08/13/2023
Continued prayers and support for people in Maui…🙏🏾
For our Hawai‘i Conference UCC ‘ohana wanting to support Maui from a distance at this time, you are invited to contribute to our disaster relief fund: bit.ly/hcuccrelief.
For friends outside of Hawai‘i in the United Church of Christ, please donate through the national UCC disaster relief fund.
UPDATE - August 11, 2023:
We are still in a time of disaster response and planning and the situation is very fluid. Our number one concern has been for peoples’ safety and well-being. We are assessing what peoples’ most pressing needs are at this time and trying to ensure that their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being are tended to.
The Conference is taking a two-pronged approach in our response. The first prong is immediate assistance through funds from the HCUCC disaster relief funds reserve. Funds could be used for gas, clothes, toiletries—those types of immediate needs. An initial release of funds was made Thursday.
The second prong is long-term recovery. Danny Tengan is heading this up as the Conference Disaster Ministries Coordinator. He is well-networked and is leading the way. Danny is active with Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters (VOAD) and has already advised that financial funds are the best way to help. Goods gathered on neighboring islands would need to be sorted by volunteers on Maui, straining the volunteer pool there.
He sent out this notice yesterday:
- No food needed. (Salvation Army is the lead) – Too many unannounced volunteers dropping food off that is being wasted.
- Shelter numbers -Tavares - 103, Maui HS - 234, War Memorial - 265, Hawaii Convention Center - 622, Honolulu Airport - 1,400. No count at Maui LDS and King’s Chapel.
- Federal declaration for Individual Assistance approved.
- Five Cellular on Wheels (COW) inbound.
- DO NOT SELF DEPLOY!!!! Too many people plugging up the roads and not enough bed spaces.
- Red Cross has reunification number: 1-800-redcross.
- 211 is Hawaii State VOAD resource number for any type of services needed.
Further, Danny has already alerted our Maui pastors about VOAD’s Long Term Recovery Committee. The Conference will be working in partnership with the Committee which will open cases for each family affected.
All three national UCC officers have contacted us. Karen Georgia Thompson, General Minister and President, shared a prayer and sends her aloha.
The financial entities of the UCC have pledged help and are creatively thinking through best methods to assist the recovery.
For updates on what’s happening on Maui please visit: https://www.mauicounty.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=12672
[Image description: Square info graphic. Background is pink, the official color of the island of Maui. Text reads DONATE with Hawai‘i 2023 Wildfires Relief Fund below it in a bar that is the UCC's shade of blue. There is a URL bit.ly/hcuccrelief, a QR code, a graphic of an extended hand and heart open toward the island of Maui that is part of an image showing the Hawaiian archipelago, the HCUCC logo is in the bottom right corner. Another text block reads We are working with our churches on Maui to distribute funds to those in need in devastated areas. Another text block reads We are praying with Maui.]
