2005 - 09-02-05

Another
big reason this is the best organization to
donate money to is because they are so
organized it's uncanny. I was reading an
impressive article in a magazine about
Jehovah's Witnesses and disaster relief for
Hurricane Andrew. Check this out.

When
Hurricane Andrew hit, the Governing Body of
Jehovah’s Witnesses in Brooklyn, New York,
reacted at once and appointed a relief
committee to function out of the Fort
Lauderdale Assembly Hall. They also assigned
a considerable sum of money for the purchase
of materials, food, and emergency items. As
a consequence, Jehovah's Witnesses were
among the first to react to the situation
and began calling for volunteers. In fact,
many came without even being called.

Witness workers turned up from California,
North Carolina, Oregon, Washington State,
Pennsylvania, Missouri, and many other
places. A Virginia Regional Building
Committee that usually builds Kingdom Halls
(the places where they meet for
worship) sent a group of 18 Witnesses to
repair roofs. It took them 18 hours to
drive down. Relief workers took vacation
time or leaves of absence from their jobs
and drove across the country, hundreds and
even thousands of miles, to reach their
fellow Witnesses in distress.

There was a group that came from the
Charleston area in South Carolina. They had
experience with Hurricane Hugo back in 1989.
They knew what to expect and soon organized
relief supplies, including electric
generators and building materials. Within
two weeks volunteer crews had dried out some
800 homes and had repaired many roofs.

Even the media noted how well the Witnesses
were organized. The Savannah Evening Press
carried the headline “Jehovah’s Witnesses
Find They Are Welcome in South Florida,” and
The Miami Herald declared: “Witnesses Care
for Their Own—and Others.”