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Coast
Family Association,
New Name, Rebuilds After Hurricane Katrina
N E W
S R E L E A S E
July 11, 2009 
In July 2009 we changed our name from Gulf Coast American Family Association
to Coast Family Association (CFA).
Three years after Hurricane Katrina, when we decided to rebuild, we were notified by the American
Family Association (AFA) that they no longer do local affiliate work.
AFA spokesman Buddy Smith stated: "I am sorry to learn that you suffered so much loss
by Hurricane Katrina. We made a decision in 2005 to close all local AFA
affiliates so I guess this explains why you missed the memo.
We are grateful for your work in the past and pray God’s direction for
your future.
Obviously we were shocked. We were greatly
disappointed to hear that AFA had chosen to withdraw completely out of local
community-based, grassroots organizing across America. We are also
frustrated by the fact that in 2005 AFA and AFR organized a nation-wide
Katrina relief effort that never made it to us, even though our Gulf Coast
AFA office was destroyed.
Regardless of the situation and the abandonment we feel from AFA, we remain
committed to organizing the Pro-Life and Pro-Family work on Mississippi Gulf
Coast. REBUILDING AFTER KATRINA In
May 2009, the Board of the Gulf Coast American Family Association, now Coast Family Association, decided to re-activate its work stating that after 3 years in
helping rebuild others' lives is was now an appropriate time to rebuild our
ministry. The Board hopes the Christian Community on the Coast is also
now ready to re-engage in Pro-Life and Pro-Family work that we
have helped lead since 1993. Coast Family Association (CFA), formerly
Gulf Coast American Family Association, is based out of Biloxi and
serves the 6 coastal counties on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Since 1993, David Rogers (aka "Pro-Life Dave"), has served as President. When Hurricane Katrina hit, Dave lived two blocks off the Beach in Biloxi and the Gulf Coast AFA office, located about a mile from the beach, was totally destroyed. See Dave's Katrina Story and Our History. Until recently we have not even considered asking for help in rebuilding our ministry because we rightly needed to be focused on helping others in the community first. Now that we are 3+ years out from Katrina and things are starting to feel a bit more like normal our Board felt it was now time. To date, we has never gotten any assistance and what we salvaged from our destroyed office has sat in a storage unit. Our President, David Rogers, is still homeless and has been living with relatives in and out of the area. His business on the Coast was destroyed and he has survived by taking odd-jobs wherever he was at.
Please
seriously keep us in your prayers and prayerfully consider what you can do,
either in helping get the word or helping directly.
Coast Family Association is a 501(c)(3) corporation so donations are tax-deductible. Our web site (CoastFamily.org) also has a way that you can donate online. ### |
We are
asking the Christian Community to assist in creating a financial foundation
from which we can create a new base of operations.
One urgent need is for a motor home
for David Rogers to live in and to operate our office
out of, the second area is regular operating funds. An older, used
motor home can be donated, bought for $15,000 to $20,000, or partially paid
for with someone to also pay a loan note.