As of the early morning hours of September 6, 2019, Hurricane Dorian continues its northern trek up the eastern seaboard and is far from done with its ability to do damage. As reported earlier the Moravian congregations on the Caribbean islands of St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas and Tortola were largely spared heavy damage from the storm. They are reporting only minor water and wind damage.
Our Moravian brothers and sisters in Florida were also spared any significant damage as the storm made a turn to the north. We then turned our attention to our Moravian brothers and sisters in Wilmington, NC at the Covenant Moravian Church. We are thankful to report that they came through the storm in very good shape. While Pastor Jeff Jones has not heard from all members, he reports that the church building lost only a gutter. Pastor Jeff’s home lost power for only a brief period of time early on Friday morning but this has since been restored and his property is otherwise in good shape. We are aware that isolated areas around Wilmington suffered from tornado and flooding damage, so we certainly want to keep them in our prayers as they move into a recovery mode. The Covenant Moravian Church has hosted mission teams helping with recovery from Hurricane Florence and this work will only continue.
Dorian’s greatest damage to date has been in the Bahamas and while we don’t have Moravian congregations there, we are still quite concerned about the loss of life and the catastrophic damage to homes, buildings, and infrastructure. Our United Methodist partners do have congregations there and if you are led to support them, we ask that you send your donations to the Board of World Mission marked for the Bahamas and we will forward them to UMCOR, the United Methodist relief organization.
We ask for your continued support of the Moravian Disaster Response fund which allows the BWM to respond to disasters immediately with funds for emergency needs, as well as ongoing rebuilding projects. US residents can send donations to: The Board of World Mission, 1021 Center St. Bethlehem, PA 18018. Canadian residents can send donations to: The Moravian Church in Canada, 600 Acadia Drive SE, Calgary, AB T2J 0B8. US residents may also give online by going to www.moravianmission.org/give. Please mark your donation “For MDR”. If you wish to support the United Methodist relief effort in the Bahamas please mark it for that purpose.