As Florida Baptists continue helping impacted communities following Hurricane Helene, the state is now bracing for more damage with Hurricane Milton expected to make landfall later this week.
As of Monday morning (Oct. 7), Milton was reported as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 150 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center — and it is expected to hit somewhere around the Tampa Bay area by Wednesday or early Thursday.
RELATED: For more stories on Hurricane Helene relief efforts, click here.
Meanwhile, Baptist relief efforts along the Southeast and in Florida continue forward.
Searching for basic needs
Although Lake City, located about 60 miles west of Jacksonville, may have been spared the brunt of Hurricane Helene’s record-setting storm surge and fierce winds, the storm still forced many in the community to search for basic needs.
That’s when Hopeful Baptist Church, Columbia County — in partnership with One More Child — stepped in to meet those needs.
On the Friday, following Hurricane Helene’s Sept. 26 night landfall, the church received a phone call from One More Child offering the church a truckload of supplies. Members of the church immediately sprang into action to serve hundreds in their community.
After the One More Child truck arrived fully stocked in the church parking lot, Hopeful Baptist Church members began to unload water, ready-to-eat meals, diapers and wipes, and then the members began to offer those much-needed supplies to more than 600 people in a drive-thru distribution line on Saturday morning.
“I am so grateful for our members and volunteers who really came through and showed up,” said Billy Young, pastor of the church since September 2020. “We were able to meet a need when it mattered the most, directly after the storm.”
‘Thankful for partners’
One More Child, which partners with Florida Baptist churches to meet a variety of needs on an ongoing basis, expressed its thankfulness for the partnership in a social media post: “As we mobilize teams in the wake of Hurricane Helene, we are thankful for partners like Hopeful Baptist Church in Lake City. By working alongside churches and community partners, we are able to reach those who need help the most.”
Since the distribution, the church spent last week mobilizing small teams to serve and meet the needs of widows and shut-ins among the church family. Now, the church is looking for ways to serve other communities that suffered greater impact from the storm.
“Now we’re asking ourselves, ‘How do we mobilize our people and be a part of the greater relief effort in those harder-hit areas?” Young said. “We want to do what we did here, in a matter of hours, in other places. We want to continue to think outside the four walls of our church.”
The pastor reiterated just how grateful he is for the rapid response and cooperation of Florida Baptists when people need it the most.
“I’m just so grateful to be part of a bigger, cooperative and collaborative effort among churches, organizations and our Florida Baptist Convention,” Young said.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Jessica Pigg and originally published by the Florida Baptist Convention.
