Reaching out to Katrina Victims Through Your Awana Program

For those who’ve lost their homes, jobs and entire neighborhoods, finding a sense of belonging could be life changing. Hurricane Katrina victims need your help to develop a home away from home, and some may need to hear for the first time about God’s gift of a heavenly home. The Great ShakeUP is a wonderful opportunity to reach out to evacuees as you’re already reaching out to your community.

How can you pull evacuees into your Awana program and the Great ShakeUP?

• Contact your city government or local newspaper to find Hurricane Katrina victims who may have relocated to your area.
• If your city has a shelter for victims, consider getting a group together to pass out Great ShakeUP bracelets or transfers to kids as an invitation to the GSU. You could also distribute copies of TransPort, the new Awana comic-book style evangelistic tract.
• Use the new parent welcome booklet as an ice breaker with displaced moms and dads to invite their families to your church and their kids to this special outreach week.
• If evacuees are staying with individual families, offer those families your (or your church’s) assistance in preparing meals or providing transportation. Your service and compassion could open doors to invite them to your church and the GSU.
• Talk to your clubbers about intentionally reaching out to evacuees that may have just enrolled in local schools. Displaced kids really need friends now and would appreciate an invitation to the Great ShakeUP.
• If your town is now home to numerous evacuees, consider submitting a press release to your local newspaper promoting Awana and the Great ShakeUP along with any assistance your church is already offering to evacuees.

These are just a few of many ideas you can use to make evacuees in your area feel stable, included and loved. Since the Great ShakeUP is all about reaching out to your community and pulling new people into church to discover a personal relationship with Christ, use the program in a special way to reach out to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Here’s how we’re helping

Is your Awana program already reaching out to victims of Hurricane Katrina? Let us know what you’ve done or are doing so we can share your ideas with other churches.