I work in my office today, Hurricane Ivan is bearing down on Georgia and my mind and heart are with our disaster relief workers who have been serving tirelessly and with great commitment now for several weeks. We should praise the Lord for every one of them and for their profound commitment to demonstrate through action what they believe in their heart - that God has called us to serve, to care for the broken-hearted, to uplift those who are suffering loss, to encourage the discouraged.

Georgia Baptists have one of the finest disaster relief ministries among Southern Baptists. We have clean up and recovery units, feeding units, childcare units, communication units, shower units, and chaplaincy units.

With three hurricanes coming in rapid succession, Southern Baptist disaster relief units from across the country have been overtaxed. This is also true of our resources. A few weeks ago, I sent a letter to all Georgia Baptist pastors encouraging them to receive a special offering for disaster relief to help us effectively minister in the wake of the hurricanes. The response from Georgia Baptists was immediate and generous as we received very quickly over $81,000. Every penny of that money will be used to help people who have been crushed by these hurricanes. Since the hurricanes keep coming, I need for you to understand that our resources are limited without your help.

If you have not received an offering for disaster relief, I encourage you to do so in your church at the earliest opportunity. If you have already received a disaster relief offering and would like to do so again, then please pass the plate a second time, or third time, in order to provide the resources that are necessary to carry out this ministry to so many people who are hurting right now.

Our hearts are grieved for those who have lost loved ones and for those who have lost property. Let us all pray in earnest for individuals and families who have been deeply hurt by these storms. Pray also for the safety of all our emergency workers and our disaster relief teams.

This morning I heard our Southern Baptist Convention President, Bobby Welch, tell what he witnessed in Florida as he observed our disaster relief feeding units preparing meals. He told how he was inspired and blessed to see Southern Baptist volunteers putting Southern Baptist food in Southern Baptist pots and cooking it the good old Southern Baptist way. Then those Southern Baptist hands took that food and put it on Southern Baptist plates and handed it to someone who put it in a Red Cross truck for delivery. He said, "As I watched the truck drive away, I thought, "There goes the Red Cross delivering our meals." Then I saw what happened to the food at the other end of the line as the Red Cross truck pulled up and Southern Baptist volunteers reached up with Southern Baptist hands to take those Southern Baptist meals on Southern Baptist plates and pass them around to people who were hungry and hurting.

"In some cases," he said, "those hands were actually feeding those meals to seniors who could not feed themselves." It was in that setting that Bobby Welch spoke once again of his joy in being a Southern Baptist.

I, too, am thankful for the sacrificial giving and the sacrificial living of Southern Baptists who care - volunteers who care enough to leave the comfort and safety of their own homes to go out and endure the storms at personal risk in order to minister to the needs of others. May God bless them every one and keep them safe!

If you can help by receiving a special offering for disaster relief, please do so. You may send this special mission offering to my attention at the Georgia Baptist Convention and I will see that it gets into the hands of those who are ministering in the wake of these disasters. May God bless you for your faithfulness.