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Benefit Concert Highlights Katrina Response Update

SILVERHILL, AL (September 16, 2005) - A special benefit concert this weekend to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina has special significance for one Evangelical Covenant Church pastor who also enjoys a dual career as a Christian recording artist.

It was just one year ago that Florida pastor Jim Black was scheduled to perform in Silverhill's annual community festival - an event that eerily enough had to be canceled at the last minute due to severe damage in that area from another hurricane that pelted the southeastern region of the United States. Black is pastor of Hope Community Covenant Church in Boynton Beach.

Many individuals and families displaced by Hurricane Katrina have found their way to Silverhill where churches, including the Evangelical Covenant Church, have offered refuge and support. Local officials early on had considered canceling the annual festival again this year, but changed their minds, deciding it was more important to come together and lift the spirits of everyone in the community.

Black, who had already been booked for this year's event (following last year's cancellation), is scheduled to perform "Here I Am," a song he composed and recorded specifically to benefit storm victims. To listen to an Mp3 file of his new song, please visit Click here to listen to "Here I am" (MP3 Format) Black requests that those downloading the song make a donation for Hurricane Katrina relief to Covenant World Relief (CWR), which can be sent to CWR at 5101 N. Francisco Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60625. Black says a new album containing the song will be recorded in October and released in time for Christmas. For more information, contact him at Theblacks04@aol.com.

Black is scheduled to sing and preach at the Silverhill Covenant church on Sunday. He says he wants to learn how his Florida congregation can help the church in Silverhill in the future, noting that the needs will be great for a long time to come.

Numerous Covenant congregations continue to provide support for victims of the storm through a variety of initiatives.

Hope Community Evangelical Covenant Church in Houston, Texas, has a new website that lists the needs of people the congregation assisting as they relocate to that community. To learn more about that effort, please see Hope Community Covenant.

A semi-trailer truckload of items collected from residents of Easton, Connecticut, by the Covenant Church of Easton left for Mississippi on Wednesday (see accompanying photo). The congregation had advertised on television and radio for items to be donated by residents of the community.

The Southeast Conference retreat for staff and local church pastors was canceled. The retreat had been planned for October 4-6, but the facility at which the retreat was scheduled is housing 300 storm victims. Other sites were deemed to be too expensive.

Faith Covenant Church in Burnsville, Minnesota, has registered with the National Guard's Camp Ripley to take in two families. The camp has set up temporary housing and is expecting at least several hundred people. Two teams of people have registered with Samaritan's Purse to help with labor. One team is standing by on 48-hour notice and the other will make a trip sometime in October.

In Houston, Hope Community Covenant Church has found housing for several family members of a larger extended family. "It's a wonderful blessing," says pastor John Fagg. "I'm glad we're in the middle of it. They're really doing well - they have such a strong faith." One of the adult sisters is a music teacher and will sing a solo accompanied by her son during this Sunday's worship service. Another of the evacuees will give her testimony the following Sunday.

Covenant World Relief continues to help orchestrate relief efforts in a number of ways:

• Housing - Those interested in offering housing to displaced families may visit this special link, Housing, to complete and submit an information form. That information will be used by Covenant World Relief to match displaced people with available housing, possibly working at times with other relief agencies that are partnering with Covenant World Relief in coordinating responses. Offers of housing are not binding - the actual decision can be made once a need has been identified and the potential housing donor notified.
• Contributions by check - Those interested in donating to the Covenant Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund administered by Covenant World Relief may do so by sending checks made payable to Covenant World Relief and earmarked for hurricane relief to Covenant World Relief, 5101 N. Francisco Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60625.
• Contributions online - Those interested in donating online using a major credit card may do so by visiting Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund. All online gifts will receive a charitable acknowledgement by mail for tax purposes.

Editor's note: For those who never want to miss one of these update reports or other news about Covenant ministries involving local churches, conferences and shared denominational initiatives, we offer a free service called Newswire. To those who sign up, it delivers one email each day containing the headlines and a few lines of copy for each story posted to the online Covenant news report during the previous 24 hours. To register for this free service, please go to Newswire.

To read earlier storm-related stories, please visit the following links:

• Relief Donations Nearing $300,000 Mark
• Father-Son Team Hauls Relief Supplies to New Orleans
• Relief Housing Registration Form Now Available
• North Park Reaching Out to Displaced Students
• Monetary Support Still Most Effective Relief Tool
• Words Help Paint Picture of Devastation
• Still a Long Way to Go
• Covenant Relief Dollars Already Hard at Work
• Covenant Churches Respond to Victims' Needs
• Florida Church Offers Help to Hurricane Victims
• Storm Forces Evacuation of Skilled Nursing Residents
• World Relief Responding to Hurricane Victims

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