October 22, 2001

Texas Baptist Men work on 3 fronts
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___Texas Baptist Men disaster relief volunteers are meeting needs from the rural Texas Hill Country to metropolitan New York City, and they are preparing to serve in southern Belize.
___Bruce Dement from First Baptist Church of Keller and a team from Tarrant Baptist Association took their regional disaster relief unit to Hondo Oct. 17.
___Volunteers from churches in Keller, Hurst, Fort Worth and Arlington prepared to serve 3,500 to 5,000 meals per day to residents displaced by a tornado that tore through the Hill Country community west of San Antonio the previous weekend.
___About 700 homes in Hondo and nearby D'Hanis were hit by the storm, with 100 destroyed or sustaining major damage.
___At about the same time the Tarrant Association unit was dispatched, Texas Baptists assumed leadership of key Southern Baptist disaster relief operations in New York City.
___John and Kaywin LaNoue from First Baptist Church in Lindale are serving as administrative coordinators for the multi-state Baptist disaster-relief response.
___Jered and Kay Sellers from First Baptist Church of Plains and a 20-member team from the Texas South Plains are working at the Floyd Bennett Airport in Brooklyn. Sellers is on-site coordinator for the emergency food service team.
___Southern Baptist volunteers have been the major supplier of hot meals for the American Red Cross to distribute to rescue and recovery workers at the World Trade Center site. Between the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and Oct. 16, Baptist volunteers from more than a half-dozen states had prepared more than 317,400 meals.
___Texas Baptist Men also prepared to respond to a request from the Southern Baptist Convention International Mission Board for rebuilding teams in Belize. Hurricane Iris swept through the southern portion of that Central American country, leaving at least 13,000 people homeless.
___Missionary Ken Moore reported Oct. 16 by e-mail that he had visited the Bella Vista, Silver Creek and San Pedro Columbia villages. The hurricane destroyed two Baptist church buildings and left about 40 member families homeless.
___"Our Belizean Baptists are raising funds ... to help purchase the building materials we need to build the 40 shelters and repair the churches. They also are getting together food, clothing and other needed supplies, as well as forming work teams," Moore wrote.
___He added that IMB representatives and Mexican Baptists in Chetumal also have responded to immediate needs.
___Texas Baptists are making available funding to assist with temporary shelters for homeless families until their houses can be rebuilt, according to Texas Baptist Men Executive Director Jim Furgerson.
___Beginning in early November, Texas Baptists will be needed for construction teams to build houses and churches. Living conditions are primitive, and teams will need to be self-contained and self-supporting. Volunteers should call (214) 828-5353 or (214) 381-2800.
___Anyone wishing to contribute to Texas Baptist disaster relief efforts should designate checks "disaster relief," make them payable either to Baptist Executive Board or Texas Baptist Men, and mail them to 333 N. Washington, Dallas 75246-1798.

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