DR Leaders, DOM’s, AMS’ and Secretaries,
First, I want to wish everyone a very Merry and Blessed Christmas.
What a joy it is to serve the One whose birth we celebrate. The One who not only came to earth as a babe but also grew up and lived among the people; teaching, demonstrating God’s love and care for humanity and making known God’s desire to have a personal relationship with each person. He then followed the will of God and went to the cross where He gave up His life so that ours might be redeemed. What a blessing we have to serve the One who gave His life as a ransom for all. Merry Christmas. May the New Year bring you God’s continued blessing and provide you with many opportunities to share His love with others.
Tennessee Baptist DR volunteers have again showed up and responded to multiple events in Tennessee, the US and different locations outside of the US. I have recorded 18 responses we have been involved in this year and I know there are a number of small local events that our volunteers have done that may not be included. You have done a great job of sharing your faith as you have gone. The biggest day was in Huffman, TX, where in one day, God added 6 new children to His family. Praise God. Thank you for your faithful service.
Secondly, I want to bring you up to date on an opportunity to serve in the Bahamas.
In October, Hurricane Dorian sat over the northern islands of the Bahamas for over 2 days as a Category 5 hurricane doing massive damage. Working together with our international partners BGR, we have been asked to assist 2 churches on the west side of Grand Bahama Island to fix their facilities and then from there, look and see where we might assist the community at large. Because of Hurricane Imelda and the large wind storm that tore through Middle and West TN, I was not able to go and see the needs of the area until last week.
For these projects, we are trying to partner with TX Baptist Men, Arkansas and Oklahoma to accomplish the work. I am attaching a letter that I wrote to the state directors in these states about what I found on my visit and some recommendations for going forward.
Because of the need to ship over materials on a container vessel, it will take some time to purchase and ship them to the country. My thoughts are that we will start looking as having teams go over in late February or March. These projects may be done by DR Teams and Church Teams. It is not just limited to DR trained volunteers.
I am still waiting on some information from the local pastor as to on-field expenses. Teams will be limited in size to a maximum of 10 people. Conditions will be camping out in a church with outdoor showers until the one shower inside is fixed.
The number 1 priority for teams is Experienced Roofing teams. The first church (St. Peters) to be worked on will need to be stripped, felted and shingled. The roof is about a 12, 12 pitch. I estimated the roof size to be about 60+ squares. This building will also be where teams will be housed. Once this is completed, the second priority will be to begin work on the Zion Restoration BC. The number 1 priority for this project will be Experienced Framing and Roofing teams. This is because you will need to fabricate onsite 4 roof trusses to match the rest of the existing trusses and replace about 35 sheets of roof decking and then strip and redo the roof.
If you have teams that might be interested in going on this project. Please contact me and we will start to plan.
I do not have funds currently to assist with those going over. I am sorry. Each person, or team will be responsible for paying their own way.
Thirdly, some of you have made plans to go to the round table up in Kentucky in January. Attached is the revised schedule. If you are going and can stay around for the Fiberlock, Shockwave class on Wednesday morning, it would be great for teams that do Flood Recovery. I am hoping they bring in the same man that spoke to us last year. It was a great time of instruction.
Once again, have a blessed Christmas.
In Christ Serving Together,
Wes Jones