> ** Original Subject: Prayer & Mission NYC, SoCal & Philly being mobilized
> ** Original Sender: "Richard Camacho" <
rickcamacho77@earthlink.net>
> ** Original Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2003 20:32:50 -0800 (PST)
> ** Original Message follows...
>Team, in light of this evenings speech by President Bush and the increase by Homeland Security of the terror alert level to orange, I am sending this email first to encourage you to pray for our nation, pray for our troops and
pray for our family & friends everywhere.
I am also launching this email to clarify what our response is going to be if a terrorist event occurs in the next 21 days. As many of you know, Steve Holden & myself have been in high level discussions with leaders from the National Security Council, Homeland Security and the Faith-Based Initiative over the course of the last 5 weeks. These meetings came about from our involvement with JTTASC (now CADRE) in San Diego.
However, since Feb. 7th, these agencies have been directly working with Mission NYC to prepare a national clergy response plan to mobilize & coordinate Pastors, Chaplains and laity from Christian churches all acrossthe United States for spiritual care services at the site of a terrorist
attack. As a ministry, to date we have raced to expand our database from5,000 to over 20, 000 churches. In addition, our plan is to further expand our nationwide database to approximately 75,000 churches by April 11th in
order to effectively mobilize anywhere in the U.S.
Specifically what we have been asked to do by these federal agencies is to become the authorized gatekeeper that issues credentials for the church to
work inside of the attack perimeter. (example: inside Ground Zero) ID's that we would issue would permit Christians to provide, prayers, lastrites, death notifications, comfort, encouragement and hope without fear of
reprisal from non-believers. More details on this process will follow shortly. That said, as of March 17, 2003, we ARE NOT READY to implement
this plan.
Therefore, it is with this back drop that I now outline our interim response. In the next 21 days, Mission NYC will only mobilize itself to respond to attacks in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. In New York,
we will rally around Harvest Christian Fellowship as our home base. If NYC is unable to support a home base, we will stage from a location TBD in NJ. If Philadelphia becomes a target, we will rally our resources and work underthe leadership of any relief effort initiated by Calvary Chapel ofPhiladelphia. Finally, if Los Angeles is attacked, Phil Presley of Mission SoCal will mobilize his local team of 250 individuals and Mission NYC will rally volunteers and resources to respond and assist.
Please feel free to call me on Tuesday anytime after 12 noon to discuss any part of this note. You are all in my prayers and Jesus reins in all we say and do. May the Lord Bless You.
