The Disaster Relief Ministry was born on September 1st, 2005. It was not a ministry that was started as a result of someone's vision, nor one that had any prior planning. It was begun when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast and especially New Orleans. Many people in the Cass County area had a desire to help the victims of this killer hurricane. Almost 2,000 people died as a result of Katrina and thousands of people were left homeless. Churches in our area had a strong desire to band together and help by opening shelters, food kitchens and feeding displaced evacuees from our local motels.
The Church Alliance was formed and as hundreds of people came to our area, our doors were opened to be a home for the victims of Katrina for thirty to sixty days. The churches worked under the direction of the City of Atlanta Emergency Command Office. The commander for the city was Chief David Burden who was the liaison between the State of Texas and the Church Alliance. First Baptist Church was the command center for the Church Alliance and the Family Life Center was where all evacuees were processed before being placed in a shelter.
Immediately after Hurricane Katrina hit Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, then Hurricane Rita struck western Louisiana and the Texas Gulf Coast region. Ten's of thousands more evacuees again came north to our area and we opened more shelters and fed more evacuees. Many people from many of our area churches stood in the gap and worked many long hours taking care of our friends from both hurricanes.
The Church Alliance team learned as much about what not to do as they did about what to do. The presence of God was very visible and at work in this new ministry during these tragic events. The Lord revealed to us that this was a ministry that needed to continue and be ready when events like Katrina and Rita occurred again.
Our Church Alliance team was called upon again on September 1st of 2008. The State of Texas asked us to once again open our doors to take evacuees when Hurricane Gustav struck the Louisiana gulf coast area at Grand Isle, La. Our team was called back to active duty and this time we had a team, plan, equipment and many people from our area churches to help in another disaster. This time our guests were with us for a week to 10 days. We closed our shelter down on September 7th but we didn't turn out the lights.
Hurricane Ike struck the gulf coast at Baytown, TX on September 11th, which was just 4 days after our Gustav visitors had gone home. Evacuees, who had just left four days prior, were again on their way back to our Family Life Center Shelter. There were many more evacuees coming because Ike hit a greater populated area. It was necessary to open shelters at Westside Baptist Church and First Baptist Church on Allday Street. The Church Alliance closed all three shelters down on September 20th but the lights are still on.
The Disaster Relief Team of FBC, The Church Alliance Team and the City of Atlanta Emergency Command are ready to respond to any disaster that comes crashing into our lives as life goes on. God has blessed this ministry in so many ways that all of those blessings cannot be listed here. The goal of this ministry follows Matthew 25:35-40 which is to feed the hungry, the thirsty, to shelter those who have no shelter, care for the sick and clothe those who have no clothes.
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