Five More Shipments Sent to Alabama and Florida

Since our last update we have been very busy. We put the word out a little over a week ago, that if your congregation was in the Nashville area, and you could get a small group together to come help pack food boxes, we could sure use your help! We requested congregations call us so we could schedule their group on our calendar, to be sure they were the only one coming on a specific date. The calls started coming in, and this week we had different groups from 5 different congregations every day of the week. As of this afternoon, Friday the 25th, these groups, working 4 to 5 hour shifts, packed 62 pallets of food boxes! During normal times, before COVID we packed 60 pallets in less than two hours. So as a comparison, with COVID 19 not allowing us to have as many in our warehouse all at once, it is taking a week to pack what would have taken us 2 hours. Thanks to the congregations that have come to help, several have come twice in the last two weeks. As we always say, we would not be as successful in doing this great work, if we didn’t have our faithful volunteers wanting to come help others.

Monday morning of this week, September 21 the Fifth shipment to the Maplewood church in Sulphur, LA was unloaded to continue to help those hit by Hurricane Laura.

Wednesday the 23rd, the 2nd truckload of supplies was unloaded at the Gulf Shores church in Alabama.

Thursday the 2nd shipment of supplies for the Scenic Hills church in Pensacola was unloaded at their building.

Today a shipment left, to be unloaded at 9am in the morning at the Eastgate Church of Christ in Pensacola,
and tomorrow morning about 7am the third shipment of supplies will depart Nashville to unload at the Gulf Shores church about 2pm Saturday afternoon.

A quick story you’ll appreciate about something that took place this week. On Wednesday, we received a call from a radio station in Gulf Shores, Alabama. to say they saw our trailer with Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort coming through their town, and first they wanted to thank us for helping, but wanted to know where we were taking the supplies, and what we were sending so they could talk about it on the radio. I explained that I’d be happy to tell her, and at the end of our call I’d give her the name and phone number of our contact at the Gulf Shores Church of Christ, so she could call and speak to him about the hours they would be open helping anyone affected by the disaster that needed help.

I explained we’d already sent 2 trailers full of supplies, and would send more if needed. I started going through all of the items we send for families that had badly damaged or destroyed homes. I spoke about the family food boxes , personal hygiene boxes, infant care boxes, cleaning supplies, already packed for a family, ready to be handed to the families. I told her we provided pallets of bottled water, new clothing and new shoes, a pallet of bleach, a pallet of laundry detergent, …..the young woman on the other end of the line was crying as she tried to talk, saying she never expected anything like that. I started explaining more, and she interrupted me, saying a man in a green Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort t-shirt had just come into their radio station, and she told me who it was. I told her, ‘That is our contact with the Gulf Shores Church of Christ!’ She replied, ‘ This is God at work right here!

Thank your for your many prayers, and for those volunteering their time here in Nashville and at the congregations we’re sending supplies too all across the country. We’re thankful for the caring churches that want to step out of their comfort zone and help those in need, and not only help their church family, but also those that may not know Jesus, and hopefully get an opportunity to build new meaningful relationships with the neighbors they’ve maybe not met before, and have an opportunity to plant a seed, and tell them more about our Lord and Savior!