• We would like to show our appreciation to our community, family, friends and even complete strangers for the outpouring of support we received after our home on Mount Hebron Road in Eclectic was rendered unlivable by the April 27 tornado. We have been humbled by the grace God has shown us, and we are grateful for everyone He has placed in our lives to help us along the way. If ever we questioned just how loved we are, we were shown during the aftermath of such a trying time in our lives.
Our thoughts and prayers remain with those affected by the storm — especially the loved ones of those who were not as fortunate as we were to escape with our lives. And we wish well to those who continue to struggle to rebuild their lives and homes. We feel that we have a great start on the road to recovery in our lives, but we have decided not to move back into our home.
The property will just never look and feel the way it did prior to the storm. We have been thrust back into our previous home, and obviously this is just where we are meant to be. His plan may not always be evident to us, but we trust that He has led us to this bittersweet decision for purposes unbeknownst to us.
We truly are appreciative of all the support and love we were shown. It is a privilege and an honor to be part of each and every one of your lives.
Denny and Ruby Winn
Wetumpka, Ala.
• One hundred backpacks filled with hygiene items, a towel, a washcloth, a copy of the New Testament and other goods, made their way to Cottondale Baptist Church on Aug. 31.
Split into groups of 25, the backpacks were designed specifically for men, women, girls and boys.
Journey Home Fellowship, a small independent house church in Duluth, Minn., raised funds, gathered supplies and packed the backpacks.
Pastor Matthew Bordes said the church wanted to do a “people-to-people ministry” and was looking for ways to reach out to the South.
The church wanted to do something more than send money and “just wanted to respond to the need in love,” Bordes said.
And how did the backpacks make their way from Minnesota all the way to Alabama?
The church asked Halvor Lines Inc. if it would make a “charitable run” with the backpacks — and the trucking company agreed.
Stacy Burnside, a member of Cottondale Baptist, was at the church to help receive and organize the backpacks when they arrived. Burnside said the backpacks will be handed out to the 30–40 families who arrive at the church’s food bank each week for food and household supplies.
• Alabama Baptists are finding ways to minister to churches outside the convention that were damaged by the April 27 tornadoes, like Mount Gilead Primitive Baptist Church in Eclectic.
Mount Gilead Pastor John Wingard requested pews for his church through Penny Flowers, Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions tornado volunteer relief ministry assistant, and within two days, Victory Baptist Church, Bassfield, Miss., called to donate 19 pews. She helped connect the two churches.
Wingard was planning to drive to Mississippi to pick up the 10-foot, teal-fabric covered wooden pews Sept. 6, just in time for his church’s first service in its restored building Sept. 11.
“It was just a God thing,” Flowers said about the timing of the transaction.
• The latest mobile chapel provided by Alabama Baptist disaster relief was placed Aug. 31 at Forest Lake Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa. The Tuscaloosa Baptist Association church received two units.
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