Psalm 46 Relief Fund nears $300,000
By Phil Haslanger
Collaboration Project Story Team
When they began the Psalm 46 Relief Fund on April 5, Pastors Marcio Sierra, Jr. and Marcus Allen thought maybe they could raise $50,000 to help the people in their congregations and neighbors who faced new financial hardships because of the pandemic.
By the beginning of this week, they had raised $270,000, helped some 300 families and engaged the collaboration of over 30 congregations as well as other organizations and some 430 individual donors.
Sierra is the pastor at Lighthouse Church, which in addition to providing financial aid has run a food distribution program, that gave out 2,680 hot lunches in April and is continuing to do that in May. (See this story about volunteers helping feed the volunteers.) So far, Lighthouse has given financial assistance to 157 families out of 484 that have applied for help.
Allen is pastor at Mt. Zion Baptist Church and president of the African American Council of Churches. Besides working with the coalition of predominantly black churches to distribute funds to some 160 families already, he is also using money given directly to Mt. Zion by the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dane County and United Way to help more families.
Today (Tuesday, May 12), the African American Council of Churches is putting on a Simultaneous Day of Giving, with $21,000 in $50 gift cards from Woodman’s and a plan to cover individual bills of up to $150 for people who visit any of 13 congregations in Madison and Sun Prairie. They hope to help 120 more people with paying bills plus giving out 420 gift cards.
When Collaboration Project wrote about this effort on April 21, the fund had raised $85,000. The support has continued at a face pace, enabling Lighthouse and the African American Council of Churches to expand their efforts.
They are helping families primarily with rent and utility bills. Sierra has also directed $10,000 of the funds for Lighthouse to the Latino Chamber of Commerce so it can help small Latino businesses stay afloat.
“To see the Church collaborating together is an amazing sight,” Allen said during a Zoom/Facebook Live update on May 11. “We have picked up the boundary lines of denominational, theological approaches to things in order to support things on this level. God has forced us to be the Church…Right now the Church is looking like the Body of Christ.”
Allen referred back to Psalm 46 and its opening lines - “God is our refuge and our strength in this very time of trouble” - and talked about how the community right now needs “God to be our covering and we also need God to be our strength.”
The effort to raise and distribute funds continues as the need for help is not diminishing. The pastors noted that none of the money raised by the Psalm 46 Relief Fund is going to any of the churches or to administrative costs (except for the Pay Pal transaction fees). They are trying to move the money out to families as quickly as possible and have been struck by the many expressions of gratitude they have received from those who they can help.
There is a long list of congregations and organizations that have stepped up to help out. Here is the list to date:
Selfless Ambition, which provided the initial $20,000 for the Psalm 46 Relief Fund
Lighthouse Church
Mt. Zion Baptist Church
The 18 congregations in the African-American Council of Churches
High Point Church
Blackhawk church
Doxa Church
Asbury Church
Metro Believers Church
Gateway Community Church
City Church
Christ Church Madison
Global Presence Ministries
Called Higher Ministries
City on a Hill Church
Grupo Cambiando Vidas
Springs of Hope Fellowship
Mary's Daughter LLC
Reading Simplified LLC
United Madison
Collaboration Project
The Wisconsin Council of Churches
Madison365
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