Churches responding to Hurricane Katrina
September 9th, 2005Today’s New York Times includes a story about the response of churches to Hurricane Katrina. It references the Southern Baptist Convention’s disaster relief effort, which has served more than a million meals so far.
Also included are the measures individual churches are taking. So, let me ask, has your church done anything specific to help with the relief efforts? I’d like to hear how your churches are responding.
Immanuel Baptist Church, Benton, IL:
1. Prayer - for those afflicted and to the volunteers helping to provide assistance and comfort in this time of need.
2. Our Church will be taking up a special offering the next two weeks.
3. Our youth department is currently putting together plans to raise funds to send as well.
4. Our Local Evangelism Committee is currently putting together a plan to help those who have entered our community.
5. We have volunteers going to attend disaster relief training in a few weeks at Lake Sallateeska, IL. Upon completion they will be added to the list to deploy for the relief efforts.
Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, TN devoted the Wednesday night prayer service on the 7th to prayer for the Gulf Coast and a call for volunteers to staff a shelter in our activities building, as well as make up “relief kits” to be given to evacuees and a call for donations of necessary supplies. By 9:00 a.m. the next morning, there were 1,000 relief kits and so much donated items, they had to rent a couple of Mayflower trucks to hold it. There were 700 volunteers.
We’ve been housing, at its peak, around 100 refugees since a week ago today. They’ll be housed for at least a month. Those needing clothes are taken to our clothes closet in another part of town for free clothing.
Two or three trucks have been filled with donations and taken South. Our first disaster relief team left a couple of days ago. Tuesday night there was a meeting for all those interested in being on a disaster relief team — it was to be held in the fellowship hall, but so many showed up, it had to be moved to the sanctuary.
This past Sunday a special offering was taken to be given to the North American Mission Board’s SBC Disaster Relief efforts.
My church, FBC of Leesburg, FL, is in the process of relocating 15 families to the Leesburg area. The church, through donations, is providing a place to live for a year and setting them up with a job. We were on the local ABC news this weekend throughout central Florida showing what our church is doing in the effort.