The preaching minister of the League City Church of Christ, Ralph Bryant, wrote this article about some of the good things that are happening in the relief efforts on the island of Dominica. These efforts are in their early stages but will be ongoing for months, if not years, to come. Please take a moment to learn about this good work and continue to keep the good people of the island of Dominica in your prayers.—Paul
Many of us have been working very hard to raise awareness and to raise funds to be able to send assistance to the folks in Dominica, who have been devastated by the series of three tropical waves that dumped a lot of water and caused a lot of flooding and damage and death. I’ve been amazed by the outpouring of love and the generosity of the people with whom I have been in contact. At the same time I realize that our efforts are only a small drop in a big bucket of need. So I have been praying, along with others, that God would multiply our efforts in ways that would bring Him all the praise.
Yesterday (Sunday, September 20, 2015) my friend, Craig Hill, made a plea in the congregation in which he worships in Indianapolis, asking the congregation to make financial donations so that food could be bought and shipped down to Dominica. Now, it just so happened (can you say Providence?) that one of the members of the church had brought her husband with her to hear the guest speaker for the day, so he was there to hear the announcement about Dominica. This man is a co-founder and board member of a nonprofit organization called the Malawi Project. The focus of their work is to provide food and other essential items to the African nation of Malawi.
When the service was over, he approached Craig to get more details about the circumstances on the island. Before he left the building, he pledged that his organization would fill a shipping container with food and deliver it to the island at their expense. His major concern was that there is an agent to receive the container and deal with all of the customs issues when it arrives. He did not want a container full of food sitting on a dock spoiling because there was no one there capable of handling the government business. Craig and I have both spoken with Lewis Romain, and he is quite confident that he can deal with those issues.
I’m not sure how soon that container can get to Dominica. And I’m not sure how many barrels a container can hold. But I am even more confident today that God has seen the need and our efforts and heard our prayers. And He has shown us once again that He knows how to multiply!