Baptists on Mission Updates
With the current concerns over the coronavirus, who should not participate in Baptists on Mission projects?
The coronavirus is especially a danger for high-risk groups: the elderly, those with severe chronic medical conditions or underlying health conditions like diabetes, lung or heart disease and those with compromised immune systems.
If you are in a high risk group, we ask that you not participate in Baptists on Mission projects. We also ask that if you are feeling sick with fever, cough, or difficulty breathing or if you have traveled to affected areas or were in close contact with someone with suspected illness in the past 14 days, please do not participate.
FLORENCE REBUILD CENTERS ARE OPEN WITH LIMITED CAPACITY
We are operating our Florence Rebuild Centers in Lumberton, Rose Hill (Charity), New Bern, Wilmington and Burgaw (Pender County) with limited numbers of volunteers allowed at each site. This is to protect our volunteers and our homeowners that we are working with. Go to www.baptistsonmission.org/florence to sign up to help. Please practice CDC guidelines if you are participating in these or other mission projects.
Covid-19 Disaster Relief Update- As of 7/15/2020
This is the first time that we have ever had a disaster that affected every county and every state across our nation at the same time.
Since the end of February, the Baptists on Mission has been meeting with State Emergency Management and working on ways to help churches to love our neighbors and each other during these stressful days. Our main focus is on helping churches do missions in their communities.
1) Website Resources- www.baptistsonmission.org/coronavirus is our website where we have lots of resources for things you can do in your community. The main sections are:
Ideas of What Can Your Church Do In Your Community; Resources to help minister in your community while protecting your volunteers and the people that you are serving; a page where Isolated people can request pray and other help; A section where churches can become part of a network to help with needs in their community.
2) Network of Churches- We have churches in every county in NC who have said they are willing to minister to people in their community. As we get requests, especially from elderly or isolated people, we are sending these requests to those churches and churches.
3) We are working with Emergency Management on 2-1-1 calls and online requests from isolated people. This includes wellness call where church members call isolated people to check on them and to encourage them. When we get these requests we are sending them to the closest church that is willing to help.
4) We have sent one of our laundry units to a homeless shelter in Greensboro and shower unit in Raleigh.
5) We have sent lots of supplies (food, cleaning supplies, masks, etc.) to the Graffiti Center in New York City (Taylor Field).
6) We have provided 40,000 N-95 masks and 10,000 surgical masks to many different hospitals across NC.
7) We have provided over $150,000 for grants for churches to buy food to use in ministry in their community.
8) We are working with NC Department of Agriculture to get bulk food that churches can use who are doing ministry in their community. So far, $150,000 worth of bulk food has been provided.
9) We are working to provide instructional videos on how to safely provide ministry to people in need. These videos are on our website.
10) We are developing protocols for how we can safely respond with our disaster relief feeding (and other units) if we need to deploy during Covid-19.
11) Food Boxes- We are so thankful to have received a USDA grant to provide food boxes to families across our state. Through this grant we are providing 8,000 Farm to Family Produce boxes each week to families affected by Covid-19. What an opportunity to help hurting people! That’s approximately 150,000 pounds of fresh produce and fruit that will be distributed each week for the next 6 weeks (or more). In addition to the produce, we are distributing 2,000 gallons of milk, 2,000 pounds of cheese and 9,600 pounds of meat each week. 185 churches and community centers signed up to help distribute this food. These churches and community centers are working with people affected by Covid-19 and they stretch all across our state from Cherokee County in the West to Swan Quarter and Atlantic in the East! We have set up 17 different distribution sites for the Produce boxes and 15 different distribution sites for the meat, milk and cheese boxes. Our Disaster Relief volunteers, our disaster relief leaders, drivers and our staff are working so hard to make this possible! What an opportunity, what a responsibility!
God has been so good to us and has provided so many opportunities to minister in His name. This is a great opportunity and a great responsibility. “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God”.
We pray that God will use this time of great uncertainty to glorify His name, and that He will use us to offer support to those around us.