Florida Baptist Disaster Relief teams deployed to Louisiana after Rita

Photo by John Swain/North American Mission Board

LAKE CHARLES, La. - Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers Tom Antonowicz, left, Interlachen, and Fritz Wilson, Orange Park, pull electric cable to power a Florida Baptist mobile feeding unit. Antonowicz, a member of First Baptist Church Interlachen, and Wilson, director of Florida Baptist Disaster Relief, are two of more than 6,000 Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers assisting Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita with services that include mass feeding, cleanup and recovery, shower trailers, child care, laundry, and communication.

LAKE CHARLES, La. (FBC)-Two Florida Baptist Convention feeding units began feeding victims of Hurricane Rita on Sunday, Sept. 25 in Lake Charles, La., working alongside The Salvation Army.

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The relief team is stationed at First Baptist Church of Lake Charles and as of Sept. 26 had been asked to provide only mass feeding.

The two combined units, kept at the Lake Yale and Blue Springs conference centers, can produce as many as 25,000 and 35,000 meals a day.

The team moved into position from Hattiesburg, Miss., on Saturday, where the units had been stationed since Aug. 30 to minister after Hurricane Katrina. Volunteers prepared 148,798 meals during that time. Florida Baptist clean and recovery volunteers completed 1,253 jobs while stationed in Hattiesburg. Fritz Wilson, director of Florida Baptist Men, said Florida Baptist volunteers performed a third of all Southern Baptist Convention home recovery efforts.

At this time, cleanup for Rita will be done by other states closer to Texas, Wilson noted.

"That may change once we assess damage. Florida may be asked to send mud-out teams to Mississippi in the next couple of weeks to work on Katrina homes," Wilson said.

The Florida Baptist Convention has established a separate account for Hurricane Rita response. Financial contributions to relief efforts may be sent to the Florida Baptist Convention, Business Services, P.O. Box 5579, Jacksonville, FL 32247.

Checks should be made payable to the Florida Baptist Convention and noted for designation to Hurricane Rita Relief.

To contribute using Visa, MasterCard or Discover, please call 800-226-8584, ext. 3049.