Dear Partner in Compassion,

Thank you so much for your recent gift to Southern Baptist Disaster Relief! Your generous support is a great encouragement to our team of more than 6,000 volunteers now on the Gulf Coast.

We are currently staging more than 20 disaster relief units in safe areas as close as possible to the projected path of Hurricane Rita. With our partners from 36 state conventions across the United States, we are committed to continuing our efforts in Mississippi and Louisiana as we prepare to respond to the areas Rita will impact.

I have just returned from the Mississippi Gulf Coast. What you have seen on television does not begin to capture the enormity of this disaster. Gulfport and Biloxi, Miss., literally look like a war zone. The contents of homes are strewn across the streets. People's lives have been shattered. But, thanks to you, we are providing hope.

As of this morning, we have prepared more than 4.8 million hot meals and completed almost 6,000 home recovery jobs in response to Katrina. Our volunteers have also cleaned 6,200 loads of laundry for hurricane victims and provided them 29,000 hot showers. In addition we have given child care to 4,800 children.

Our disaster relief team is doing a great job--but they need our support more than ever in the days ahead. That's why I am excited to introduce "Friends Asking Friends," a Web site dedicated to help friends like you multiply the difference you make in the lives of hurricane victims by inviting others to join you in supporting disaster relief.

See how easy "Friends Asking Friends" is to use and begin multiplying your contribution by visiting http://www.namb.net/katrinafaf.

I hope you will help spread the word among your friends and family by joining us in "Friends Asking Friends." Easily create your own Web page to help hurricane victims??”knowing every dime you raise will go directly to disaster relief efforts on the Gulf Coast. This is a moment of unprecedented catastrophe--yet also a moment of historic opportunity. Will you consider becoming a friend asking friends?

Thank you for helping us field and sustain a literal army of compassion that is restoring lives, bringing hope, and showing God's love to hurting people. May God bless you!

Yours on mission,

Robert E. Reccord
President
North American Mission Board