A disaster relief team of the Kentucky Baptist Convention will provide humanitarian assistance for refugees displaced by the recent conflicts between the country Georgia and Russia.Coy Webb, disaster relief associate for the KBC said a team of six Kentucky Baptist volunteers are, scheduled to serve in Gori, September 4-16th.
The main responsibility of this team is to provide meals to refugees, perhaps as many as 25,000 a day. “The situation is still tense, but we feel it is stable enough to begin providing relief,” he said. “The Georgian government has essentially turned the refugee areas over to Baptists, and we are grateful for the opportunity to minister there.” Included in the Kentucky team is Coy Webb of Shelbyville and member of Clayvillage Baptist Church; Tom Westerfield of Crofton and member of First Baptist Church, Hopkinsville; Dovie Smallwood of Frenchburg and member of Frenchburg Baptist Church; Tommy Floyd of Monticello and member of Oak Grove Baptist Church; Glenn Hickey of Monticello and member of First Baptist Church; and Bernard Randall of Monticello and member of Mount Zion Baptist Church. Second in a series of teams to work in Georgia, the Southern Baptist Kentucky relief teams. The Baptist General Convention of Texas had 7 members to come to Gori August 27th and a team of specialist should arrive on September 7th from the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma shared Webb.Southern Baptist missionaries presently serving in Georgia “took the initiative with the Georgian government to see how Southern Baptists could help, and were then invited to provide help, particularly in mass feeding, and in helping train others to continue the relief work after we’re finished,” Webb shared. This great work coordinated by the Baptist Global Response, an organization of global relief and development organization of the SBC. According to a Baptist Press news report, the feeding operation will be conducted primarily from a building shell made available to the teams by a local Baptist partner. The volunteers are currently working to restore the building for use. Webb is unsure how long the entire relief effort will last after the three Southern Baptist teams have finished their work. While on site, the teams will be working with Baptist Global Response’s regional representative and local missionaries to determine if additional assistance will be needed. “There is a possibility that we will need to send more teams from Kentucky, but we won’t know for sure until we assess the situation,” said Webb. “We will be training the local Baptist leaders and volunteers to continue the relief efforts,” said Webb. “They’re estimating that as many as 20,000 of the refugees have been displaced for the long-term because they have been forced out or burned out of their homes.” The Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund is funding the feeding operation in Gori.Webb shared 100 percent of monetary gifts given for the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund goes directly to those people who need food. Along with the Cooperative Program and other mission offerings covers the expense of the distribution of the World Hunger Fund. Contributions can be made to help with the Georgia relief effort by sending your gifts to the KBC, Dept. 5008 P.O. Box 740041Louisville, KY 40201-9976. You are asked to note “disaster relief” in the check memo. For more information you can go to the World Hunger Fund at www.kybaptist.org/hunger The S.B.C. is the third largest relief group in the United States. The Baptist Global Response is a global relief and development organization of the S.B.C. Kentucky Baptists are just a part of the larger grouping of Southern Baptist volunteers who are trained to help during a disaster. This training includes mass feeding operations, the use of chainsaws to clear the debris from downed trees, the clearing of mud out of homes that have been flooded and other needs. For more information about the Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief go to www.kybaptist.org/dr The KBC is a ministry that is involved in cooperative missions and ministry organization made from more than 2,400 autonomous Baptist churches in the state of Kentucky. Through its administration a variety of state and worldwide ministries are coordinated including missions work, disaster relief work, ministry training and support, church development, evangelism and others. The KBC main headquarters is located in Louisville, KY.
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