Hurricane Matthew Relief Continuing
The Church of God’s commitment to assisting residents in the path of natural disasters continues as recovery from the most recent hurricane takes place.
Recently, powerful Hurricane Matthew barreled first across the Caribbean, striking hardest the island nations of Haiti and the Bahamas. Matthew then surged up the U.S. Atlantic coast, wreaking havoc on North Carolina with torrents of rain and a powerful storm surge.
Like Louisiana last month, Church of God families and congregations have suffered flood damage from this natural disaster. The leadership and partnering agencies of the Church of God have been on-site in Haiti, Bahamas and several cities in North Carolina to assess the need.
Operation Compassion, an independent benevolent agency with origins in the Church of God, has shipped fifteen semi-truck-sized containers to Haiti. There are nine sites established in North Carolina, one in Virginia and one in South Carolina. Thirty semis have been delivered to the eleven disaster sites, where there is a network of Operation Compassion partners providing hot meals, cleanup crews and chaplains. According to Operation Compassion President Dave Lorency, a 25,000 square-foot warehouse has been established in East Lumberton to provide relief and recovery.
“In the wake of this natural disaster, we need a supernatural move of God to help our brothers and sisters in Christ recover from Hurricane Matthew’s devastation,” stated Church of God General Overseer Tim Hill. He will be in South Carolina on Monday to meet with state and regional leaders and will receive updates on damages.
Church of God Communications has established a page on the denomination’s website (www.churchofgod.org) with an informative video highlighting the hurricane damage in North Carolina and a message from General Overseer Hill. There are also a number of options to assist in giving preferences. Those wishing to do so can give directly to one of the partner agencies (Operation Compassion or Men and Women of Action), or to assist with relief in the Caribbean, can click on the Church of God World Missions link.
