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Thursday, June 21, 2007

Shane Claiborne's Community Fire

Burn

"This morning, a 7-alarm fire consumed an abandoned warehouse in our Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia. The Simple Way Community Center at 3200 Potter Street was destroyed as well as at least eight of our neighbors’ homes. Over 100 people were evacuated from their homes, and 400 families are currently without power. Despite this developing tragedy, we are incredibly thankful to share that all of our community members and every one of our neighbors is safely out of harm’s way.

This fire will forever change the fabric of our community. Eight families are currently homeless, and in many cases have lost their vehicles as well as their homes. One of our neighbors, the Mahaias Family, lost their three cars as well as the equipment one family member uses for her massage therapy business. Teenager Brian Mahaias is devastated not because he has lost his belongings, but because he fears that this fire will force him to move away from this neighborhood that is his family as well as his home.

The Simple Way has lost a community center that was home to our Yes! And… afterschool program, community arts center, and Cottage Printworks t-shirt micro-business as well as to two of our community members. Community members Shane Claiborne and Jesce Walz have lost all of their belongings, Yes! And…’s after school studio and library were ruined, and community member Justin Donner’s Cottage Printworks equipment and t-shirts were destroyed.

We are thankful that we are able to help each other during this time of need, and we will continue to keep your informed about today’s events.

We have established funds to support the families who have lost their homes, the Yes! And… afterschool program, and the Simple Way community.

A fund to support the families has been established through a partner organization, EAPE. Tax-deductible donations can be made at https://www.tonycampolo.org/online_donation.php. Please make sure to put “Kensington Families Fund” in the memo section.

Donations to the Rebuilding Fund can be made via PayPal to contribute@awip.us.

-The Simple Way Community"



Shane Claiborne is the author of the inspiring book, Irresistible Revolution. I have been around Shane several times back to his days here in Tennessee. He has a great calling and influence. Please join me in praying and giving to the Simple Way as they rebuild their community.

7 Comments:

Blogger slobotski said...

wow---so sad---please keep us posted as to how we can help.

11:21 PM  
Blogger go to www.chadjarnagin.com said...

Donations to the Rebuilding Fund can be made via PayPal to contribute@awip.us.

Chad

9:57 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Chad,
Thanks for dropping by Inept as Icing.
I responded to this post on Los's blog, but I'm glad to see the information making it's way around. Together we can all help.

3:07 PM  
Blogger Kendra Marie said...

thanks for dinner and making the time to fill your life with moments and not minutes.

9:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Chad. You can hear Shane talk about the fire here. We had him on our show on Friday.

Peace.

3:09 PM  
Blogger Michael said...

Hey everybody,

This is Michael (one of the founding partners of the simple way)

Please let everyone know that we are teaming up with EAPE to process donations. You can link directly to the donation form at http://tonycampolo.org/simpleway_donation.php.

But, we are trying to get everyone to go through the website at www.thesimpleway.org for information and donations. Please pass along the word and thanks so much for the prayers and support that you've sent along already.

Michael

12:50 PM  
Blogger go to www.chadjarnagin.com said...

Michael- we love you guys.

I will do another post as an update soon.

Peace
C

10:58 PM  

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