Church of God in New York Recovering from Sandy
Church of God Administrative Bishop Andrew Binda recently sent an update concerning the status of the Church of God in the region struck by Hurricane Sandy.
By Andrew Binda
(November 10, 2012) I just wanted to give you an update on Hurricane Sandy Relief. Last week was quite eventful! We received several truck loads of supplies from Operation Compassion, Feed the Children, Convoy of Hope and many other ministry partners to Operation Compassion, including FEMA. As a matter of fact, we had to turn one of their trucks away because we had no storage.
Several churches have been directly involved with the distribution. East Flatbush Church of God, The Emmanuel Church of God and Flatlands Church of God have been serving the Brooklyn Coney Island Areas. Evangel Church of God, Lighthouse, True Life and several of our Northeast Hispanic Offices have been serving the Long Island Area. Hope NYC, The Worship Center of Queens, South Jamaica, Berea Church of God have been serving the Far Rockaway area. Supplies have been picked up and distributed by several other churches including the Assemblies of God, Independent churches and many other groups.
Last week, in partnership with the Bowery Mission, the Chaplains Commission and local churches, we served over 6,000 meals. This past weekend the chaplains served meals on the work sites in Lindenhurst and also in Brooklyn and Far Rockaway.
It is amazing to see the sacrifices people are making. A group of 35 skilled workers are being housed at Hope NYC. Today they will begin to gut and fix the home of one of the pastors, destroyed in the flood. Two brothers drove all the way from Florida, arrived on Sunday, dropped off supplies for the cooking crew and turned around so as to make it back for work on Monday at 8:00 PM. Pastor Devon Dixon from the Eastchester Church of God, Bronx NY, organized a group from their church to help clean-up the homes of some of our people on Long Island. A group of 25 young people from First Church of God volunteered on Friday evening to help at the Warehouse in lieu of their Youth Service.
Through it all, we have seen the mighty hand of God at work. People are being led to the Lord, lives are being changed and many more are being impacted. The stories are numerous and too much to tell, so I’ll share just one. Last week, one of the pastors called to tell me that we needed to rent a garbage bin because of the trash (cardboard boxes, etc) piling up at the warehouse. He told me it would cost around $900.00. I advised him to go ahead and we will pay for it but before you do try talking to the manger and inform him of what we are doing. To make a long story short they are picking up the garbage twice a week at no cost to us. Praise the Lord!
There are still 125,000 residents without power; thank God it has warmed up some. We are a long way from “getting our lives back” but the recovery has begun and continues. We have mobilized teams that will be serving these areas and we will continue to do so with the help of the Lord. Please pray for us and our Northeast neighbors.
Pastors, we have a full warehouse of supplies ready to distribute on the field. The Warehouse is open and our team is ready to serve you. Address: 142-82 Rockaway Blvd., Jamaica, NY 11436/ Phone # 718-848-2810. Let us do it to the Glory of God!
