Disaster Relief Sunday is Nov. 11. Below is an article from the North American Mission Board (NAMB), with greetings and encouragement via video by NAMB President Kevin Ezell. The video is perfect for showing your church the opportunities Disaster Relief (DR) provides Christians to love and reach the lost. Your church members will be challenged to pray, to give and to go on the field to be a DR worker.
We are grateful for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) volunteers, and appreciate that even now, hundreds are actively serving in relief efforts. We want to help you honor SBDR efforts on Disaster Relief Appreciation Sunday, November 11.
We hope you will make time during your November 11 service to show this video and recognize the efforts of SBDR volunteers, especially those who are part of your congregation.
SBDR’s 50+ year history of caring for the needs of those in crisis is well-known. As the third-largest disaster relief provider in the United States, the respect and trust we have is well-earned because volunteers take their commitment seriously and serve with excellence.
In 2017, SBDR statistics show the extent of care our volunteers provided:
- 1 million+ volunteer hours
- 3 million+ meals
- 70,000+ showers
- 32,000+ loads of laundry
- 4,200+ gospel presentations
- 800+ professions of faith
This year, we’ve seen similar herculean efforts from volunteers as they care for communities impacted by floods, fires and hurricanes. SBDR volunteers have stepped eagerly outside of their comfortable homes and normal routines to embrace chaos and hurting people, giving help and hope, even in the most challenging circumstances.
We are also grateful for all state convention SBDR directors and the significant responsibility they and their staff have for assessing where help is needed and mobilizing and training volunteers to serve.
The North American Mission Board (NAMB) is pleased to be a partner in this work on a national level, coordinating relationships with other national relief entities. The role of NAMB’s Send Relief ministry is to come alongside SBDR to provide some essential supplies to undergird efforts, including:
- Pastor Packs (generator, chainsaw, and related supplies)
- Push Packs (goggles, masks, gloves, Tyvek suits, trash bags)
- Shockwave (mold remediation)
- Rolled roofing
- Bottled water
- Crisis Buckets (supplies to help a homeowner conduct his/her own home clean-up)
- Pre-packaged meals
We encourage people, on both namb.net and sendrelief.org, to connect with state SBDR leaders to learn how they can volunteer and direct them to give to individual state SBDR efforts.