The Eastside Church of Christ in Colorado Springs, Colo., has launched a relief effort to help the hundreds of wildfire victims in that community, where flames destroyed nearly 350 homes.

A mobile feeding ministry associated with Churches of Christ has served more than 4,600 meals to tornado victims and disaster relief volunteers in the southern Indiana community of Pekin, organizers said. Disaster Assistance CoC, sponsored by the Lake Jackson Church of Christ in Texas, set up its mobile headquarters at MJ Auto in Pekin — a business owned by a member of the Borden Church of Christ and located just a few minutes from a disaster area.

A March 2 tornado that ravaged the eastern Kentucky town of West Liberty caused severe damage to a Church of Christ. “Our congregation needs your prayers,” said Rusty Hutchinson, who leads singing for the West Liberty Church of Christ. Hutchinson’s late father, Charles, a longtime minister who died in 1996, oversaw the construction of the brick building where the 40-member congregation had worshiped since 1968.

Churches of Christ across the nation are cleaning up and offering aid after an outbreak of deadly storms across states including Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana and Illinois. The Branson Tri-Lakes News in Missouri reports on a group of volunteers that helped clean up the property of the Branson Church of Christ after a storm swept through the area.

In the midst of responding to one natural disaster, church members in the Philippines face a new one. I received an e-mail from Salvador Cariaga, a longtime Filipino missionary, about a 6.9-magnitude earthquake that struck his home country Feb. 6. Cariaga oversees a ministry that provides goats, farming techniques and micro-loans to Filipinos in need. The quake’s epicenter was in the central Negros Oriental province, where there is a large concentration of Churches of Christ

Volunteers from Churches of Christ Disaster Response Team are in Minot, N.D., helping church members clean up and repair flooded homes. While flood-stricken North Dakota has disappeared from the headlines, the community’s needs remain immense, said Daniel Kelly, minister of the Minot Church of Christ. The homes of six families in the 60-member congregation sustained flooding damages, Kelly said.

The Springfield Church of Christ in Vermont is helping flood victims in nearby towns after Hurricane Irene. Elder Ernest “Puggy” Lamphere said the 80-member church was pleased to receive a truckload of emergency food boxes, personal care kits and cleaning supplies from Nashville, Tenn.-based Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort.

The Bastrop Church of Christ is serving as an overflow emergency shelter amid ongoing Texas wildfires that have destroyed more than 1,000 homes across the rain-starved state. Church member Janice Hernandez said at least two families in the congregation have lost homes, and more than half of members have evacuated their neighborhoods.

Nearly every day is a new horror story in the Horn of Africa — the portions of eastern Ethiopia and Kenya surrounded by the troubled nation of Somalia. The grim political situation in Somalia — which has been without an effective central government since 1991 — is compounded by a terrible drought and famine. Somalis are pouring into a camp in Dadaab, Kenya, seeking food, water and refuge from the brutal warlords who control their country. I’m collecting reports from Church of Christ-supported ministries that are responding to the famine. Please contact me if you have updates or additional information.

In Minot, N.D., the Minot Church of Christ is doing its part to help residents after this summer’s devastating flooding. The church partnered with the Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort to help bring much-needed supplies into the area, an area television station reports.