Hope Community Church, Raleigh, North Carolina (Mike Lee, pastor), is working on several different areas of help for the Hurricane Relief. According to a church spokesman, they have separated the volunteers into Work Relief Teams and Relocation Teams.
The Work Relief Teams are being formed to go down to the Gulf area with Samaritan’s Purse and help families rebuild their homes and share Christ’s love. The tasks will include cleaning debris, cutting down trees, patching roofs, delivering materials, and whatever is needed.
People have been asked to share their construction, cooking, cleaning and labor skills. The church is awaiting word from Samaritan’s Purse for the go-ahead to get to work and they are excited about helping the victims of this disaster.
The Relocation Teams have been collecting money to help the Red Cross and Samaritan’s Purse provide supplies. Also, they’ve been able to help families get settled or provide furnishings and housing to the victims.
The church has gotten calls for counseling, items needed, and financial need and they say they are “just trying to meet needs and be open to what God brings us.”
“We’ve been in contact with the Red Cross and haven’t received any requests from them to house families in this area,” says Laura Lee, children’s director for Hope. “What we are hearing,” she says, “is that most people want to stay in the Gulf area and that is so understandable.”
“We hope that the desire to serve keeps on growing and we can continue to help when and where needed,” she concluded.