UPPER MIDWEST CONFERENCE
DISASTER
RESPONSE
A Heart for Loving Our Neighbors
We have all prayed for the impact that disasters have had in and outside of our nation and the Upper Midwest Conference has a heart for loving our neighbors when disaster happens. Therefore the Disaster Response Committee of the Upper Midwest Conference has been hard at work to prepare the way for our best practices in disaster response as a conference. Here is a brief overview of our plan. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us using the button below.
Our Response
The Upper Midwest Conference does not collect funds for disasters in or outside our conference area. Instead we are dedicated to seeking partnerships with other disaster organizations that are currently ready to respond. When a partner organization is responding in the area of our needs, we will communicate their contact information so that churches and individuals may volunteer and give directly to these organizations without the delay created by a middleman of funneling the money through the conference. There are many wonderful organizations out there worthy of our ministry funds, but not everyone of them are present in our area of need in that moment.
For example:
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Convoy of Hope was an early responder to several of our needed areas within the conference during the tornadoes of 2024.
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For the flooding Samaritan's Purse had a long term presence in the midst of the areas of our conference affected by flooding.
There are many wonderful volunteer faith organizations that have responded and all have done great work.
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In Times of Disaster
During times of disaster we will release the information of disaster ministry partners who are in place, in the areas of our churches at the time of the disasters both in and outside of the conference. We will communicate these partner ministries information with our conference churches through:
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Our Presiding Elders
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Conference Emails
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The Conference Newsletter
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On our Conference Website ​
Here are three ministry partners that have taken leadership roles both in funding and in volunteers in the areas where our Global Methodist Churches are located. The Upper Midwest Conference Disaster Response Committee requests that we focus our funds and volunteers to these organizations.
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Within the Upper Midwest Conference we have a few pockets of disaster teams ready to respond to disasters locally in their area. Unfortunately we do not have the infrastructure to send "teams" from the conference to set up camps to respond in most areas.
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*Please let our Conference Disaster Coordinator know should your church have a team prepared to respond in the event of a disaster, or if you have willing volunteers eager for training.
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