Through past disasters and crises like 9/11, Mount St. Helens, Northeast Pacific Bomb Cyclone, Spokane Complex Fires, and others like it, we have quickly determined that local and state government, regional agencies, churches, and ministries alone are not big enough to embrace and handle the magnitude of destruction that a crisis brings. Specifically, government and local agencies are not equipped to minister to the overwhelming emotional and spiritual needs of individuals affected by disasters or crises.
Today, there is a growing sense of urgency amongst Christian leaders that at any given time, anything could happen, and churches must be ready! With the threat of future wildfires, cyclones, tornadoes, escalating threats of terrorism, bio-chemical warfare, and pandemic catastrophes, the body of Christ in our city, like Joseph in the Bible, needs to be equipped to respond to the emotional, physical, and spiritual needs of survivors. In preparation for these events, UIC-GS is training and equipping the body of Christ and churches to be ready for smaller to catastrophic crises within our community or beyond.
The Crisis Response Model
In 2005, during the Hurricane Katrina response in Greater Austin, the Lord revealed to UIC Founder, Daniel Geraci, a vision to build a church network to train and equip the body of Christ to meet the needs of those impacted by the crisis.
The vision includes the following:
Sectors
UIC-GS will divide the city into several sectors and develop each sector to respond to community needs in the event of a crisis. Each sector will have a Sector Leader who will organize and mobilize the community of churches, ministries, and businesses within the sector to work together effectively.
Sector Leaders
Sector Leaders will primarily work with each church’s Church Coordinator (CC) in their sector to develop volunteers, collect data, organize vital resources within their organizations, coordinate training, implement the organization’s crisis plan, and collaborate with other CCs in the sector.
Crisis or Church Coordinator (CC)
Each participating church, ministry, or business will be asked to designate a dedicated Crisis or Church Coordinator (CC) to serve as a liaison between their organization and UIC-GS. Each CC will build a core team of trained volunteers to develop the crisis model within the organization.
Helping Survivors Get Back on Their Feet
The ultimate goal of the church network is to ensure that every individual and family affected by a crisis is connected to the local church and assigned a trained volunteer (shepherd) to meet their emotional, physical, and spiritual short- and long-term needs in an effective, efficient, and organized manner. We believe this is the Lord’s heart. UIC-GS will help identify and train volunteers to be Good Samaritans to those impacted by crisis and will provide additional resources to participating churches through the network of ministries and businesses to help meet the immediate needs of every survivor.
