On Saturday, September 21, a truck of water and Gatorade from Chamber of Commerce members in Cedar Park TX was directed to a Foursquare Church in Angleton for distribution to the very poor community of Holiday Lakes. “We love Somebody Cares and appreciate so much all you are doing to help us minister to the people here,” said Pastor Cere Muscarella.
Food, water, and other supplies have been delivered to Cornerstone Church/Somebody Cares Cleveland TX, along with a generator for the church office so they can receive assistance calls from the community. A chainsaw crew is on its way there, as well. “We took food out to 20 shut-ins yesterday, and they were so excited,” said Donna Young from Somebody Cares Cleveland. “No one had gotten anything to them, and they were at the point where they didn’t know what to do.”
Doug Stringer has made assessment trips to identify relief staging areas in Freeport and Galveston, and was part of an emergency meeting with the Galveston City Council. Somebody Cares will be setting up at Church of the Living God on the West End of the island; at the Good News Camp with Gulf Coast Foursquare Church and Pastor John Elliott in Hitchcock; and with First Assembly of God in Freeport.
Pastor Dusty Kemp from New Life Church, which has generously provided temporary office space for SCA while our building is being repaired, issued a call to his own church and to other local pastors to specifically assist the pastors around Galveston who have suffered extensive damage to their facilities and congregations that are scattered around the state and unable to return home.
The Southeast Texas rural community of Bridge City was perhaps the hardest hit area in the state in terms of flooding. “Of the 3,500 homes in Bridge City, only 14 were not damaged by Ike,” says Pastor Charles Burchett from Somebody Cares Jasper/Newton. SCA plans to send help to Bridge City through Common Ground Community Church, pastored by Bud Davis. “The people there are asking for large plastic containers in which they can put the few items they can salvage from their homes,” added Pastor Burchett. “Because one of the greatest losses was all the clothes people left in their homes when they evacuated, Pastor Davis and Common Ground Community Church would like to collect and distribute $25 Wal-Mart Gift Cards to residents.” Pastor Bud himself lost all of his house and belongings, as did the daughter of Somebody Cares Southeast Texas Directors Bryan and Angela Pressley, who delivered a baby just days after the storm (PTL for a healthy baby)!
“God does not ask us for what we don’t have, He only asks us for what we do have,” says Doug Stringer. “As the needs continue to come in, we can meet those needs if we all do our part and give what we can, whether it’s great or small.”
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