Relief, Recovery, & Rebuilding is a journey that no one can do on their own. While it would be impossible for me to properly express my gratitude to all that have helped me and FBC Rowlett throughout this process, I would be doing many of our partners an injustice not to try and mention some of them. Let me just say THANK YOU to all who have offered your wisdom, insight, experience, love, encouragement, and advice during this ongoing process.
Sam Porter with the BGCO Disaster Relief put me in touch with Terry and the Texas Baptist Men. The Texas Baptist Men put in over 1,100 man hours, with over 450 volunteers across the Great state of Texas. The Texas Baptist Men stayed in our church for over 6 weeks. Their team slept on cots and showered in a trailer. They were the first ones in town and the last to leave. They are awesome!
Prestonwood Baptist Church has been invaluable as well. Mike Buster, Joe Perry, Jarrett Stephens, and Pastor Graham have been kind, helpful, and generous to the church and me throughout this process. I am grateful to have worked their during my early days of ministry, and am grateful to still be a part of the Prestonwood family!
Victim Relief Ministries have been incredible as well. Jim was an incredible resource throughout the first 3 weeks of the relief effort, and still serves as an advisor to me personally. He gave us our greatest initial advice in our relief efforts by advising that we not accept used clothing, which allowed our church to have the resources people in our community really needed from the get go. VRM also housed disaster counselors throughout the first 4 weeks at our church.
Guidestone Financial Resources provided us with the opportunity to be Jesus in Workboots to our community. As a result of the insurance they provide, we were able to send out teams from our church to go serve the families in our community to remove debris without having to worry about what would happen if someone got hurt. Not only do they provide this peace of mind, Guidestone actually celebrates the fact that they provide such tremendous services to churches like FBC Rowlett.
Home Depot has been incredible as well. Our local store in Rowlett donated over 1,400 storage bins during the first month of the relief effort. They also sent in corporate executives from Atlanta to Seattle. One multiple days, they sent over 100 workers into the community to do hard work in freezing rain. They were even cool enough to ask me to pray over them before they went out to work!
KLTY was so great to our community as well. They provided 50 families with incredible gifts that went far beyond the monetary dollar figure. For those 50 families, they provided gift cards, crock pots, cleaning supplies, storage bins, and other essentials people needed to get back on their feet.
This is where the list is not long enough. We have been helped by churches not only in Texas, but throughout the United States. We have seen people and donations sent from New York, Michigan, Oklahoma, and beyond. Churches from across the DFW area have sent teams to work in our donation center, to work with our church family in neighborhoods, and have even helped us get the word out. The help offered by so many has been completely and totally humbling. THANK YOU to all who have helped our church in this process, we are grateful!!!
Posts
