Disaster Relief Efforts after Hurricane Helene
On Thursday, September 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene made landfall as a category four storm – the strongest hurricane to strike the Big Bend area of Florida. As you know, the storm proceeded to devastate parts of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee. As of this writing, estimates put the damage as high as $47 billion dollars. By the time you read this, you will no doubt be aware of another storm – Hurricane Milton is bearing down on central Florida. Disasters such as these – hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods and fires – remind us that the earth is groaning under the evil darkness of man’s rebellion. According to Romans 8:21-22, all creation is wrestling under “the bondage of corruption.” Mankind was created by God and given dominion over the earth. But when he rebelled against his Creator, the creation rebelled against mankind. Only the coming of Christ will calm the ravages of this savage nature, just as Jesus demonstrated when He was upon earth (Luke 8:22-25).
In a previous article on Proclaim & Defend, we discussed “The Biblical Approach to Disaster Relief,” enabling churches to minister to others.
The purpose for this article is to give you links to stay informed on the current efforts by Operation Renewed Hope after Hurricane Helene. Western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee were especially hard hit. Many people who thought they would never need flood insurance were devastated by disastrous floods. ORH is working with more than 20 Bible-believing churches throughout that region as well as north Florida.
You can get updates on these efforts at https://orhactivenow.blogspot.com/?m=1. Operation Renewed Hope has recently released a podcast entitled, “Stories of Hope & Help,” including stories about these disaster relief efforts. That podcast is now available at https://sites.libsyn.com/550072 and will soon be available through your favorite podcast provider.
After a lengthy pastoral ministry, Gordon Dickson now serves as a writer and conference speaker. You can contact him at LiveServeLead.