East Texas volunteer organizations continue helping California wildfire victims
ALTADENA, Calif. (KETK) — The destruction of thousands of homes in southern California will take a long time to rebuild, but several East Texans have already set out on a mission to help these people start that process.
Retiree Marilyn McBey has been volunteering with the Southern Baptist Texas Convention Relief Team for six years and says she is grateful to continue her work in southern California.
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'It doesn't matter where God sends us. I mean, I'm willing to go and I love it,' McBey said.
She and her team have been on the ground for the past seven years serving the servants by cooking meals for other volunteer groups in the middle of the destruction.
'It's emotional, you know,' McBey said. 'It's like they don't have any hope. They don't know what they're going to do next.'
Texas on Mission, another East Texas group volunteering in California, is serving in another way by helping families salvage what's left by physically sifting through what's left.
'We go to that location to their house or what's left of their house with them,' Jenkins said. 'We have sifter boxes and we have buckets, and we literally pick up the ash with shovels, put it in the sifter box and sift.'
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They have searched for wedding rings, family treasures and other precious items spared by the flames but hidden in the ash.
'When we find it, there's just this emotion of joy and relief that they do have that, that momentum from their past,' Rand Jenkins with Texans on Mission said. 'But then even if we don't find something, it brings them a little closure.'
To help their efforts, people can donate to Texans on Mission or Southern Baptist Texas Convention Relief Team.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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