Want to Help with Disaster Recovery

Want to help with Disaster Recovery? 

Here are a few ways your congregation can immediately engage.

Volunteer:  Our partner for Disaster Response, World Renew, is sending volunteer teams regularly to disaster recovery sites all over the United States and is working to set up sites for those impacted by Helene and Milton.  A few of the current sites you can sign up to assist at are in Vermont, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Iowa.  Delmar Reformed Church recently sent a team to the Vermont site and highly recommends it!  Delmar is also looking to put together more teams to return in the spring and inviting others from other churches to participate!  If you are interested in joining that effort or learning more about it, contact Pastor Chris Vande Bunte at cvandebunte@drchurch.org.

World Renew focuses on Needs Assessment for communities, mold abatement and rapid response gutting and mucking, and then sets up long term reconstruction sites.  World Renew trains volunteers and a variety of skills are needed for every site, including people to cook and clean and get supplies!  If you are willing to learn, there is a place for you!  Learn more at:  https://worldrenew.net/disaster-response-services-us.  A representative from World Renew is in our area this week. If you would like to connect with him, reach out to Phil Smart at psmart@worldrenew.net ASAP. 

Donate Supplies & Funds:  Niskayuna Reformed Church is also filling a trailer of supplies to bring to Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Ashville, North Carolina.  Grace Church is receiving donations as they assist in recovery as a distribution site for supplies and are helping displaced people find housing.  You can find more information and give directly through their online portal at www.gcpcusa.org  

The following items are being collected between now and November 14.  They can be brought to the NRC education building (3041 Troy Schenectady Road, 12309) to the second-floor lobby (sanctuary side) where the doors will be open from 9:30am – 3pm Monday – Thursday.  If you need to arrange a different drop off time, please call. 

• Paper Products: toilet paper, paper towels, paper plates and bowls, napkins, plastic silverware

• Cleaning supplies: dish soap, hand soap, laundry detergent, bleach, surface spray, sponges, disinfectant wipes, gloves.

• Snack sized bags of chips

• Batteries: AA and AAA especially

• Flashlights

Is your congregation coordinating an effort in which other synod congregations can help?  Please let us know so we can help get the word out. 

Questions about the above?  Contact Sherri Meyer-Veen at PastorSherriMV@gmail.com

Fill A Trailer.pdf

Download PDF • 87KB

Saying Good-bye with a Blessing

All of the churches in Schoharie Classis, as with most within Albany Synod, have a long, rich, and meaningful ministry within and for their community, some of them for more than 300 years and most for more than 200. So, when the time came, and the Fultonville Reformed Church made the decision to conclude their ministry of over 185 years, they chose to do so leaving behind ongoing support for some of the ministries through which they had blessed the Fultonville, Glen, and Fonda communities and school district over the years.

Rather than continue struggling to provide worship and outreach and spend down their reserves, they petitioned Schoharie Classis to disband them. Through that year-long process, they left a strong financial legacy for the ministries of the local food pantry, the Fonda-Fultonville School District’s Backpack program (which provides weekend and holiday meal support for economically challenged families), and the Haven of Hope ministry. 

Schoharie Classis, following this meaningful witness, dedicated a portion of the sale of the church building, and all of the funds from a bequest the church received during the legal process of disbanding and sale, to these same ministries. Each of those three ministries received additional funds in honor of the decades of ministry initiated by the Fultonville Reformed Church members. And as we discuss the transition from classes and regional synods to middle assemblies, Schoharie Classis is asking how they can build from Fultonville’s example and use their classis assets to enhance local ministries.

Written by Rev. Bob Hoffman, Albany Synod Administrator

Support for Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Did you know there are more than 900 Refugees seeking Asylum that had been housed in four hotels in the Capital Region since last August?  This includes about 90 kids.  There are additional sites in Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo, as well as in New York City.  These are just the people under the jurisdiction of the Doc.Go state funded program, there are others sponsored by other companies and groups.  

When they first arrived by bus last August, those housed at the Rotterdam Super 8 faced a group of protestors that shook the bus and even broke off a mirror.  Many were afraid to get off the bus.  They lived in the small motel rooms as families, with only a mini fridge and microwave, for 10 months, receiving pre-packaged food each day, waiting for their cases to be reviewed and their requests for asylum and temporary work permits to be acted on.  The Rotterdam Super 8 had frequent issues with the fire alarm system, finally resulting in an evacuation near the end of May that resulted in being bused for many hours to three different hotels.  They were turned away by two of these hotels as soon hotel management found out they were a part of the "migrant" asylum seeking group.  At one hotel, they were checked in and were getting settled when they were then asked to pack back up and leave.  

Recently Niskayuna Reformed and Lynnwood Reformed were able to mobilize quickly to help the last two of the Rotterdam families get settled in apartments.  Lynnwood filled a UHaul with furniture and household items, assisting the Migrant Relocation Assistance Program in setting up the apartments for these families.  

Are you or your congregation interested in learning more and getting involved with helping refugees and asylum seekers?  Please let Sherri Meyer-Veen know as efforts are ongoing.