Illinois church changed
by Joplin relief effort
By Jason P. Reagan, The Layman, June 22, 2011
An Illinois Presbyterian church joined forces with seven other area churches to bring relief and hope to victims of recent devastation in Joplin, Mo. following a tornado.
On May 26, First Presbyterian Church of Belvidere, Ill. formed a first-response team with the churches – most of which are Presbyterian – and delivered two truckloads of essential items, several gift cards, as well as a check for $12,208.
An EF5-class tornado wreaked havoc throughout the southwestern corner of Illinois on May 22 in what experts called the deadliest tornado strike since 1947. The tornado reached a width of more than one mile as it wound its way through the beleaguered city.
According to New Creation Church of Joplin, needed supplies include:
bath towels
aluminum foil
multi-vitamins
infant formula
insect repellent
insecticide
bug traps
bug trap bait
female ankle socks
flashlights
Zip-lock bags (gallon and sandwich sized)
pillows
sewing kits
small appliances
denture paste
self-standing shelving
full and queen-size sheets
C-size batteries
Send supplies to:
New Creation Church
1831 S. Connor Ave.
Joplin, MO 64804
The Missouri Emergency Management Agency reported 154 deaths with more than 990 people injured. Officials estimate it will cost $3 billion to rebuild Joplin.
“Really, I cannot begin to describe the human suffering … often likened to the dropping of a nuclear bomb,” Belvidere senior pastor Robert Kopp said.
“I liken what I saw to a one-mile wide old and rusty razor that scrapped for six miles to carve a swath of suffering in the heart of Joplin,” he said.
The eight churches rolled into Joplin from Illinois and New Jersey and immediately went to work distributing supplies and helping to feed and support rescue workers and victims.
The team partnered with New Creation Church of Joplin. The church is located a few blocks from the tornado’s path and has become a shelter and rallying point for relief efforts. Other churches provided a truckload of 11,000 bottles of water.
Churches included (from Illinois unless otherwise stated): Westminster Presbyterian Church (Aurora), Westminster Presbyterian Church (Rockford), Harvard Presbyterian Church (Harvard), Winnebago Presbyterian Church (Winnebago), Osceola Presbyterian Church (Clark, N.J.), Federated Church (Sandwich), St. John’s United Church of Christ (Belvidere) and First Presbyterian Church of Belvidere.
Kopp viewed the experience as a spiritual re-awakening for the churches. “Everything can be taken from people except Jesus and their call to love Him by loving like Him,” he said.
The pastor also admitted the relief trip helped crystallize some of his own convictions.
“I got into this gig to know Jesus as Lord and Savior and make Him known as Lord and Savior,” he said, adding, “I feel like I’ve just grabbed onto the coattail of the Holy Spirit for a ride.”
By getting the church involved in such relief efforts — what he calls “dirty work for Jesus” — Kopp said the process convicted him that he needed to get away from what he calls the “imperial priesthood” of clerical robes and accoutrements.
“Metaphorically, I think of it as shedding outrageously expensive vestments like winged-tips, button-downed Brooks Brothers shirts, Cokesbury cuties and fancy stoles that redirect money from the poor to clergy who should know better — to jeans, T-shirts and steel-tipped boots,” he said.
And the church’s recent relief effort has apparently motivated Belvidere to put on some boots and offer more help. Kopp said Belvidere plans to send a group of 30-50 people back to New Creation Church on June 26 to conduct a weeklong session of vacation Bible school. The church also hopes to send another relief team in July.
Kopp describes the church’s vigor to respond as a “vision/wineskin-expanding” process that will lead Belvidere to “continue the journey from typical mainline museum or mausoleum to mission post.”
That journey has also resulted in a new mission of expanded disaster relief for the congregation.
The church plans to form a First Response Team to assist relief efforts following natural disasters within a 500-mile radius of Belvidere. The team will be structured to roll within 24-48 hours after such a disaster. Kopp said the team will provide “water, food, toiletries, muscle, prayer and caring presence.”
“The folks in our church have caught the vision for this like crazy,” he said, adding, “while it’s hard for a guy with a Calvinist bent to admit, I’ve been humbled by the generosity of our family of faith at First in Belvidere.”
For updates on First Presbyterian Church of Belvidere’s relief efforts to Joplin visit the church’s website.
To donate to the Joplin relief effort, visit the New Creation Church website, or mail tax deductible donations to New Creation Church, 1831 S. Connor Ave., Joplin, MO 64804. For information about sending a volunteer mission team to Joplin, click here.