It’s time to stop & look in the mirror. Our mothers taught us, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” I am bothered by all the keyboard gangsters out there telling mega-churches and others what they “need” to be doing. I will point out that most of these people posting things like this are doing NOTHING themselves to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey. You know why? Because those who ARE doing something to help don’t have time for any kind of finger pointing or being worried at all about what someone else is or isn’t doing for them. Instead of looking for who isn’t doing something you think they should be doing, start looking for opportunities to do something yourself.
Regardless of your life circumstances, EVERYONE can do SOMETHING.
I’m a mom to a medically-fragile, terminally-ill child and a toddler, handling health issues of my own, but even I was able to contribute and help families during their recovery from the flood.
I belong to a mega-church that responded in the very first hours of flooding here in Baton Rouge. Both of the campuses that were active in those first hours ended up having to be evacuated to escape flooding. Three campuses took on flooding, and the part of the main campus that didn’t flood became a distribution point for meals. Some days, our staff and volunteers made over 10,000 meals a day in those early weeks. Two of the flooded buildings became HUGE distribution points for supplies as soon as they could be gutted. In the middle of disaster ourselves, we were still serving the people of our communities. Our teams were doing relief work long after the majority of displaced victims were out of temporary shelters and into longer term housing.
When you are busy helping others, you just don’t have time to criticize anyone else.
Before you post that article, that video, that comment that puts someone else down, I challenge you to look in the mirror. You may not be a mega-church pastor or a CEO, but are you active in any charitable effort? Do you have $5 to spare to donate? Can you go with a team to help recovery efforts? Are you doing something to help? If you aren’t helping, then the only finger pointing you should be doing is at yourself in the mirror.
If you haven’t seen anything on how to help, here is a good start. Instead of finding fault with the faith-based community, find one that has and is already mobilized to help those in need. They are often in touch with what precise needs are in that surrounding community. Here are a hand full of reputable sources I know of that make a difference.
Monetary Donations
Local Churches: I know of a few churches who are accepting donations. You can talk with any of the local churches to see how you can help. Here are a few church organizations accepting donations:
- Healing Place Church – 19202 Highland Road, Baton Rouge, LA 7080
- Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge-10560 Airline Hwy, Baton Rouge, LA 70816
- Christ’s Community Church-26574 Juban Rd, Denham Springs, LA 70726
Flood Relief Foundation: Foot Above Foundation raised $80,000 to help with specific needs after the Baton Rouge area historical flooding event in 2016. They are focused now to help Harvey victims.
Special Needs Help: Organizations focusing on helping families with additional medical supplies and equipment.
- Portlight Disaster Strategies
- A national conglomeration of grass roots organizations including Little Lobbyists are partnering up with Trach Mommas of Louisiana, Protect TX Fragile Kids, The Parker Lee Project, and Moms of Trach Babies. You can learn more about this effort HERE.
Set up your own collection bank: If you can not contribute by donating money or want to help in other ways, set up a donation bank yourself. Once you have collected all the items you can, drop the items off at one of the local churches listed above so that it can get to the right place for delivery.
Go Help: Many organizations and local churches are mobilizing teams to send to the front lines of recovery. Any of them would be happy to have extra hands!
Let’s get to work. These victims need our help.
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