News & stories EMM partners scattered by Hurricane Katrina SALUNGA, Pa. – As news of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation poured in, EMM leaders contacted partners and related church plants in the region, beginning discussion of possible long-term EMM response – even as MDS and MCC spearhead the immediate responses to devastation and displacement. Uvencio Arzu, the bi-vocational pastor of the Evangelical Garifuna Church of New Orleans, happened to be in New York with his family when the hurricane hit. As of this writing, there has been little news from the 20-30 people associated with their congregation. Arzu had been licensed for ministry and the congregation accepted into membership of Good News Fellowship last year. Good News Fellowship and its 20-some congregations located in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana, are part of EMM’s supporting network. Arzu’s church had established a building fund and was praying for a building of its own. There is no news about the fate of Arzu’s home, where the church had been meeting. Interestingly, EMM’s monthly Mission Intercessor (printed weeks earlier) had carried this prayer request for August 30, two days after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans: “Pray for Uvencio Arzu, a Garifuna church planter…in east New Orleans. Pray for Uvencio’s very full schedule as church planter, husband, father, and long-distance truck driver. Pray for them to find a suitable meeting place.” EMM also has links to an Amor Viviente congregation in New Orleans, a member of the Gulf States Conference of Mennonite Church USA. Church members have reportedly fled from New Orleans to Houston or Tampa. Most are accounted for. The international network of Amor Viviente churches is planning to take up an offering to assist the New Orleans church, its first international church plant. The church most likely has lost its building. Since fleeing to Houston, the Amor Viviente pastoral couple from New Orleans, Karl and Marlene Bernhard, wrote, "We know God is going to open doors wherever we are to make our way, and we will survive with his strength and his help. As in the primitive church in the book of Acts… we want the Lord to use us wherever we are to witness, to preach, and probably new churches will come to be – as is already happening.” Leonard Burkholder, ethnic group church planting consultant for EMM, says, “It’s important to work for spiritual rebuilding as well as physical. Ten years from now I’d love to see healthy Vietnamese, Chinese, Laotian, and other churches emerging from this rubble,” he said. Good News Fellowship Bishop J.D. Landis echoed that sentiment. “Don’t think short-term. This will require long-term commitment,” he told Burkholder. “As we work to rebuild shattered lives and homes in the region, we encourage people to give funds to Mennonite Disaster Service, which is partnering with Good News Fellowship, Gulf States Conference, and others on the ground,” said Lawrence Chiles, EMM’s representative to the U.S. and Canada. EMM is also consulting with MDS, MCC, and Good News Fellowship for long-term physical and spiritual rebuilding plans in the region. EMM has opened a hurricane relief account to receive funds from persons who wish to support EMM in these efforts. Undesignated contributions given via www.emm.org/donations during September will support Hurricane Katrina-related rebuilding. -Jewel Showalter 8-19-05