75-plus Oklahoma Baptist disaster volunteers leave to New Orleans, Baton Rouge

In the wake of Hurricane Isaac, Oklahoma Baptists are sending more than 75 volunteers to the New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas to assist in multiple ways.

“We will help serve more than 100,000 meals in the coming days with our feeding units, providing shower units for victims and volunteers, clearing debris with our chain saw teams, ministering with our chaplains and assisting with medical personnel,” said Sam Porter, disaster relief director for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. “We also have a child care operation and a ‘mud out’ team.”

Porter and teams of volunteers, along with loads of equipment, departed from Boys Ranch Town in Edmond early Aug. 30.

“While we have been assisting in wildfires for weeks, in Colorado and Oklahoma, we are eager to help those in need in the Gulf region. We believe God equips us to do anything He has called us to do,” said Porter.

Oklahoma Baptists played a critical role in 2005 in the restoration of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. “Following Katrina, Oklahoma Baptists spent four and a half months in New Orleans providing emergency food service, followed by 18 months of mud-out and restoration,” Porter added. “As Isaac leaves behind significant damage, Oklahoma Baptists will gladly assist again in the name of the Lord.”

Oklahoma’s large feeding unit will be stationed in New Orleans, not far from the site it went to after Katrina in 2005. Oklahoma Volunteers prepared more than 71,000 meals while in Louisiana after Katrina.

The BGCO is collecting tax-deductible, charitable gifts for disaster relief at www.bgco.org or www.okdisasterhelp.com.