A Word of Appreciation for SBC Disaster Relief serving in Eureka

This past Sunday I had the privilege, along with most of our church,  of serving flood victims in Eureka.  Specifically, my wife Heidi and I were able to spend a couple hours in the home of a Eureka woman whose basement filled with sewage.  We were helping her get everything out of the basement for the team she had coming on Monday.  This team was going to sanitize her basement, cut out dry wall that was affected, and get her house on the road to recovery.  So I asked her who she had doing the work.  Her eyes filled with tears as she said, the group is called “Disaster Relief.”  I immediately knew what was happening.  The second largest disaster relief organization in the world was headed to our town to serve.  This organization is Southern Baptist Disaster Relief.

This morning I went into one of our neighborhoods and met some of these volunteers.  There were people from Northern Illinois and several cities all over Missouri. They will be in our town all week serving people without payment as an expression of the love of Jesus.  I am so thankful and appreciative of these teams who mobilized so quickly, and are giving a week to serve our city.  They are sleeping on air mattresses in a local church, eating meals provided for them, giving up a week of their lives, and working long days to help the people in Eureka.  And this is just one of several teams in our region right now.  A team in Ellisville is preparing meals that are being distributed to people all over the St. Louis area who have been displaced.  There are teams in Arnold, Fenton, and another location (guys were not sure what the other town was) doing flood cleanup and restoration.   All of these people come on their own dime and use materials and supplies provided by the North American Mission Board.  For us as a church, this means that a percentage of our Sunday offerings goes to support this work that is happening in our city as we give through the Cooperative Program (see the blog post linked below).  As they serve they will give every home owner a Bible and Gospel information, pray with them, and when possible, share the Gospel.  These people represent a missionary heart that is an expression of what is good about this denomination (about six months ago I wrote a blog post where I shared more information about SBC missionary causes and the purpose of Disaster Relief – Read it here).

So I wanted to write a post that would inform readers of the work these folks are doing, and to say “thank you” on behalf of our church for those who are serving.  I also want to encourage your giving to support their efforts. You can give to Disaster Relief by clicking this link.  We will also collect an offering for their efforts this Sunday morning.

Here is a picture of a few of the people serving right now in Eureka.