ABCO Katrina Relief

The American Baptist Churches of Oregon have initiated a partnership with Baptist Builders to help provide hope and relief for those whose lives were devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

“It is as though they have been forgotten,”a recent commentator on Louisiana said. “When it first happened there was a lot of concern, a lot of help. Now they seem to have amnesia. Americans have moved on.”

Though months have now passed, little has been done to restore homes and churches in much of the area destroyed by Katrina. Through our partnership with Baptist Builders (visit www.baptistbuilders.org) American Baptist Churches in Oregon will be connected with several churches in Louisiana. Through these partnerships, ABCO churches will be able to begin providing immediate aid to our sister churches in the areas of prayer support, financial assistance and mission teams.

“We are encouraging every ABCO church to get involved in some way,” says Chris Roush, Minister of Mission for the American Baptist Churches of Oregon. “There is a place for all of us to help – from proving prayer support to helping a member of your congregation join one of our clean up teams. There is just so much to be done, and we can all pull together to be the hands of Christ for one of our sister churches in the south. This has become an issue of justice. Those who could afford good insurance and had affluent members have been able to start re-building. Those churches who ministered to the poor and the less financially stable are stuck. Christ calls us to walk beside them and help them re-build. American Baptists here in Oregon are doing that.”

For more information on forming a Katrina prayer team and joining our ABCO Katrina partnership of churches, call or email Chris at roush@cyberis.net or 503.228.8394.