Southern Baptists Continue Relief Efforts, Emphasize Spiritual Needs
Since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita slammed into the Gulf Coast only weeks apart from each other, the Southern Baptist Convention has been one of the most active groups in bringing support, both physically and spiritually, to those who have been devastated by the storms.
The efforts of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) – the denomination’s relief agency and the third-largest disaster relief operation in the country behind the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army – have reached historic proportions. Around 6,000 volunteers from 38 state conventions have served in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Texas following the two storms, with 198 mobile disaster units still on site in affected areas as of last Monday.
SBDR feeding units, which prepare most of the meals distributed by the American Red Cross, served a record 4.8 million meals to evacuees and relief workers in just three weeks after Katrina hit in late August, besting the previous record of 2.5 million meals served by volunteers during Hurricane Andrew, which hit South Florida in 1992.
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Numerous Baptist churches in the Gulf Coast region and areas surrounding it have been transformed into Red Cross shelters, while LifeWay Christian Resources of the SBC recently dedicated $6 million to hurricane relief.
But despite the costs behind SBC’s generous efforts, the group has denied recent offers for compensation from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) – a division within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
On Monday, FEMA announced that churches and other religious organizations that opened its doors to the hurricane victims would be eligible to receive federal funding to assist their relief efforts and be reimbursed for the overriding costs incurred along the way.
"Volunteer labor is just that: volunteer," said the Rev. Robert E. Reccord, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board, which manages the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief.
Reccord told the Washington Post, "We would never ask the government to pay for it."
In an interview with Fox News Channel’s Brian Kilmeade, Reccord said that, for Southern Baptists, responding to tragedy is, “more of a lifestyle and calling than a job” – an attitude that also allows church volunteers to address aspects of relief that other relief agencies cannot.
In addition to their efforts to tend to the physical devastation left by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, church volunteers – more often than paid relief workers – are able to build long-term relationships with hurricane victims, as well as provide "spiritual help and counseling," according to SBDR spokesman Joe Conway. And to many Christian leaders, the spiritual and emotional needs are equal, if not greater, than the physical need.
After witnessing first hand the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. wrote in a column that "what is really painful is the emotional and spiritual toll from the storm" and that "in the greatest hurt is the greatest opportunity for ministry."
In a column written for BP, Pastor Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, wrote that there is a "desperate sense of urgency in these times."
"How many people do you know who feel as though they have been ripped apart by a storm in life?" he writes. "We must seek the one who specializes in helping people get their lives back, and His name is Jesus – the Way, the Truth and the Life."
Pastor Jeff LaBorg of College Heights Baptist Church in Gallatin, Tenn., told BP that, in these times of "turmoil and uncertainty," sharing the Gospel is "an urgent priority."
“This is the day of salvation. There has never been a greater opportunity to mobilize the church with the Gospel than right now,” he said. “As the backdrop of natural disasters and economic upheaval grows darker, we could not be in a greater position to let our light so shine that the whole world would see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven.”
A “Spiritual S.O.S” was issued earlier this month by Southern Baptist Convention President Bobby Welch after he visited SBC churches that were destroyed by Katrina.
"We need to pray, pray, pray, give, give, give, and go, go, go,” he told BP, “as we never ever have in all of our convention's history for the sake of lost and dying souls, for the sake of Jesus Christ, and for the sake of the Kingdom of God."
Evangelist Franklin Graham, who was scheduled to hold an evangelistic crusade in Louisiana in November, issued a report earlier this month in the wake of Katrina's aftermath stating that the storm had "devastated entire communities" and that the spiritual needs, like the physical ones were "immense."
Graham wrote that the goal of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) – which he currently serves as President and CEO – is to "provide encouragement and hope to those whose lives have been forever altered."
"Though they may have lost homes, businesses, or even loved ones, there is a God who loves them and has not forgotten them," he added.
Graham, whose evangelistic crusades usually rely on local churches to cover the costs, has asked supporters of the relief effort to "consider a special gift to help us respond to the spiritual needs in the wake of this catastrophe."
"Your gifts toward the Crusades in this region can help lift a burden from the local community," he writes. "These hurting people need the Gospel now more than ever."
To donate to Franklin Graham's Crusades, log on to www.grahamfestival.org.
To donate to Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, visit www.namb.net.
