Local church collects thousands in donations for Houston

TAMPA (FOX 13) - Hurricane Harvey has taken just about everything from thousands of people in Texas. Many in the Bay Area have been looking for ways to help and one church in Tampa made it easy this weekend.

On Sunday worshipers at Radiant Life Church offered more than just prayer to help people in Texas.

A supply drive brought in thousands of dollars’ worth of donated food, cleaning supplies, diapers and more. After the final service of the morning the donations were packed up and then shipped off to Houston in a U-Haul trailer and several trucks backed to the brim.

“It’s a call to action for us as Christians to actually do what we say we believe, which is that we want to help people in the midst of their hurt and their pain,” said lead pastor Aaron Burke.

“Just to be a small part of helping through our church is the only thing we could do here,” said Gail Peterson, who donated diapers, food and baby formula. “Hurricanes are hard to get through. Floods are hard to get through. I can’t even imagine what it must be like for those people to get through this so we’re praying and doing what we can to help. It was hard to just pick one or two items. I’d like to do a boatload if I could.”

Twelve volunteers are making the trip. After they hand deliver the donations they’ll stay to help clean out flood damaged homes in the Richmond and Rosenberg areas of Houston