JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (BP) – As Florida Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers continue to come alongside community residents impacted by Category 4 Hurricane Helene – and with Hurricane Milton now setting its sights on Florida’s west coast – all Florida Baptists are being encouraged to join relief efforts by giving, going and praying.
Less than 12 hours after Hurricane Helene’s Sept. 26 landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region, David Coggins, FBDR director, said that volunteers began transporting and setting up equipment and resources at First Baptist Church in Perry, which is serving as the disaster relief command center. From that command center, hundreds of volunteers have been working with partners, such as The Salvation Army and Southern Baptists’ Send Relief, to provide meals, damage assessment, clean-up and recovery, and spiritual care and witness as they help community residents address immense needs in Hurricane Helene’s aftermath.
Already, FBDR volunteers have prepared 23,963 meals, completed 247 jobs in clean-up and recovery, shared the Gospel 169 times, with 10 individuals making professions of faith.
Because of Hurricane Helene’s strength and size, recovery will be a long-term effort throughout the state. Disaster relief teams will continue to serve “as long as needed,” Coggins said.
Now, less than two weeks after Helene’s landfall, Hurricane Milton, which intensified to Category 5 strength on Monday (Oct. 7), is threatening Florida’s west coast with life-threatening storm surge and strong winds. Hurricane Milton’s landfall is projected to be Wednesday (Oct. 9), and residents in the storm’s path are being urged to prepare and evacuate if possible. Disaster relief leaders are monitoring the progress of Hurricane Milton and will be prepared to respond as needed.
If Hurricane Milton makes landfall as projected, it will be a major blow to Floridians who have already experienced three hurricanes in the past 13 months: Hurricane Idalia, Aug. 30, 2023; Hurricane Debby, Aug. 1; and Hurricane Helene, Sept. 26, with all three hurricanes making landfall in Florida’s Big Bend.
Coggins understands that Florida residents are hurricane-weary, and he also knows firsthand how responders are growing fatigued in recovery efforts. Still, he said, “We stand ready to share the hope of Christ.”
Steven Ruff, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Perry, acknowledged, in an online video, that three hurricanes in Florida’s Big Bend region in 13 months “does take its toll … Fatigue has set in around here. Everyone is getting tired.”
In an online prayer, Stephen Rummage, Florida Baptists’ executive director-treasurer, prayed for churches and residents who have been “hit so hard three times in 13 months by storms,” asking God to “strengthen them when they are just worn out and stretched thin. God, give them your supernatural strength.”
Many Florida Baptists have been asking how they can help in hurricane recovery efforts. Coggins urges all Florida Baptists to seek opportunities to be the “hands and feet” of Jesus to serve those in need, with three specific areas of focus: give, go and pray.
Give
Financial donations help fuel FBDR recovery efforts. While FBDR is not set up to receive donations of items, Florida Baptists can provide much-needed financial donations, Coggins said in a video message.
All donations for hurricane relief go to a designated account to be used only for relief efforts, Coggins said.
Expressing gratefulness for generous giving toward relief efforts so far, Ruff encouraged Florida Baptists to “not grow weary in giving.”
Rummage prayed for God to “provide the resources we need” in hurricane relief efforts.
Go
Florida Baptists can also volunteer alongside disaster relief teams already serving in hard-hit communities. Any individuals who are credentialed FBDR volunteers can quickly plug into relief efforts, and those who are not credentialed also can serve as day volunteers alongside their fellow Florida Baptists. Volunteers are needed to serve in a variety of ways, from more physically demanding roles such as clean-up and recovery to other vital roles such as administrative tasks or spiritual care and witness.
“We need people. We need hands and feet on the ground helping folks and walking alongside them and walking alongside our churches to help them minister in their communities as best as they possibly can,” Coggins said.
Rummage prayed for God to provide volunteers “to say, ‘Yes, I will help. I will go. I will make a difference.’”
Pray
Prayer undergirds all disaster relief efforts. In all that is done to help Florida residents impacted by disaster, Coggins emphasized, “Jesus gave us a mandate to meet the physical needs of people, but more so He gave us a mandate to meet the spiritual needs.”
He said, “We really want to pray for the survivors who have been devastated and impacted so significantly. We want to pray for them, that God would restore them and that they would have that sense of hope that someone does care and love them and help them come to know the Lord Jesus as Savior or to help them be strengthened in their faith.”
In his online prayer, Rummage thanked God for what He “is doing through disaster relief” and asked God to use even natural disasters “for the sake of the Gospel, that people would hear the good news of Jesus Christ and that people would trust Jesus as Savior through this ministry.” He urged Florida Baptists to join him in prayer, “not only today but in the days to come.”
This article originally appeared at flbaptist.org.
