After several years of not having a dedicated Disaster Relief Team,
BR-KC is now back in the DR ministry.
The unified efforts of all the State Baptist Disaster Relief teams makes Southern Baptists the third largest Disaster Relief provider in the world. Southern Baptist Disaster Relief teams show up at nearly every major disaster in the nation and quietly but effectively bare witness to the love and compassion of the Lord, Jesus. Over 560 professions of faith were recorded by DR Teams in 2018 and tens of thousands are served free of charge each year in America by Southern Baptist DR teams.
Recently, a few conversations between Joe Dayringer, the MBC State DR Director, Roger Masters of Abundant Life Church and others led to an initial meeting to gauge interest in having a new disaster relief team in BR-KC. Twenty-one people showed up for the first informational meeting on July 25th at Fellowship Church Greenwood. Roger Masters, a certified blue hat, volunteered to be Director of the team. Carmen Kraus of Connection Point and Jason Barnhart of First Baptist Blue Springs agreed to be co-directors in Roger’s absence. Chris Houghtling of Blue Springs First volunteered to be the secretary and communications person for the team. Blue Hat, Leighton Clemmons will be integrally involved in the team’s work, as well.
After that first meeting God immediately began supplying all that the group needed. First, we were given a DR chainsaw trailer by Claycomo Baptist Church. The trailer needed some maintenance and the Lord took care of that, too. Jason Barnhart took the trailer to Sargent’s Auto and Diesel in Grain Valley. They changed the lights, re-packed all bearings, checked the brakes and put on a set of new tires, all free of charge.
We are still lacking a few items to completely equip the trailer for both chainsaw and flood clean out. We still need a 5000 watt generator, a gas powered pressure washer, two sump pumps, and a heavy duty wet/dry shop vacuum. We would gladly accept donations but even better would be for you or your church to make a financial gift to the designated fund in the BR-KC budget. This will be the primary way our DR team is funded. If you would like to make a gift, simply write a check to Blue River-Kansas City Baptist Association and put Disaster Relief in the memo line. Alternatively, you can make an online donation at http://blueriver-kansascity.org/donate/
Finally, if you are interested in joining our DR team we would love to have you working with us. We will be sharing more details later about an upcoming DR training in March of 2020.
