Lacy Daves (l-r), Jeannie Stover, Fred Stover and Gayle Romans prepared baskets for families of four flooding victims.
Recovered items, blankets, Bibles prepared for families of four victims
One searcher after the flood in Kerr County came across personal items with the names of four children on them. Those items are now being returned to those families with a special touch from Texans on Mission volunteers.
Lacy Daves, a volunteer from Kingsland Baptist Church in Katy, deployed to Kerrville as part of TXM’s response to the devastating July 4 flood which has claimed at least 135 lives. She became a connection between the search after the flood and four families of victims.
“My neighbor (in Houston) had a connection here in Kerrville who was out doing search and rescue,” Daves said. “He found some of the belongings of campers who did not make it. He picked up some of their personal items and sent a picture of the names.”
Daves made more connections as she deployed with a TXM flood recovery team the week of July 15 and determined she would “bring these things home if the families would like to have any of the belongings back. …
“Some of the ladies here knew what I was going to be doing and wanted to make it even more special,” Daves said.
Jeannie Stover, a volunteer from Taylor’s Valley Baptist Church in Temple, had made blankets for survivors of the love, and the group had been praying God would use the blankets to help comfort someone. Then they heard about the effort of returning the children’s items.
The recovered items, a blanket and a Bible signed by TXM volunteers were packaged into baskets for delivery to the children’s parents.
Daves and Stover were joined in the effort by Fred Stover (Jeannie’s husband) and Gayle Romans of First Baptist Church in Farmersville. The Stovers were part of a shower/laundry unit, and Romans deployed as the administrative Blue Cap of the TXM Incident Management Team in Kerrville.
With the help of other volunteers, the four put together the baskets and prayed over the contents, which will be sent to the children’s parents.
“Our prayer,” said Jeannie Stover, “would be that God would give them comfort and assurance and they would feel the love and the covering of Jesus as we do this for them. It comes from the bottom of our hearts.”
Fred Stover felt a deep connection to the grieving parents. “I lost a son a little over a year ago, so my heart feels the grief that these parents are feeling, and when this was brought up, the girls said to me, ‘We need to get some Bibles and get them signed,’ so I went and got the Bibles.”
He then involved the staff of Kerrville’s Trinity Baptist Church in the effort. “I've gone through the entire church, the pastoral staff has prayed over these Bibles and these blankets, and we have gotten signatures from everyone.”
Romans summed up the team’s desire for the message of the baskets by pointing to Scripture. “In Romans 15:13, it says, ‘May the God of hope fill you with all the joy and peace that you trust in him so that you may overflow with the hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.’”
