Send Relief delivers supplies as Southern Baptists ready Hurricane Laura response

4 min read
28 Aug 2020
By NAMB Staff

LAKE CHARLES, La.—Send Relief, the compassion ministry of Southern Baptists, spent Friday morning (Aug. 28) delivering food and supplies for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR), beginning the morning in Beaumont, Texas and making a final stop in Lake Charles, La., in the early afternoon.

Once Hurricane Laura made landfall early Thursday morning (Aug. 27), Lake Charles endured the brunt of winds that reached 140 miles per hour. Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief will station some of their operations at Trinity Baptist Church in the heart of the town.

“There is no electricity anywhere in the city,” said Sam Porter, national director for SBDR with Send Relief and the North American Mission Board. “Some have said it looks like a hundred tornadoes landed in Lake Charles two nights ago. As we drove in with the truck from Send Relief, we had to dodge debris on the main road into the church.”

In the aftermath of Hurricane Laura, Send Relief has been dropping supplies at churches where Southern Baptist Disaster Relief will host operations for feeding and recovery activity for storm survivors. On Friday (Aug. 28), Send Relief delivered supplies in Texas and Lake Charles, La., areas along the Gulf Coast that took the brunt of the hurricane. Photo provided by Send Relief

Before arriving in Lake Charles, Send Relief stopped at North Orange Baptist Church in Orange, Texas, to drop food and supplies for Texas Baptist Men, the SBDR team for the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Carolyn Berry, an Orange, Texas resident, stopped by the church to request help from SBDR while Send Relief dropped off supplies. She and her family evacuated to Houston before Laura made landfall. She returned Friday and surveyed several downed trees in her yard, one of which landed on her roof.

“To come home and actually see the devastation, not only at my house, my house compared to some others is probably nothing,” she said. “I’ve seen trees actually through houses. I’ve seen trees blocking roads. There is a lot of devastation.”

Hurricane Laura was not the first major storm Berry had experienced.

“I recovered from Harvey just a couple months ago,” Berry said of the hurricane that hit the Texas Gulf Coast in 2017. “I just got my house straight from Harvey, and now I have this. It’s disheartening but thank God we have life.”

Hurricane Laura made landfall early Thursday morning, demolishing buildings and uprooting trees with 140 mile per hour winds. Lake Charles, La., became ground zero for some of the worst damage caused by the storm. Trinity Baptist Church in Lake Charles will be a hub for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief activity. Photo provided by Send Relief.

The rainy morning began with the Send Relief semi-truck pulling into Liberty Baptist Church in Bridge City, Texas. The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention will use the church as a hub for disaster relief ministry to the surrounding community.

Lee Jackson, pastor of First Baptist Church Cannonsburg, Ky., has his commercial driver’s license CDL, which he earned during a stint between ministry positions. He drove the truck from a Send Relief ministry center in Ashland, Ky.

Jackson said that while he’s been on the road, he filmed a quick, livestream Wednesday night Bible study with his church, going through Baptist distinctives.

“This week just fell on evangelism and missions,” Jackson said. “So, it just worked out perfectly. I did a short video, short enough that I could post it to Facebook without a Wi-Fi connection. I did it from the cab of the truck.”

Sam Porter, national director of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (left), assists Send Relief volunteers Lee Jackson (middle) and David Bayes (right) at Liberty Baptist Church, in Bridge City, Texas, as they unload supplies to be used by SBDR. Volunteers with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention will use Liberty Baptist as a hub for disaster relief ministry in the community. Photo provided by Send Relief.

Send Relief stationed the truck in Ruston, La., Wednesday before traveling to Vidor, Texas on Thursday to begin delivering supplies from west to east, later arriving in the highly afflicted areas of southwest Louisiana and Lake Charles.

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief will be launching its relief efforts over the weekend, including providing meals and sending out chainsaw and rolled-roofing crews to help repair their homes.

For more information or to donate to Southern Baptist relief efforts, visit sendrelief.org/Laura.