Jan. 3, 2005
By Jan Snider

He wasn't sure it would work, but the Rev. Dann Houghton was willing to give it a try. As pastor of two small churches in Oregon, Houghton decided to hold a "Tsunami Sing" before the Jan. 2 Sunday service.

"For a donation to the relief fund, we sang requested hymns," Houghton says. He leads the Drain and Yoncalla United Methodist churches in the Oregon-Idaho Annual (regional) Conference.

He wasn't expecting the response that followed. "I was flabbergasted!" Members would enthusiastically call out hymns, and everyone would join in singing, he says.

Both churches are small, with less than 40 members each. After the "Tsunami Sing," Houghton counted nearly $400 in donations that will go directly to the United Methodist Committee On Relief. The churches will do it again next week, with a slight change: the right to pick the first hymn of the service will be auctioned to the highest bidder.

UMCOR will forward all the money to Asian relief and recovery efforts in response to a Dec. 26 earthquake in the Indian Ocean. The undersea quake resulted in tidal waves that struck at least 12 countries from Southeast Asia to Africa. Nearly 140,000 people are confirmed dead, but thousands are still missing.

Conferences across the globe have appealed to member churches to take up donations for tsunami and earthquake survivors.

Nearly 2,000 miles away from Houghton's small churches in Oregon, the Memphis Conference also took a creative approach to raising funds for UMCOR.

Collins Dillard is a graphic artist. "I think visually," he says. After viewing news reports on television, he prayed about what to do, fell asleep and awoke with a plan.

Dillard designed T-shirt logos and printed up T-shirts in what he calls "urgent red." His children wore the shirts during Sunday's church service at Scenic Hills United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tenn. They also passed out bulletin inserts from UMCOR and requested that donations be made to the agency.

"What is key to success is the fact that UMCOR has made information so accessible, and 100 percent of what they collect goes directly to the need," Dillard says. "That's why I think there is strength in giving through UMCOR."

The logo features a heart and contact information. On the back, emblazoned over the words, "please give," a verse from Psalm 69 reads, "I have come into the deep waters and the flood sweeps over me, yet God's steadfast love is good."

Dillard prints the artwork on transferable paper for church members who want to make their own T-shirts. He is making the logo available electronically to any organization that wants to contribute to UMCOR's Asian disaster response efforts. United Methodist News Service is also posting the logo for downloading at http://umns.umc.org/.

The Rev. Charlene Gaspar serves Gladwyne United Methodist Church in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference. A longtime collector of postcards, she is auctioning pieces of her extensive collection and donating the proceeds to UMCOR. She has sent out a request to family, friends, and conference churches to add postcards to the auction.

"I'm feeling rather helpless in light of these tsunami events, and this is one way we could come together and provide extra dollars to UMCOR relief," she explains.

Other annual conferences are issuing pleas for donations. In Idaho, the Rev. Eric Brown says his church will match any funds given to the tsunami relief. The funds will come directly out of Pocatello First United Methodist Church's budget.

"We've decided that regardless of the amount and regardless of the difficulties it may cause us in the future, God is calling us to open the church's wallet as wide as individuals' open theirs," Brown says.

The Wisconsin Conference has blanketed local media with information on the UMCOR relief effort. "We've received calls from non-United Methodists who saw the television interviews or heard the radio news items. They called the conference center to make a donation because they really liked the idea of 100 percent of their money going to the relief effort," says Thomas D'Alessio, conference communications coordinator.

UMCOR has stressed that the relief effort will be a long-term process.

As head of disaster response for the United Methodist Committee on Relief, the Rev. Kristin Sachen is grateful for the church's reaction but cautions that the need will not let up any time soon.

"What I have observed about United Methodists is that even in the week after Christmas, when a lot of people have already given their 'discretionary' charity money and are facing post-holiday debt, it just doesn't matter," Sachen says. "The need is in front of us, and we know that our resources are needed most elsewhere right now. So we give now. And we give later because the needs will be with us for a long time."

Donations to UMCOR's "South Asia Emergency" relief efforts can be placed in local church offering plates or sent directly to UMCOR, 475 Riverside Drive, Room 330, New York, NY 10115. Designate checks for UMCOR Advance #274305 and "South Asia Emergency." Online donations can be made by going to http://www.methodistrelief.org/. Those making credit-card donations can call (800) 554-8583.

United Methodist News Service
Jan Snider is a freelance producer for United Methodist News Service in Nashville, Tenn.