Nathan Young was excited. After a year of work to rehab an old building in Shepherdsville for use by Mercy Hill Church, plans were being made to meet there for the first time on Easter Sunday, 2018. And then the rains came.

A few weeks ago, heavy rains led to flooding in Louisville and surrounding communities, including Shepherdsville. On the day when volunteers were scheduled to paint, the rising waters prompted them to instead move furniture to the second floor of the building.

Eventually the flood waters of the Salt River entered the building. Two days later, “an army of Kentucky Disaster Relief volunteers arrived,” said Young. “They were amazing.”

The DR volunteers did what is called a “mud-out.” The building was cleaned, drywall and insulation removed, and every place that got wet was sanitized with a solution to prevent the growth of mold.

Mercy Hill is a church plant sponsored by First Baptist Church of Mt. Washington and the Kentucky Baptist Convention. Your gifts to the Eliza Broadus Offering have helped this new church get started. Disaster Relief is a ministry also supported by EBO. Your gifts help train volunteers and provide equipment to respond to needs just like the flood in Shepherdsville.

EBO has also made a difference to Bob. Bob went through a difficult time in his life and found help and the support of other men at the HOPE Ministry of First Baptist Church of Covington. He is now a volunteer with HOPE and shares his testimony with others who feel like there is no hope for them.

HOPE Ministry represents one of the 88 grants recently awarded from the Eliza Broadus Offering. A total of $135,000 was given in grants to ministries and Kentucky Baptist associations to use in sharing the gospel. Your generous giving made these grants possible.

Want to know more about missions and EBO at work? We invite you to the 2018 Kentucky WMU Missions Celebration and Annual Meeting, April 6-7, at Buck Run Baptist Church, Frankfort. It is a gathering of people who care about missions and everyone is invited. Come meet Kentucky missionaries and hear reports from Sunrise Children’s Services, Disaster Relief, Send Cincinnati, and Baptist Global Response. Join us in worship led by the Kentucky Baptist Women’s Chorale.

The schedule, meal reservation form, ministry projects, and other information are found online: www.kywmu.org/annualmeeting.

Joy Bolton is executive director-treasurer of Kentucky Women’s Missionary Union, P.O. Box 436569, Louisville, KY 40253; (502) 489-3534; kywmu.org.