Florida churches continue reaching out

Sep 28, 2005
EVA WOLEVER
Newswriter

JACKSONVILLE (FBW)–For many Florida churches and pastors, giving time and resources to hurricane relief is not just a practical fulfillment of God’s command to help those in need, but a personal way to help one family, pastor or church. Hurricane relief has become a way to return the favor for aid given during the historic 2004 hurricane season.

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For Tommy Green, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Brandon, hurricane relief is very personal. He and a team of 63 left his church Sept. 26, taking two 20-foot trucks loaded with supplies to Franklin Creek Baptist Church in Pascagoula, Miss. Green was pastor at Franklin Creek when he was a seminary student in New Orleans 20 years ago, he said.

Recalling the impact the people of Franklin Creek had on his life, Green said adopting the church was something he and FBC Brandon needed to do.

“I can’t help but cry with them,” Green said of the members of his former church.

Sending a $20,000 check to add to Franklin Creek’s budget and $3,500 in cash for the pastor’s family, FBC Brandon plans to help in any way necessary to clean up and assist the community, Green said.

“We’ll be going and not just ministering to that church community, but to that area as a whole,” Green said. “We’re there to be an extension of [Franklin Creek’s] ministry and to show the love of Christ to people there.”

Green told Florida Baptist Witness he is excited about his church’s response. His congregation continues to give of their time and resources with “great enthusiasm and with love,” Green said.

“It shows the heart of our churches that when it comes to missions and it comes to compassion and reaching out, there’s never a limit to God’s resources through His church,” Green added.

First Baptist Church in Panama City put a face on hurricane relief by adopting the family of Kevin Clifton, pastor of Bay Vista Baptist Church in Biloxi, Miss. Her home destroyed by Katrina, Julie Clifton moved to Panama City with her five children while her husband, Kevin, stayed behind to lead his church in distributing supplies to the community, said Bruce Raley, associate pastor of FBC Panama City.

Long before Hurricane Katrina, a woman reached out to a teenager new to her Biloxi community. That teenager, Sue Harrell, now principal of Surfside Middle School in Panama City Beach, told Raley she felt she could pay that woman back by helping children displaced by Katrina. Two of the Clifton children entered Harrell’s school and Harrell soon discovered Julie Clifton was actually the daughter of the woman who had meant so much to her as a teen, Raley said.

Adopting the Clifton’s church as well as the family, FBC Panama City sent two teams a week to Bay Vista to aid in a supply distribution effort, Raley said.

FBC Panama City has entered into the relief effort wholeheartedly, Raley said. The church recently voted to forgo expanding its television broadcasts from the regional to the national level in order to use the $300,000 for hurricane-damaged churches.

“I think what makes this issue unique is that it’s personal,” Raley said. “We know a pastor and his family that need help. We know a church that needs help; we know a community that needs help, and so it’s not just some vague need out there.”

Crossing denominational lines in an effort to meet victims’ needs, members of First Baptist Church in Bryceville Sept. 16 sent a 48-foot trailer loaded with boxes of items donated by the church and community to First United Methodist Church in Pascagoula, Miss., said Jim Hicks, a member of FBC Bryceville.

Katrina flooded the Mississippi church with eight feet of water, though the building still stands, Hicks said.

Gulf to Lake Baptist Church in Crystal River also empathized with victims of Hurricane Katrina, according to Senior Pastor Lloyd Bertine. Two hurricanes hit the church during the historic 2004 season.

Financing travel expenses for hurricane-affected families, Gulf to Lake’s members offered their condos and villas as housing for the victims. In the process of adopting a damaged church “for the long haul,” Gulf to Lake raised $10,000 over September 11 and 18 to aid relief efforts,” Bertine told the Witness.

Gathering over $86,000 for hurricane relief, First Baptist Church in Sweetwater also is discussing the possibility of adopting a church long-term, said John Holloway, the church’s executive pastor.

First Baptist put together nearly 800 hygiene packs and sent a team to Hattiesburg, Miss., Holloway said.

For Greg Martin, bivocational pastor of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Arcadia, hurricane relief was personal on another level. Hurricane Charley leveled the small, country church he began serving in December of 2004. The congregation scattered and the church is not yet rebuilt.

“Our hearts went out to the victims of Katrina because we had been through Charley and we knew what it was like,” Martin said.

With only nine members present, the church took up $464 as a love offering for Disaster Relief, Martin said. The church felt God’s call to help victims of Katrina and hoped to challenge other churches to do so as well, Martin added.

“There’s always a storm on the horizon, but God always brings us through,” Martin said.

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