Feeding Disaster Victims in Bryan, TX

Saturday and Sunday A few members from the Disaster Care Ministry joined up with the folks from The Holy Cow Smokers from Lamb of God in Flower Mound and Bethel Lutheran in Bryan to feed victims of the tornado and floods that hit Bryan Texas on May 28.

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We fed pulled pork sandwiches for lunch on Saturday, Sliced Brisket for dinner, and chopped brisket sandwiches for lunch on Sunday. 921 meals were served in all.

Volunteers packed the meals and took them out and distributed them in the areas that were impacted by the storms. We also delivered meals to the local fire stations that have really been taxed in the aftermath of the storms.

In Addition to meals, the workers took flood buckets (provided by the Disaster Care Ministry), Kitchen Kits (provided by Tree of Life in Garland) and Comfort Kits (provided by the Lamb of God LWML). Many of the items distributed were made possible through grants provided by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

We met many great people. Ross Johnson, Pam Neilsen and Peter Slayton came from Synod to help, and Steve Misch came from the Texas Distict to assist us.

A  lot of people were touched by the weekend effort and we even had a man who was Baptized on Sunday. Thank you to all the great volunteers that made this all happen.

Disaster Buckets to Bryan, TX

On Thursday, May 25 heavy storms moved through the Brazos Valley dumping torrential rain and spawn tornadoes. One tornado struck in Bryan Texas damaging 153 homes. In addition to the tornado flooding was experienced all around the city.

On Saturday, May 27 I received a request to take buckets to Bethel Lutheran Church in Bryan, TX.  We had just received supplies for our buckets, so I contacted our team to come to the church at 1:00 PM to assemble buckets. 

On Monday, we met again at 10:00 AM to Load the Trailer.

After Loading the trailer, we took 3 pickups and went to Home Depot to pick up our order of 480 empty buckets and lids that had just arrived.

We delivered 200 buckets to BethelLutheran in Bryan on Tuesday. Included in the load was the 1000 bucket we delivered in 2016. This is a major milestone for the Disaster Care Ministry. We have never delivered 1000 buckets in one year before. We could not deliver this many buckets without the assistance of LCMS Disaster Response and the Grants we receive from LCMS Domestic Development.

A fringe benefit for me was that I got to have lunch with my son, Matthew. Mathew is attending Texas A&M University. 

This is the seventh disaster we have responded to this year.With God's grace, we will be able to continue this work.

Tornado Work Day In Lindale, TX.

SaturdayMay 21 we worked with the folks from the Lindale area to put on a work day to help the victims of the tornadoes that hit the area onApril 29. Over 300 volunteers showed up for the work day including 67 Lutherans from 7 LCMS Churches.

Greg Bourbon, with The Disaster Care Ministry at Beautiful Savior LCMS, Gives the Safety Briefing

David Ricks with the Disaster Care Ministry of Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church made opening remarks and gave an opening devotion and prayer. Greg Bourbon, also with Disaster Care Ministry gave a safety briefing and Kimberly Eligass with the Lindale Chamber of Commerce passed out assignments.

Workers removed trees and assisted homeowners in Lindale, Hawkins and Holly Lake.  We worked on 33 homes.

The Holy Cow Smokers from Lamb of God Lutheran Church in Flower Mound provided a BBQ lunch for Volunteers and residents. 1000 meals were served. Residents who were not impacted by the tornado were ask to make a donation to the Lindale recovery fund.

The Churches that assisted in the workday were Beautiful Savior - Arlington, Peace-Hearst, Trinity - Tyler, Trinity - Hawkins/ Holy Lake, Tree of Life - Garland, St Paul's - Ft Worth, and The Summit Aledo.

We Past out 33 Kitchen Kits provided by Tree of Life and 50 Comfort Kits provided by Lamb of God's LWML.

LCMS Volunteer Day for December 2015 Tornadoes

January 23 Tornado Work Day Video

Here is a video put together by Steve Misch highlighting some of the work day. You can view a higher quality version of the video at https://vimeo.com/153043951

January 23 Tornado Clean Up Day

It was a brisk January morning as 345 Lutherans descended on Tree of Life Lutheran Church in Garland, Texas. They were there to help residents of Garland, Rowlett, and Sunnyvale as they cleaned up from the EF 4 tornado that struck the area one day after Christmas.

A group of about 100 volunteers headed out to help clean up an RV Park near the Church.Debris was scattered all over the place.LERT Certified Chain Saw crews cut and stacked wood from downed trees while other workers cleaned debris from pulverized RVs and stacked it near the road.

Other crews went out into the neighborhoods to assist residents with the cleanup. Some aided residents in moving unsalvageable belongings from their house and stacking them on the curb. Others sort piles of debris for homeowners so that the city would pick it up. Chain Saw teams helped homeowners cut up downed trees and tree limbs and stacked them at the curb.

Two Large teams also tor down badly damaged houses and removed the debris from he slab.

The Lutheran Church Charities Comfort Dogs joined other workers in walking the neighborhoods giving out recovery binders and gift cards to people in need. A team of Girlscouts aided in putting together gift card packets, which included a devotional book and information on Tree of Life and assembling recovery notebooks, that contained information on grants, and a place to store important paperwork partaining to the storm.

The Holy Cow Smokers provided 1800 Lunches and 400 dinners for  residents and all the volunteers working in the area.

In addition to coordinating the work day, The Disaster Care Ministry at Beautiful Savior in Arlington provided $5000of disaster buckets and $1000 worth of tools and supplies. 

Upbring Donated $1000 worth of gift cards to be distributed, Both Upbring and the Texas District of the LCMS donated $500 in funds for supplies and tools. 

21 churches participated in the work day. It was a great clean up day. All our work orders were completed.Tree of Life was a fantastic Host for the event

LCMS Texas District Passes Disaster Resolution

The following resolution was passed week at the Texas District Convention of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod in San Marcos, TX.