BST's Blog

Immediate needs in Nashville--
There is a convoy leaving this afternoon and then again on Saturday from the Crieve Hall Church of Christ. They have specific needs. If any of you in Nashville have time to run by the store during lunch and drop a sack off at CH, please do. They are leaving today at 4pm.

Needs:--Mattresses
--sheets, pillow cases
--Hand towels
--plastic utensils
--non-perishable foods
--cleaning supplies of all kinds
--baby food
--diapers/wipes
--Children's clothing

There's also another drop in Cool Springs. If anyone is interested, email me for directions. They are taking clothing of all varieties today and tomorrow.

Chad Jarnigan and I are working to plan some sort of worship night/benefit for the Hurricane survivors who are here. (Does anyone else think "refugee" is a media term? I hate that term. While they ARE refugees, it only seems to add to their despair to call them by that term.) We're contacting other artists to try and plan something encouraging for these folks in Nashville...soon to be over 20,000.

The needs only grow daily. Here's a thought about housing from Sheryl...it's a definite issue when you have kids. While it sounds bad, we still have to be careful and discerning. However, if there's someone else you're close to who is willing, move in together and allow a family or two to take the empty home for a while. Some of you may be finding success with housing surviving families, but we are running into real problems here with the Red Cross. They don't even want to talk about individual families opening their homes for fear of liability. And I can understand that. So...all that to say, there ARE ways to still help while being wise and discerning.

Yesterday Ella was going all over the house saying, "We need to give them that piano. They don't have a piano. We need to give them this high chair. They don't have a high chair. We need to give them our van. We could all ride in Daddy's car and baby Sam could just ride in the back (the hatch)." So cute. We have a real opportunity to teach and show our kids what it means to give of ourselves. Last night Maddie was upset at some of the stuffed animals we were collecting to take with the clothing. Sheryl told her to look around at the playroom full of toys and think about it. That did the trick. This morning she told me that she dreamed that someone came in and took all her toys away. Then she said..."It wasn't really that bad." HA!

Keep sharing your stories and ways to help. I know, at least for me, it's very inspiring!