Q-C man to lead disaster relief

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By Kay Luna | Wednesday, August 29, 2007 12:03 AM CDT | () comments

Larry Fisher/Quad-City Times Amy and Phil Schissler sort through their kitchen stuff as they prepare to move to Houston where Phil will be national coordinator for the Vineyard Church’s Mercy Response Team. Buy this Photo

He started out traveling back and forth from the Quad-Cities, rebuilding homes in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans.

Now, Phil Schissler, formerly of Bettendorf, is in charge of his church’s entire disaster relief effort nationwide — and his long commutes to see his family in the Quad-Cities are over.

Schissler, his wife, Amy, and their children, who attended Vineyard Church of Davenport, recently moved to Houston, Texas, where he is working full-time as overseer of Vineyard USA Mercy Response from the church’s national headquarters.

“It’s kind of my whole life coming together, with my construction background, my management background,” he said. “I know God’s been leading me in some kind of ministry. I never saw this one coming, but it sure does seem to fit.”

Schissler, 49, said he and his family moved from New Jersey to the Quad-Cities in 1990. His wife, Amy, worked as a nurse, while he worked for Heart of America, building restaurants and hotels for the company all over the Midwest.

He then started his own construction company, but had just closed the business before Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. Money was tight, but Schissler felt called to volunteer to help with clean-up efforts in Louisiana.

He says he intended to stay for just a couple of weeks. But he ended up staying on board as the head of the church’s relief camp in Kenner, La., near New Orleans.

Schissler worked several weeks at a time there, coming home to visit his family in Bettendorf before going back — and that continued for two years, he said.

He credits his wife for holding down the fort in the Quad-Cities with their children.

“It was hard me being in New Orleans, but she did the hard work of staying home and taking care of things,” he said.

Schissler was hired full-time to lead this effort — and other relief efforts across the country — in April. His wife and two of their three children — Hope, 18, and Kelly, 10 — joined him in Texas in July. Their oldest son, 19-year-old Phillip, decided to stay in Iowa.

Schissler is the first one to head the new program, taking over from director Doug Anderson.

The program’s main focus remains in New Orleans, where the church still has a relief camp and a full-time staff of about four people at all times. The church also sends volunteer teams that come every week from all over the country, bringing about 25 to 30 people there per week, Schissler said.

“The main focus has been house gutting, cleaning out — we’ve done over 600 homes,” he said. “We also do construction work. That’s my background. We’ve rebuilt 12 of the pastors’ homes.”

In September, the church will start a rebuilding program for homeowners.

“The other thing I’m working on is I’m trying to get us set up on a national basis so we can respond to anything in the country,” he said.

There are about 600 Vineyard churches in the U.S. and another 700 internationally, Schissler said. For now, the disaster relief effort will focus on the U.S. before branching out around the world, he added.

Pat Street, senior pastor at Vineyard Church in Davenport, said he recommended Schissler — who he considers one of his best friends — for the position, and wasn’t surprised when he was chosen.

“Phil’s a natural leader,” Street said. “He has that leadership type personality that people are drawn to. He’s just a man of integrity.”

Kay Luna can be contacted at (563) 383-2323 or kluna@qctimes.com.