From Pastor Jimmy Jones: Please share this letter from Bob Hayes with your church. This may be the greatest opportunity to show the love of our Lord to the Detroit area. We must respond in an all out effort. God has given Southern Baptists in the Metro Detroit area a golden opportunity to express God’s Love to homeowners in the communities around us. The rainstorms that struck the area early this week have caused flooding on a scale that has not been experienced here in modern times. Literally thousands of homes have been affected, and a huge number of these are owned by poor and elderly persons who cannot afford to pay commercial companies for cleanup. Most of the home flooding was caused by sewage backup, which means that anything touched by water must be disposed of, and remaining walls and flooring must be cleaned and sanitized to prevent the growth of mold which could be a health hazard to residents of the homes. The homes will not be covered by the National Flood Insurance Program, and homeowners insurance will pay only if the homeowner paid extra for a rider covering sewer backups. Fortunately, the type of work that is needed could be handled by Michigan Baptist Disaster Relief. This kind of work has been done by these volunteers many times. The difficulty is that the magnitude of the task is far beyond the ability of the Michigan Disaster Relief Mud-Out team to handle. There is a need for numerous volunteers to do the tasks of basement cleanout (in some cases, main floor cleanout). Trained Disaster Relief workers (supplemented by other willing workers) will follow up with necessary tear out, cleaning and sanitizing. Every church in the metro area should consider providing from one to ten or more able bodies to work and show God’s Love to people who are in need, with no means of helping themselves. The affected areas cover the counties of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb. Information is still somewhat sketchy, but we have been told that there are over 50,000 affected homes in Oakland County, and about 20,000 in the City of Warren. Other affected areas include Hamtramck, Highland Park, City of Detroit, Dearborn, Dearborn Heights and Garden City. We do not yet have numbers from the latter areas, but they are sure to be enormous. Disaster Relief of Michigan will ask NAMB for all available Mud-Out teams to work in the Detroit metro area. Your church can help by providing workers, who should wear tee-shirts with the church name on them. The first team deployments will be handled from Warren Woods Baptist Church. This means that volunteers will be sleeping and eating at WWBC. Other churches may be called into service as the ability and needs arise. When you determine how many people your church can supply, please call Win Williams at 810-923-2666 or Bob Hayes at 248-736-4774 so we can record the number coming, and coordinate their efforts. If your church is unable to provide any volunteers, please consider giving a monetary gift, designated for Disaster Relief, through the Baptist State Convention of Michigan. There may not be another such opportunity in your lifetime. Will you rise to the challenge? Bob Hayes Associate Director, Michigan Baptist Disaster Relief
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 03:10:00 +0000
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