It’s funny. This past Sunday my wife and I were invited to Bush Creek’s Christmas celebration featuring carol singing and refreshments. It was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. During the program a collection was taken, the proceeds of which, it was announced, were to be donated to the District’s Disaster Response Fund.
Then Pastor Charlie Beekley invited me to say a few words. Those of you who know me realize right away that the invitation was fraught with danger. The danger, of course, was that I would not limit myself to a just a few words.
I’m savvy enough to know, though, not to dampen a celebration of any kind with the cold recitation of nuts and bolts statistics. So I proudly mentioned in passing, without even having checked, that I thought the Mid-Atlantic District had responded “10 or 12” times during 2008 to serve at the Brethren’s projects. I could not have been more wrong.
When I checked the records to write this report, it turns out we mustered troops, not 10 or 12 times, but 16 times. How great is that? There were new churches involved, new people involved and, of course, veteran responders who traveled to Pearl River and Chalmette, Louisiana and to Rushford, Minnesota. We’ve even been to the Brethren’s newest project recently opened in Johnson County, Indiana.
The support for this ministry is God-inspired and God-driven. All of you who have served and all of you who
have donated resources, either privately or through your participation in the District’s annual auction, can
claim the responsibility for this success. I like to think of it this way:
Because of your works, faith is not dead in the Mid-Atlantic District.
More to do, though in 2009!
Bill Caputo
Disaster Response Coordinator
www.madcares.org
