Report from MNA

This is the latest update from MNA:

The web page http://pcarelief.org was up just a few days before we were so overwhelmed with offers of housing that we stopped taking new registrations. Please see further details under Housing below. Thank you for your great outpouring of concern and your offers to address the needs of people all across the area impacted by Hurricane Katrina. May we be a people of prayer especially during these challenging times. Jim Bland, MNA Coordinator

Housing for Evacuees:
Offers of housing were so overwhelming that we are not accepting further registrations at this time. You may still register if you need housing. The deacons of Woodruff Road Presbyterian in Simpsonville, SC, have volunteered to coordinate the responses, matching those in need with homes offered. Many of those who are seeking housing have very complex needs.

For all information on MNA coordination of PCA Disaster Response, go to: www.pca-mna.org. Please review the web site frequently. We are posting updates at least daily. Please help spread the word.

Call for volunteers for clean-up and other services:
MNA Disaster Response is coordinating the Hurricane Katrina response effort for the PCA working out of a command post in Brandon, Mississippi. We need you, and we will need many more volunteers in the weeks and months ahead. If you have registered, we will be calling on you in the near future. Below is a list of our staging areas that either have been or are in the process of being set up and the areas that are being served.

Staging Area & Areas Being Served
· Brandon, MS: serving as Command Center
· Picayune, MS: Picayune, MS & Slidell, LA
· Mobile, AL: Biloxi & Gulfport
· Hattiesburg, MS: Hattiesburg & Laurel
· Prentiss, MS: Prentiss, Hopewell, Mt. Olive, MS

In addition, Faith PCA in Brookhaven, Mississippi is operating as a shelter for refugees. Pear Orchard PCA in Jackson, Mississippi has adopted a sister church, Columbia PCA, in Columbia, Mississippi and will be taking care of that area.

· Presbyteries who are close by: volunteers from your churches will be able to get in most readily, if your own communities can spare their labor there.
· Volunteers are welcome from any and all of our churches and presbyteries.

Two ways to let us know you want to volunteer:

· You may register as an individual on the web site. We will then add you to a team. PCA Relief
· If you are putting a team together, you may register your team on the web site. PCA Relief

It will greatly help our management of telephone calls if you are willing to register and then let us call you back. If you must begin with a phone call, you may reach MNA Disaster Response at 636-299-1422 or 636-299-1424.

We will have information on which site needs the volunteers and what the conditions are and what you will need to bring. Thanks to the generous time commitments of volunteers in the Jackson area especially, we are set up now to handle the volume of calls we are getting, but please understand that we will usually need to call you back, rather than talk through the details right when you call. If you already called or registered on the web site, we will be calling you. Communities are opening up gradually and we are still dealing with gasoline problems and other logistical limitations, so please be patient as we work with you to determine the best time to come in.

Thank you for all you are doing. The PCA is making a difference, and I pray we are salt and light to the hurting communities. Ron Haynes, Disaster Response Director