{"id":10222,"date":"2015-04-27T17:35:54","date_gmt":"2015-04-28T00:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=10222"},"modified":"2015-04-27T17:38:45","modified_gmt":"2015-04-28T00:38:45","slug":"responding-with-prayer-aid-after-nepal-earthquake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/responding-with-prayer-aid-after-nepal-earthquake\/","title":{"rendered":"Responding with prayer, aid after Nepal earthquake"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Linda Bloom<\/strong>
\nApril 27, 2015 | NEW YORK (UMNS)<\/p>\n

United Methodists joined Christians around the world in a prayerful response to the earthquake that has claimed thousands of lives in Nepal and neighboring China and India. BBC News reported the death toll at 4,000 people<\/a>, with at least 7,000 injuries by Monday evening as the Nepalese army and police undertook massive search and rescue operations. \u00a0Many were living in \u201cvast tent cities\u201d in the capital of Kathmandu as aftershocks from the 7.8-magnitude earthquake continued.<\/p>\n

Five missionaries working in Nepal for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries were reported safe.<\/p>\n

\n

[quote_box_right]PARTNERSHIP IN NEPAL<\/strong><\/p>\n

The United Methodist Board of Global Ministries \u201chas been in mission with the people of Nepal a long time, and that is a great grace in this time of need,\u201d says Thomas Kemper, the board\u2019s top executive.<\/p>\n

United Mission to Nepal, a long-time partner, assigned an officer to in a recent disaster readiness and response training held by the United Methodist Committee on Relief in the Philippines last February.<\/p>\n

The Rev. J. Denise Honeycutt, who leads UMCOR, pointed out that the regional trainings \u201cfortify our partners\u2019 capacity to respond quickly and efficiently to crises.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read full story from the Board of Global Ministries<\/a>\u00a0[\/quote_box_right]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In a joint statement<\/a>, the World Council of Churches and the Christian Conference of Asia called churches around the world to pray for those affected by the earthquake and \u201cextend every possible support for humanitarian aid assistance in Nepal and other affected areas in the neighboring countries.\u201d The World Methodist Council\u00a0also offered its prayers<\/a>\u00a0for the people of Nepal.<\/p>\n

The United Methodist Committee on Relief is planning to offer assistance through international and local partners, including the\u00a0United Mission to Nepal<\/a>, a longtime church partner. UMCOR approved a $90,000 grant April 27 to\u00a0GlobalMedic<\/a>, which will help earthquake survivors access clean water by providing household and public water-filtration units.<\/p>\n

Church organizations begin work<\/h4>\n

UMCOR is part of the ACT Alliance, a coalition of more than 140 churches and affiliated organizations associated with the WCC or Lutheran World Federation, some of whom already have a presence in Nepal.<\/p>\n

The Lutheran World Federation, for example,\u00a0has an emergency team on the ground<\/a>\u00a0and is coordinating its efforts through the ACT Alliance Nepal forum with the Nepalese government and the United Nations.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, the federation distributed tarpaulins, hygiene kits and ready-made food to about 400 families in Kathmandu and is working on emergency shelter and water, sanitation and hygiene materials.<\/p>\n

DanChurchAid,\u00a0which has a local office in Kathmandu<\/a>, is building a temporary tent camp where survivors could safely stay.<\/p>\n

The United Nations refugee agency is sending plastic sheets, 4,000 solar lanterns and tarpaulins for shelter<\/a>, while UNICEF, the U.N. Children\u2019s Fund, is mobilizing to help children and families affected by the earthquake.<\/p>\n

Missionaries survey damage<\/h4>\n

Dr. Mark Zimmerman<\/a>, a United Methodist missionary and medical doctor serving in Kathmandu as director of the Nick Simons Institute, which trains rural health care workers, was with his family in church when the earthquake struck at noon Saturday Nepal time.<\/p>\n

At first, he said, the damage seemed minimal. But Zimmerman and his wife,\u00a0Deirdre Zimmerman<\/a>, a missionary who serves as advisor for nutrition programs, soon learned that was not the case.<\/p>\n

The more serious concern is in the rural areas, where communication and relief support are sparse,\u201d\u00a0he wrote in an April 26 letter<\/a>. \u201cNo one knows the extent of the loss of life and the hardship out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

[quote_box_right]TO DONATE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Donations to support the response to the earthquake in Nepal and other international disasters\u00a0can be made online through UMCOR Advance # 982450<\/a>. Checks also can be made out to your local United Methodist church. Write UMCOR Advance #982450 on the memo line and put in the offering plate.[\/quote_box_right]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Missionary\u00a0Katherine T. Parker<\/a>\u00a0expressed appreciation for the outpouring of concern by church members and\u00a0made specific prayer requests<\/a>\u00a0as the earthquake recovery began. Parker deals with issues of water, sanitation and hygiene as a member of the health team of United Mission to Nepal.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur relief focus will be primarily in Dhading and planning for this has started,\u201d she wrote about the mission\u2019s plans in a Facebook post. \u201cTwo doctors from Tansen left from Pokhara this morning to go to Gorkha. We are coordinating all of our efforts with other local partners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thousands of homes and most schools reportedly were destroyed in Gorkha, one of the closest districts to the earthquake\u2019s epicenter.<\/p>\n

No damage was reported at Tansen in western Nepal, where a hospital related to the United Mission to Nepal was established in 1954 as a partnership between the people of Nepal and a coalition of 20 Christian organizations on four continents.<\/p>\n

A United Methodist missionary couple has worked at Tansen hospital since 2012.\u00a0Dr. Lester Dornon<\/a>\u00a0is a senior physician and\u00a0Deborah Dornon<\/a>\u00a0is coordinator of expatriate services. They also served in Nepal and Tansen from 1990 to 2002.<\/p>\n

\n

Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York. Follow her at\u00a0<\/em><\/em>https:\/\/twitter.com\/umcscribe<\/em><\/a>\u00a0or contact her at (646) 369-3759 or\u00a0<\/em>newsdesk@umcom.org<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Linda Bloom April 27, 2015 | NEW YORK (UMNS) United Methodists joined Christians around the world in a prayerful response to the earthquake that has claimed thousands of lives in Nepal and neighboring China and India. BBC News reported the death toll at 4,000 people, with at least 7,000 injuries by Monday evening as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":10223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[168,32,3],"tags":[462],"class_list":{"0":"post-10222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-missionaries","8":"category-news","9":"category-umns","10":"tag-nepal"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/1-nepal-690x374.jpg?fit=690%2C374&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-2ES","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10222"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10231,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10222\/revisions\/10231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}