Local churches working to fill 1,000 buckets with supplies for hurricane relief
Five local churches, in partnership with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia, are working together to collect enough supplies to pack 1,000 disaster cleanup buckets to be distributed to those affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Each church is collecting a specific list of needed supplies, and will then compile them together to pack the kits, according to a release from one of the participating churches, Roanoke's Melrose Baptist.
Other sponsors include: Grandin Court Baptist Church, Vinton Baptist Church, Radiance Community Church (formerly Colonial Avenue Baptist Church),Church of Hope (located at Pheasant Ridge), Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, CBF Virginia and Impact Missions, according to the release.
The list of needed supplies was published by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina and included items such as concentrated household cleaner, bottle dish soap, insect repellent, reusable cleaning wipes, scouring pads, clotheslines and clothespins, and heavy-duty trash bags.
After the buckets are packed on Nov. 3, they will be delivered to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Impact Missions headquarters to be distributed as needed to those most affected by the recent hurricanes.
The Rev. Mark Mofield, senior pastor at Melrose Baptist, said the mission is urgent and important.
"So many of us have been devastated by the pictures and stories that have emerged out of the communities impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton," he said. "Our devastation became the motivation to help our neighbors. Several pastors began to ask the question, 'Is there some way our congregations can work together to meet a need in these communities?'
He said the answer came when there was a generous donation of 1,000 buckets from a local hardware store.
"We took this as a challenge to meet, and we reached out to several other sister congregations, asking them to join us in filling these buckets with the necessary supplies," Mofield said. "Our hope is that this will not only be a partnership of churches but a valley-wide announcement of hope from our hometown to the hometowns of so many others across the Southeast."
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia has declared Nov. 3 as a statewide mission day and is calling on all churches to pack as many buckets as they can.
Melrose Baptist and its sister churches are inviting the Roanoke community and individuals to help them in this relief effort by donating needed supplies or by joining them for a bucket packing event. It will be held Nov. 3 at 3 p.m. at Melrose Baptist, 3520 Peters Creek Rd., Roanoke, 24018.
