Rebuilding her business in lower Manhattan has been difficult for Grace Koh. The owner of a children’s clothing store about three blocks from Ground Zero, she knew that filing forms with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Red Cross would stall her efforts to clean up after the September 11 attacks.
“I feel like there are a lot of obstacles in front of me for [getting] help from the government,” she says. Koh, in her late 50s, did not want to take out a long-term loan. “So I didn’t get any help. I’ve just survived myself.”
But Koh shed joyful tears in November when Dave Stone handed her a $2,300 check to cover her rent. Stone is a preaching associate with Southeast Christian Church, a 20,000-member congregation in Louisville, Kentucky, that is giving almost $500,000 to relief efforts in New York.
The church has worked with Go Ye Chapel Mission to distribute funds directly to the needy through congregations that Go Ye Chapel founded in Boston, Washington, and New York. Go Ye Chapel, based in East Islip, New York, is a church-planting ministry of the Independent Christian Church.
Funds from Southeast’s $468,000 offering have gone mostly to people or businesses needing help before they receive money from government or other sources.
The mission can offer the aid while requiring relatively little paperwork, says Paul Williams, president of Go Ye Chapel Mission. “They all know they’ll get some significant funds eventually,” Williams says. “But as one firefighter’s widow said, ‘The money you’re giving us right now means more than millions I might get later.'”
Gary Whitenack, director of finance at Southeast, says the church requires careful accounting. It is disbursing funds to Go Ye Chapel in installments. Applicants fill out a simple form. As Southeast receives an accounting for previous funds, it sends additional grant money to Go Ye Chapel.
Limits are placed on how much any person can receive, depending on need. Church families who have lost loved ones have priority. The mission is not using any of the funds for administrative costs. If funds are left over, they will be returned to Go Ye Chapel.
Whitenack estimates that Southeast’s donations have helped about 1,200 people. Since an article about the outreach appeared in The New York Times, many more individuals and families have approached Go Ye Chapel for help. Williams says ministry leaders will continue to evaluate cases one by one.
Paul Nelson, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, says that churches or organizations seeking to get involved in such ministry should define their mission carefully and trace how the money is used. Southeast, he says, has done so.
Stone believes the donations encourage people. “More than just giving them money, I think we gave them hope,” he says. Koh agrees. “I think God sent that minister,” she says. “With patience, everything will be normal.”
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Related Elsewhere
In the Go Ye Chapel article in The New York Times, Dave Stone tells store owners that the money is to show that they are loved.
The official site for Go Ye Chapel Mission has more information on the organization. The group has also posted an impressive itemized list of how the Southeastern Christian Church funds were distributed.
Previous Christianity Today articles on September 11-related giving include:
Too Much 9/11 GivingCharities overwhelmed by task of distributing $1.5 billion windfall. (December 20, 2001)
Economic Slump, Terrorism Jolt GivingCharities unrelated to September 11 face a difficult year. (November 27, 2001)
Widow of September 11 Hero Starts FoundationTodd M. Beamer fund established to care for children who lost parents on United Flight 93. (Nov. 26, 2001)
Opinion Roundup: Christian Charities Worry About Donation PlungeRelief agencies watch for a decrease in giving and debate how to use 9.11.01 in appeals. (October 19, 2001)
Volunteers Bring Glad Tidings to Ground ZeroChurch located 2.5 miles from World Trade Center feels “God has used [us] because of where we are.” (Sept. 20, 2001)
