Disaster Relief Training coming in April

Last fall, then again last month, we introduced you to the services provided by the Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief ministry.   If you missed it, the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) has teams across the country, of which, Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief (MO Bap DR) is part.  The organization works with several national and international agencies including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), The American Red Cross, and state and local first responders to help the community rebuild and the people recover.

Training is provided four times a year around the state, but with eight regions to cover, it only comes to our region every other year.  The next nearby opportunity will be at First Baptist Church O’Fallon on Friday evening April 9 and Saturday, April 10. 

If you are interested in joining you must be 18 years old, and a member of a Missouri Baptist church to be certified as a Missouri Disaster Relief Volunteer. All trainees must submit a background check request and attend Introduction to Disaster Relief.   Once trained, the individual receives their yellow hat, shirt, and MO Bap DR identification which is required to enter hard hit areas that are secured by police.  Recertification will not be needed for five years.

Available classes are:

• Food preparation and distribution. Cook, hand out, clean up and start again.
• Chainsaw crew’s clear trees and other major obstacles after tornados, hurricanes, floods.
• Clean-up teams help homeowners salvage and recover after fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, etc.
• Communication teams provide tools where radio and cell phones are inoperable. The bring in their own equipment to provide team communication.
• Chaplain and Crisis Intervention provides spiritual care for the devastated survivors.
• Damage Assessment provides a preliminary assessment of the extent of damage, number of homes and businesses affected and so on.
• Emergency Medical personnel often work with other qualified emergency response units.
• Mud-out teams assist in the removal of mud and other debris following a flood. This includes washing, sanitizing, and removing contaminated material.
• Reconstruction teams rebuild and make permanent repairs to churches, homes, and other building affected by the disaster.
• Shower and Laundry team provides water for showers and laundry for the team
• Water Purification is provided by a unit that can purify large amounts of water

 Registration fees and requirements:

• First time volunteers: $40
• Recertification (badge is expired or expiring this year): $20
• Cross Training (badge is not expired or expiring this year): $5

 To register go online to the Missouri Baptist DR training site at  https://mobaptist.org/dr/dr-training/ and sign up.

Natural disasters are not scheduled, but we can prepare for them.   We must plan and be ready before that need arises.  If you have questions or this is something that is of interest to you, contact me, Glen Locklear, at 636.327.8696 or email . 

If you have been following these blogs, I certainly hope that by now you realize that Mission work is important, and we do our best to support it, domestic and international.  Fielding and keeping missionaries in the field around the world and here in North America is a challenge.  One of the most important differentiators about Southern Baptists from other churches is that we fund our missionaries.  They do not have to build up their own financial support.  We want them to be singly focused on doing the Lord’s work, and not having to worry about paying the rent or having resources to live. 

We Southern Baptist churches provide for our missionaries in several ways, but here are three that you will find interesting. The first way is through the Cooperative Program.  Churches pool their resources for the work of the gospel among Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) organizations, including the International Mission Board (IMB), and the North American Mission Board (NAMB).  Those two agencies are responsible for getting the missionaries where they are needed, then ensuring they have the support and resources needed to thrive for the Lord in an alien environment.  The other ways are the two major offerings that we support each year.  The Lottie Moon Christmas offering in honor of Lottie Moon, a missionary to China for over 40 years in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, which supports international missions and missionaries around the world.  The other offering is just about to begin. 

The Annie Armstrong Easter offering is named for another lady, Annie Armstrong, who worked on the mission field at the same time as Lottie Moon, but her mission field was in a different part of the world.   She traveled across North America in support of missionaries and the poor and the lost.  Today, the Annie Armstrong Easter offering, which is collected through the end of April, is part of the North American Mission Board annual campaign to support more than 5,000 missionaries serving in the United States, Canada and U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa. That encompasses some 363 million people who speak some 350 languages.  It is estimated that more than 75 percent of those people are lost.  Just as Annie Armstrong was searching for the lost over 100 years ago, today those missionaries across North America are doing the same thing.  The lost are everywhere, and it is our job, and the job of all believers, to tell them the good news of Jesus Christ.  Even though we may not be able to go on mission, there are two things we can do: 

Pray and Give

So, at this time of year, please remember the missionaries across North America who are obeying the admonition found in Matthew 28:19:  “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…”