Mississippi Baptist vols join Hurricane Idalia response effort
JACKSON, Miss. (Special) – Mississippi Baptist Disaster Relief (MBDR) is mobilizing the first volunteers in response to Hurricane Idalia that struck Florida August 29 and raked several Eastern Seaboard states the following days.
“At the request of Georgia Baptist Mission Board Disaster Relief, MBDR is deploying three chainsaw/debris removal teams from Attala Association in Kosciusko, Temple Church in Hattiesburg, and Jackson County Association in Pascagoula to Northside Baptist Church in Valdosta, Ga., to assist with storm cleanup and ministry following Hurricane Idalia,” reported Hubert Yates, disaster relief director for the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board in Jackson.
“These three teams will be departing their respective home locations on September 7, with an anticipated return on September 13,” he said.
In case of further activations, Yates is requesting that credentialed MBDR volunteers advise his office of their availability to deploy at hyates@mbcb.org. Telephone: (601) 292-3335. For more information on MBDR, click here.
According to Baptist Press, multiple state conventions that are part of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) have geared up to respond to those in need following Hurricane Idalia.
Send Relief, the joint compassion ministry of Southern Baptists’ International Mission Board in Richmond, Va., and North American Mission Board in Alpharetta, Ga., dispatched an 18-wheeler loaded with emergency meals, bottled water, mold remediation, protective personal equipment, and other emergency supplies to support the response in Florida and South Georgia.
SBDR teams from state conventions in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina set up feeding and response sites over the past weekend throughout the Big Bend region of Florida where the storm hit hardest.
The storm moved through South Georgia as a Category 2 before weakening into a tropical storm as it entered South Carolina.
Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief Director Dwain Carter told The Christian Index that state’s deployment will include mobile kitchen crews, heavy equipment operators, chainsaw teams, chaplains, family care volunteers, mobile laundromats, and shower units.
“Our teams are seeing lots of trees down,” Carter told the Index, as reported in Baptist Press. “There’s still no power in a lot of the area. Communications are very spotty at best. I would guess we’ll be there a minimum of three weeks.”
Send Relief’s Valdosta (Ga.) Ministry Center utilized a mobile kitchen to feed first responders in that area beginning Aug. 30, and will continue to provide meals as needed, according to Baptist Press.
To make a financial contribution to MBDR, click here. At present, in-kind contributions are not being accepted by MBDR. The disaster relief ministry in Mississippi is supported by gifts to the Mississippi Cooperative Program and the Margaret Lackey State Missions Offering.