Bags of Love
Origin Church crew ventures out today giving out 40 plus bags of love to tornado victims. Our hope and goal is just when it seems all the giving is over, a bag of love shows up on their doorstep. We are also set to give out gift cards to Home Depot and Walmart today! God, lead us to the right places!!!
We launch out for more tornado care, Friday of this week with over 40 bags of supplies going to needy tornado victims here in Ringgold, GA. We go door-to-door looking for the owners of devastated homes, to simply bless. We also will be giving out Home Depot and Walmart gift cards to help. This needs to be an on-going process in our area due to the nature of stages that change in relief efforts. It’s exciting to stay over-the-top in efforts to help when it seems like everyone has concluded caring. We are in the long-term relief stage and people still need people to care. Origin Church is doing our best to stay on the field, in the game, and get the ball to the end-zone in Ringgold, GA. Thanks again to all you many partners around the U.S. that are making this happen!
Origin Team is off to the tornado relief areas today to deliver bags and bags of living goods. We feel like when time has passed and it seems like all are OK, they are not, so we deliver again and again and again. Thanks to so many of you for helping make this possible.
In talking with Rev. Ronald Davidson at Gleaning For The World, we have not seen disasters of this magnitude and at this large volume in the last Century. 83% of people that are asked about the church at large say this; “It belongs to someone else and I don’t feel welcome.” Disaster relief as a church allows us all to see this fact change! Here’s the biggy- Most of the foundations and non-profits that provide supplies are empty of supplies as fast as they get full in their warehouses. This is due to the vast need and demand for supplies in Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Georgia, all at the same time. It could get worse!!!
Here is where we need you. We need FUNDING more than ever. We need TEAMS more than ever. We need SUPPLIES more than ever. Going forward, it means we will all have to find ways to purchase large loads of supplies at discounted prices. So, just when you think people are getting back to normal, they are not……..they say the Hurricane season could come on at a strong, strong pace this year which means demand could even be exacerbated going forward. We must leverage our relationships with philanthropists and givers. Give today!
It’s (life) is all about adding value to people God created and that should happen whether we are in a tornado relief effort like our church is right now or it is just a normal and routine day. There are so many moving parts to relief and one that happened yesterday is the result of relationships. Relationships lead to success! It was rewarding seeing our friend Bonnie over at Ringgold Powersports get helped in a beneficial financial way via Origin Church to continue sharpening chainsaws for all the many volunteers, free of charge. What a great idea Bonnie and thank you! This is the heart Origin Church was planted with……..serving!
Brenda is a lady that lives alone and got in touch with us through our “base” in downtown Ringgold and needed multiple trees cut up in her yard. They were large and all over each other and she had never been involved in any disaster like this. As you can imagine, she was nervous, didn’t know how to deal with the insurance people, and wondered if any help would ever arrive.
Thankfully, our team at Origin got the word and we ended up with a crew of 27 led by Al McMillan who “went to town” on the yard and “got ur done.” This crew even went next door and down the street to clean up as the need presented itself. Needless to say, some happy people over on Fine St. in Rossville this week. In her words, “Thank you all so much. I didn’t know what to do and I am working through this a little at a time. I’ve never been through anything like this. What do I do? Thank you all very much.”
Thanks to ALL involved thus far!
COAD (Community Organizations Acting in Disaster)
The COAD forming is a group that will work to accomplish and fund a coordinated, long-term, recovery and rebuilding effort.
The COAD is about Cooperation, Communication, Coordination and Collaboration.
All local area Pastors and Youth Pastors along with any other Community Organizations who would like to participate in the COAD are invited to come to a
COAD Organizational Meeting on Tuesday, May 11 at 11:30 AM.
Lunch will be provided. We will meet in the Ringgold United Methodist Church gym (we think, just come to the church and we’ll direct you.)
RUMC’s building will host the “Long Term Recovery Center” for efforts in the disaster area. The “Volunteer Coordinator Office” will be there. Soon we will have a “Volunteer Hotline” for anyone interested to call in order that they may be the most effective and efficient in the gift of their service. That’s for both individuals and groups.
Please join us on Tuesday so that you can participate in what will happen moving forward and help us spread the word to other Community Leaders.
This IS NOT a meeting for the general public, but for Community Organization Leaders. We will be able to communicate more to the general public following this meeting.
Thank you so much for who you are and what you do. If you can not make the meeting but want to stay in the loop on the COAD you can (FOR NOW) contact:
Ringgold United Methodist Church
706-935-4777 or rumc_office@ringgoldumc.org
