Sharing offering and give online: https://specialofferings.pcusa.org/offering/oghs/
Designate a gift to an Active Response area of PDA: https://pda.pcusa.org/page/active-accounts/
Learn more about PDA’s partnership with the Synod of the Sun: https://www.synodsun.org/spdr-about-us
Reach out to Michelle Muńiz directly to learn more about supporting disaster recovery and volunteering in Puerto Rico by emailing: puertorico.pda@gmail.com.
To learn more about volunteering at PDA host sites in the Synod of the Sun and beyond, go to: https://pda.pcusa.org/page/volunteer-work-teams/
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