After an F5 tornado nearly wiped a Kansas community off the map May 4 and as firefighters in Georgia battle the worst wildfire in the state’s history, Southern Baptists are doing their best to meet needs.
Disaster relief workers have prepared about 5,000 meals for victims and rescue workers since the most powerful tornado in recent U.S. history destroyed 95 percent of tiny Greensburg, Kan. The tornado, which left a path of destruction 1.7 miles wide and 22 miles long, left at least 11 dead and others hospitalized.
John Lucas of the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists said the convention has a feeding unit stationed at a school in Haviland, about 18 miles east of Greensburg.
Meals are being served from that fixed feeding site, Lucas said, and meals prepared by Southern Baptists are being sent in Red Cross mobile units to the 600–800 National Guardsmen, highway patrolmen and other government workers in the area.
"Because of all the displaced persons going to various cities in the western Kansas area, we didn’t have the larger ministry [involving] persons to feed and assist as we would have otherwise had," Lucas said. "We have been inundated with all kinds of offers from fellow Southern Baptists wanting to send volunteers, but we just don’t have any place to apply them now."
In the short-term, Baptist cleanup crews are not necessary but time will tell if there is a need in the long-term, he said. For now, the feeding unit is meeting needs. Lucas estimated that it might be there for a few more days.
In Georgia, Baptists have opened their churches as well as collected stocks of supplies in the fight against a raging wildfire.
More than 100,000 acres, about 150 square miles and 22 homes have been lost in the past several weeks as drought conditions fueled by lightning strikes have closed schools, businesses and major highways in the southeast portion of the state.
At one point, Sweat Memorial Baptist Church, Waycross, Ga., provided facilities for about 400 students from Ruskin Elementary School who were evacuated when smoke conditions — and flames coming as close as 150 feet to their school — closed their campus.
Caring for the needs of nearly 830 firefighters — including some 200 inmates battling the blaze — and providing needed supplies became a major way for churches to minister. Baptist churches in the area donated baby wipes, towels, lip balm, sunscreen and Visine.
"The reality is that every church in the association contributed in some way," said Freddy Garner, missions team leader for Piedmont-Okefenokee Baptist Association. "We’ve been overwhelmed with support."
Georgia Baptist disaster relief coordinator Stuart Lang said the state’s lone feeding unit was pulled out of the area after six days on-site. (BP)
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