I always donate to Baptist Disaster Relief. They are top of the line.
Several days ago the local TV station interviewed some kids who were staying at a local Baptist Church. I think the Church had room for 140 people who fled the hurricane.
The kids said they were having fun and it was neat to have all the water they wanted plus free meals which were good. The kids were playing in a nice looking gym and probably recreation room.
This is where I always give to disaster relief. We have several church members who serve on a team and are in Naples right now.
They begin at 6:30 a.m and finish, after cleaning their site, and head off to sleep at 10:00 p.m.!
They report that need surpasses anything they are able to do and will continue to be the situation for foreseeable future.
Many people report losing everything but the clothes on their backs.
I am told that these are people who fall through the cracks of social programs.
My exhausted friends are scheduled to drive 8 - 12 hours home in Saturday but are so sad leaving so many people behind still in same condition as when they arrived.
Please remember these and many other folks giving aid 24/7 to the hurting, for if they run out of energy (after all, they are all 55-70 years old ) they worry about failing the people.
Many years ago Paris Texas was hit with tornadoes, and I was privileged to be part of an SBA team that went in to help clear debris. One of those buses was there, and it was a focal point for relief efforts. Good food too, which kept us working hard. With hindsight, one of the most worthwhile times in my life.
People here go on and on about the Salvation Army but these guys at Baptist Relief should get money if it must be some how be a church related donation.
They get down and dirty in the disaster, hands on.
I took their training and helped out with Katrina. They do a great work. I don’t even belong to a SBC but I contribute to them and the Salvation Army. They do a lot of coordinating together.
My SBC church has 28,000 volunteers in the field in Houston. I am one of them.
We are serving 32,000 meals per day.
We are about 1/4 of the way through this emergency.
Great job they are doing! God bless them.
The Salvation Army is an amazing outfit. I worked with them in the 93 floods and they really worked brutal hours for months on end.
Their bologna sandwhiches are like manna, wonderfully spiced and plenty of it to go around.
My wife is there now helping with a shelter at a convention center in Dallas. It’s mostly children that are there.
Thanks. I was wanting to donate to a group I can trust.
For example, our church opened its "Family Life Center" gym as shelter for several busloads of Katrina refugees.My daughter had already been trained, and, for several weeks, helped to operate a big mobile Hot Showers Unit semi-trailer that was hauled in to our site.
And, it's not only big disasters that are served by SBC Relief. Recently, we went to a cemetery service in a rural area where a small tornado or windstorm had passed through. On the way, we saw a house with a huge tree blown down across its garage and main roof. On our way home we saw a pickup and big gooseneck trailer labeled, "SBC Chainsaw and Rigging Relief Unit" backed into the driveway. Several men already had the tree mostly cut up and were using a portable hoist to remove the pieces without doing further damage. And others were unpacking sheet plastic, plywoood and lumber to temporarily weatherproof the damaged roof.
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Although they sometimes go to house fires in urban areas -- and hand out toothbrushes, etc. -- I seriously doubt the Red Cross ever exhibits any interest in small, rural disasters...
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