As the East Coast gets ready for Hurricane Irene to roll in, Joe Wilkey is getting ready to go there.
“We plan to pull out of here either Monday or Tuesday,” he said, talking on the phone to a church leader in Norfolk, Virginia.
Wilkey is planning on teaming up with churches there to distribute his semi-load of relief supplies.
And, depending on the need, he’ll summon others to help clean up the mess Irene leaves behind.
For nearly a decade, Wilkey has been at the helm of World Compassion Network, a faith-based disaster relief organization based in Warsaw that has organized hundreds of volunteers over the years to go into disaster areas to help out.
"It’s just a matter of showing love for Christ – for others,” said Mark Hazelet, a volunteer relief worker. “It’s what I believe we need to do.”
This year, they've been busy.
“Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Joplin, Missouri just cleaned us out,” said Wilkey, referring to relief supplies given to those communities after deadly tornadoes this year. The group also supplied help to churches in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami in April.
