We just feel good they’re in our building.”īrown shared that his church facility suffered severe damage as the flooding reached up to three feet and destroyed the first floor, including the children’s wing, nursery and kitchen as water and mud filled the rooms.

“We’re completely pleased,” said pastor Tony Brown of hosting the team. Send Relief is providing the funding necessary for the response team to serve up to 5,000 meals a week to those in the community. This is an opportunity for Southern Baptists to serve and proclaim the hope of the gospel in these communities and see lives changed.”įirst Baptist Church in Whitesburg, Ky., is hosting a team of Kentucky SBDR volunteers at their church as a recovery and feeding site. “A bunch of small towns are being impacted, and many have seen their entire home get washed away. “One of the most unique things about this disaster is the region that’s been hit,” said Coy Webb, crisis response director for Send Relief who served in SBDR in Kentucky before transitioning to Send Relief. Multiple Southern Baptist state conventions are sending SBDR teams so far, including Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama with seven sites either set up or planned. “We have people on the ground, and we have chaplains coming who will be able to bring help, hope and healing to those affected.”Īt least 37 people are known to have been killed by the floods, according to Kentucky Gov. The significance of how bad this is, is just indescribable. “It’s going to take months to recover from, if not years. “The destruction is absolutely catastrophic everywhere you look and it’s very widespread,” said Ron Crow, SBDR director for Kentucky Baptists. (BP) - As surveyors continue assessing the damage done by the historic flooding that has deluged eastern Kentucky, Southern Baptists have begun planning their response.ĭozens of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) volunteers from across the Southeast have started arriving, and Send Relief, the compassion ministry of Southern Baptists, has provided resources for meals and flood relief supplies to help with the recovery.

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