MIDLAND, Texas — It's all hands and hearts on deck when it comes to West Texans helping neighbors.
"It just comes out of what we believe as a church, is helping other churches, especially one that's strategically placed to help others, it's just part of loving God and loving our neighbors," said Bryan Pinson, minister of missions at First Baptist Midland.
Love is in our West Texas blood and First Baptist Church in Midland is feeling called to act.
One of their church members is good friends with the pastor at their sister church, First Baptist Kenner in Louisiana.
"They have three buildings. One of those was totally lost, one the roof came off and one was barely touched and so that building that is left is a family life center that has a commercial kitchen in it and they're blessed with water, but they don't have any power. So the idea is to bring this generator there so they can host volunteer teams to come up and help with disaster recovery there," Pinson said.
It'll take a whole lot of man-power, teamwork and prayer to get these Hurricane Ida victims back on their feet.
But there's no challenge too big for those with the biggest of hearts.
"We have helped in Hurricane Harvey and others in the past, so this was just an easy way for us to happen and God put this all together and the timing, so we're just trying to help the people there in New Orleans," Pinson said.
First Baptist tells NewsWest 9 they'll be continuing to take trips down to Louisiana as long as there's a need for it.
Other churches in the area like Hope Alive in Odessa and Stonegate Fellowship in Midland are consistently checking in with their partners in the south to see if there are any critical needs for resources or donations.
First Baptist is calling for cleaning supplies donations like bleach, shovels, 5-gallon buckets, brooms and heavy duty black trash bags with draw strings. The church will be collecting these donations from the community on Sunday between 7:30 a.m. and 12 p.m. You can drop these items off in their church trailer in their west parking lot.
For more details, reach out to the church here.