I have confirmation of why the leaders of Pickens County in 1927 erected a memorial statue on the courthouse lawn of a woman working on knitting needed items. This was and is a very unusual monument. Few other courthouse lawns have similar monuments. THE WOMEN OF PICKENS COUNTY ARE WORKERS AND KNOW HOW TO GET IMPORTANT THINGS DONE. Today we have honored one such woman, Gaye Pate, at a memorial service. Several are working through donations coming in here.

We have received many donations from several sources which the women of Pickens County have been sorting by size and packaging to send along to victims of the April Tornadoes. Presently, we are targeting three rural communities:

• Geiger—the mayor and Mt. Calvary, along with Bob Little are our contact persons who are letting us know what is needed and who are getting stuff to those in need in that community. This morning we sent some stuffed animals from West End down, along with some personal care items, cleaning materials and first aid supplies.
• Forkland-Tishabee—we are working with New Friendship and Christian Valley with Bob Little being our contact person. He will be bringing a list of needs to breakfast tomorrow. We will send the needed supplies down later in the week.
• Sipsey—Mt Pleasant has been leading our response to the needs of that community and that church, along with Highland, has been working up there, providing food and lots of love. We are committed to work through these churches to supply resources to that community. They can do followup work related to salvation and discipleship.

Our Arbor Springs Church is helping the Boley Springs community in Fayette. We will provide some supplies from what we have collected to support that effort..

Friendship Church is working with Chapel Hill and with Hackleburg. They have some teams coming in May 15 and could use help with

Carrollton and Reform First have been working with Rosedale in Tuscaloosa.

Stansel has teamed with Five Points to deliver supplies.

Our Disaster Relief Team has worked around Reform and will go to Zion next week. Gordo First has worked in Zion and elsewhere. Aliceville First has also worked in Zion. (I am sure that there are other efforts that should be included here. Let me know so that they can be.)

Terry Billings is keeping frozen food at his processing plant. He is taking some of this to Sawyerville. He is willing to slaughter beef for the folk who need food. He also shared that he would also keep and distribute frozen vegetables. We may share some of the items coming to the PBA with Sawyerville.

I am hearing that there is a great need for cleaning supplies. We have received materials Emmanuel, Calvary, West End, New Salem, St. Johns, Shady Grove and other churches. We have also gotten some cash and checks.

I see this as a several month ministry with the focus changing as recovery happens. Also, we are already having “refugees” from Tuscaloosa and elsewhere resettle, at least temporarily in Pickens County. We will be called upon to help them with items from the Baptist Center.

Volunteers receiving, sorting and packaging items for storm victims.

We have set up a reception center for items being donated for tornado victims. With only the announcements you made at church on Wednesday and word of mouth we have already received quite a lot of items. We are getting clothing which we are sizing and separating and repackaging in sets of several changed. This will allow us to fill orders from the churches/communities we are helping.

We have gotten enough personal care/hygiene items to put together about 50 kits to distribute.

We have gotten toys, some food stuff, shoes, etc. Caruso’s is sending an assortment of severaL hundred Christian T-shirts. Lighthouse Christian Products is sending 360 insulated cups. A Church in Chicago is sending a misc. truck load. I am hoping that we will have lots of stuff coming in Monday from our affiliated congregations.

We have had some nice money donations, some of which we are using to round out the personal care kits that we are preparing.

New Salem has been staffing, with some help from PBA, the reception and packaging center. We will need more volunteer this coming week. Call the office to schedule: 367-8632.

Bob Little has gone to Geiger and gotten requests for specific items. JC Bryant is taking some down today.

Bob Little will also be in contact with the Forkland/Tishabee area and have specifice requests from there.

Glen Sandifer and Mt. Pleasant are working with Sipsey for the long haul. I took some parishable stuff to him to take on up tomorrow. And I hope that he will be getting specific requests to us on Tuesday.

Again, our plan is to send requested items to the three places we are seeking to aid, not just sending a pile of stuff to a community and dumping it on them. We will seek to be good stewards of what is intrusted to us.

Now, here are a couple of stories–one good and one bad.

We are told that FEMA has denied help to Geiger because not enough of the persons there went to “shelters” after the storms. Apparently, the FEMA folk do not understand rural folk. We know how to make do. In many instances the folk in Geiger found shelter with kin and friends. This is putting strain on these Samaritan like folk. More evidence that communities and churches with some aid from elsewhere can manage a response to a crisis better and more effeciently than bureaucrats.

Now for the good story. Most of you will remember February of 2005 when 4 churches where burned in our area. The association and the state convention provided lots of help to these churches although they were not members of either group. Our Westend church which had lost a building to a fire about 20 years earlier provided shelter to workers who came to work on the Dancy and the Galilee churches in the very building that they had received help in rebuilding.

About a year ago, Bob Little, while working at Lifeway in Tuscaloos, became acquainted with some of the leaders of New Fellowship over in Greene County. He and his two associate pastors began preaching at this church on the two Sundays each month when they held worship. Bob with the help of PBA and the Friends of Greene County provided resources for New Fellowship to complete its stalled building program.

When the storns came through a neighboring church, Christian Valley, was destroyed. That church will begin worshiping on alternate Sundays at New Fellowship.

The churches that have been helped have remembered their blessings and become a blessing to others. sound Christian to me.

One more thing. We helped our first refugee from Tuscaloosa to resettle here. I imagine that there will be several more in the weeks to come. Think about this. Do you know of housing that might become available?

I hope that all of our pastors who are free on Tuesday morning will come to breakfast at 9am. We have invited Kenney Gibson from EMA to speak to us.

We are receiving many wonderful accounts of things and ministries our churches and our church members are doing to help victims of the tornado.  God Bless.

Our Disaster Relief team is working in the Reform area and will move on to Zion.

At the Pastors’ Prayer Breakfast this morning we developed a plan for additional help.  As with Katrina, we will put a large 48 ft. trailer here at PBA on Wednesday.  We will receive all kinds of items for donation there for the next several weeks.

Please announce this at your Wednesday service and again on Sunday

Our focus will be on helping the more rural areas in Greene and Sumter and in Fayette and Marion.  The former were damaged several weeks ago and can now use clothing as well as hygiene products, etc. The latter will need toiletries and food now and clothing later. Toys for kids can be given for either area. We will compile a list of times and get it out later.

Our plan is to receive items at the tailer and then send them to a church in a community that is in need for distribution. The mix of things sent will reflect reports that we get from the pastor of the cooperating church.  We plan to send out 2 or 3 untility trailers with items next Tuesday, May 10.  We will repeat this process on the next Tueday and beyond.

Why Tuesday?  This will allow for you to announce and remind about this process on Sunday.  It will allow for itmes to come to PBA on Monday.  And (this is a secret) we will get the pastors to load out the utility trailers before breakfast on Tuesday.  Good plan.

Do not allow this to deflect what you or your church is currently doing.  The needs are so great that we must have many avenues for working with it. Call the office is you need clarification: 205-367-8632

First we need to thank God that there was no loss of life in our churches and communities. Second we need to pray for those who suffered loss and help them in the recovery process. Third, we need to recommit ourselves to being obedient to God. Fourth, we need to rejoice in the many stories we are hearing of miracles. Fifth, we need to give thanks to the many volunteers who are actively helping those who have worked to help those who have suffered loss. Sixth, we need to reflect upon lessons we need to learn from this experience—the uncertainty of life, the relative unimportance of material processions, the care of God in times of danger and tragedy. Seventh, we need to ask ourselves if God may have been speaking to us about our everyday conduct of life.

Many of our churches have responded to the needs of others by launching ministries. Here are the ones that I know about—Mt. Pleasant and Highland feed a small multitude in the Walker County community of Sipsey, Covenant of  Peace is working with Glen Haven in Tuscaloosa, Friendship is working with Chapel Hill in Tuscaloosa, Aliceville First has taken supplies to Holt, Capstone Church, The Belk Center, Five Points Baptist and has worked in Zion, Carrollton Baptist is doing cleanup work at Rosedale in Tuscaloosa,  Arbor Springs distributed items to Five Points, Children in Action made hygiene kits, and the youth groups from Arbor Springs and Reform First made lunch for the Rosedale community. Stansel Baptist worked in areas of Alberta City, Sawyerville, 15th Street, and Geiger.   Our PBA disaster relief team has been working in the areas of Reform and Zion.  Let us know of other projects that our churches are doing so that we can share the good news.

Many of the churches are taking up money to send to the State Convention Disaster Relief Fund.  This is a very good way to help.  The funds will go through our churches in the impacted communities.

Here at the association we are setting up a large truck trailer to receive donations of canned food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, summer clothing, personal hygiene, detergent, toys, small pots and pans,  paper products, garbage bags, foil, plastic crates, etc. We will be open from 8 to 4 on Monday-Saturday. On Sunday, please deliver to your local church, and we can provide a pick-up if necessary.  We project helping through local churches in the communities of Sipsey, Geiger, and Forkland.  We have a good distribution plan in place. We will also accept donations and pass them through these churches.