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Archives For November 30, 1999

Disaster Relief volunteers respond to flooded communities in Illinois

Meredith Flynn —  May 7, 2013

Tuesday_BriefingTHE BRIEFING | Meredith Flynn

The days start early for Disaster Relief volunteers helping to feed families displaced by recent flooding in Illinois. Around 5 a.m., the small team tasked with preparing 1,000 meals a day starts on lunch. It’s cooked and packed before most people have eaten breakfast. Then, they start on dinner.

For more than a week, Disaster Relief blue cap Jim Weickersheimmer has led the effort out of Woodland Baptist Church in Peoria. The team is using a mobile kitchen owned and operated by Illinois DR, and also has full run of the church’s kitchen facilities.

“And we are quite an imposition,” said volunteer Jamie Kincaid. “I mean, they have stuff going on every day and we’re kind of in their way, and they have been unbelievable.”

Disaster Relief volunteer Betty Stone prepares meals to be delivered to victims of recent flooding in Illinois.

Disaster Relief volunteer Betty Stone prepares meals to be delivered to victims of recent flooding in Illinois.

Woodland is sharing their building with more than just the Disaster Relief volunteers – twice a day, Red Cross ERV’s (Emergency Response Vehicles) pile into the church parking lot, waiting to be filled with meals that will be distributed around Peoria. The feeding effort will close down today, but relief efforts are far from finished.

A “mudout” team also is expected in Peoria this week to help residents begin the process of cleaning their homes, and similar work is taking place 90 miles to the northeast, in Marseilles. Illinois teams will continue to work in those locations and others, likely with help from Disaster Relief crews from neighboring states. Since flooding began in mid-April, nearly 50 counties in Illinois have been declared State Disaster Areas.

To donate to Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief, click here.

Other news:

ESPN’s Broussard ‘resting on the scriptures’ amidst controversy
After ESPN’s Chris Broussard came under fire for comments about homosexuality, he thanked Christians for supporting and praying for him. “I believe God is getting all the glory from this and I’ve been resting on the scriptures, ‘blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness sake.’ So I know this is a blessing,” the basketball analyst said during a teleconference hosted by the K.I.N.G. Movement, a ministry he founded. Broussard shared his view – that living a homosexual lifestyle is “open rebellion to God” – in the wake of NBA player Jason Collins’ announcement that he is gay. Read more at ChristianPost.com.

Ravi Zacharias: From attempted suicide to life in Christ
Author and Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias writes about his early struggle with failure, and how it led him to attempt suicide, in a column for ChristianityToday.com.

More like Jesus, or more like the Pharisees?
New research from Barna shows 51% of people who identify themselves as Christians are “Pharisaical” in their attitudes and actions, where only 14% are characterized by the actions and attitudes of Jesus Christ. Read more at Barna.org.

‘Experiencing God’ – the movie
The “Experiencing God” discipleship study authored by Henry Blackaby and Claude King is subject of a new documentary film and the inaugural release of LifeWay Films, a division of LifeWay Christian Resources. “Experiencing God” was first published in 1990; it has since sold 7 million copies and has been published in more than 45 languages. Read more at BPNews.net.

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Disaster Relief response to storm expected to extend to December

Meredith Flynn —  November 13, 2012

Editor’s note: The IBSA Pastors’ Conference and Annual Meeting begins today, November 13, in Decatur, Ill. Check back here for updates, or follow along on Facebook.com/IBSA and Twitter.com/IBSA.

THE BRIEFING | Two teams of Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers are serving now in the hurricane-ravaged Northeast U.S. IBSA’s Rex Alexander reported that a flood recovery team from Three Rivers Association is serving in the hard-hit North Oyster Bay area of Long Island, where they’ll assist with mudout and chainsaw projects.

A feeding team of 31 people from Illinois also is in New York this week, serving on Staten Island. The team, representing 21 Illinois churches and 14 local associations, will replace a Kentucky Baptist team and use that state’s kitchen trailer already in place.

“I was very encouraged that we put together such a large team in about two days when we were asked to replace the Kentucky volunteers,” Alexander said. He’s already received a request to be ready to replace the team with more volunteers next week.

The Illinois workers join a strong Disaster Relief response that’s been at work in New York and New Jersey since immediately after Hurricane Sandy devastated the area. Southern Baptist volunteers have provided 670,000 meals so far, and leaders are preparing for an extended, multi-faceted response, said national DR coordinator Fritz Wilson.

“Although we’ve been told by New York officials that some of our kitchen operations may consolidate in the state, they told us to expect to continue providing meals into December,” Wilson told Baptist Press.

Close to 900 Southern Baptist volunteers from 27 states and Canada continued to provide ministry with shower trailers, mud-out and clean-up crews, and home repairs. Wilson is providing leadership from the New York and New Jersey incident command centers hosted by Raritan Valley Baptist Church in Edison, N.J. A second NAMB mobile incident command center is in transit to the church.

The Sandy response will also include childcare provided by Disaster Relief volunteers, with units en route from Ohio and South Carolina. Planning continues to allow college students to use their holiday breaks to voluntarily serve in the affected areas.

For more on the Disaster Relief response to Hurricane Sandy, go to NAMB.net/dr.

-With information from Baptist Press

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