Southern Baptists have donated more than 200,000 masks and other protective equipment to medical workers who are dealing with shortages.
Southern Baptist donations include more than 172,000 N95 masks and more than 56,000 sets of personal protective equipment (PPEs) given to help protect medical workers serving on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis.
Send Relief donated 30,100 masks and 45,520 PPEs to hospitals. Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) teams from across the nation are donating about 142,000 masks and more than 11,000 suits to local hospitals and medical facilities.
Richard Brunson, who leads North Carolina Baptists On Mission said, “Medical personnel need the masks greatly right now. Besides, they didn’t belong to us anyway, they belonged to God! God just let us hold on to them for a little while until He could use them to bless others.”
Tennessee and Arkansas disaster relief teams have been supporting food delivery and distribution in several cities in their states.
Colorado teams set up a feeding unit near Denver to serve vulnerable populations. Louisiana Baptists are providing meals in Lake Charles, La., with support from teams from Texas.
Other teams, including California Baptists have set up support hot lines, staffed by trained chaplains, to provide spiritual and emotional support.
Teams in MIssouri and South Carolina have deployed shower units.
Sam Porter, national director for Send Relief said, “Teams are able to do things they’ve never done or do things they’ve never thought of.”