'Christ is Still in Control': Churches Are Ready to Help Hawaiians During Hurricane Lane

CBN News interviewed Darrell McCain, the director of disaster relief ministries with the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention, via Skype from Hawaii. Watch above. 

Even though Hurricane Lane is not projected to directly hit Hawaii, the storm could move close to the islands of our 50th state, and that could mean heavy rains, high winds and a big storm surge.

What is the Church doing to help the vulnerable during this storm?

CBN News spoke with Darrell McCain, the director of disaster relief ministries with the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention, by Skype from Hawaii. McCain is headquartered in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu.

"Our churches are all on standby. They are ready to help," McCain said. "Our Southern Baptist Disaster Relief feeding unit and shower trailer is in Hilo, which is the southern eastern part of (the) Big Island."

"They're standing by and ready to help," he continued. "Our mobile kitchen was sent over for the lava flow earlier, so it'll stay there and be on standby and be ready in case the feeding needs to be activated."

McCain told CBN News parts of his state are seeing large amounts of rain, and waterfalls, rivers, canals and low-lying areas flooding. Some parts are dealing with mudslides, rockslides and road closures.

The Associated Press reports that Hawaii has a large homeless population, and many of them live near beaches and streams that could flood.

"We do have the largest homeless population per capita, and we have several agencies that go out and visit with the homeless, try to persuade them to move in; warn them, let them know what's coming," McCain explained. 

"Try to get them into the shelters," he continued. "And so agencies are working. Some of our churches do work directly with homeless ministries, but mostly it's the county and the state that will deal with the homeless population."

"The shelters are open, and so there's plenty of places for them to go to," McCain said. "And so we hope that they take that warning and get out of the weather and go to the shelters."

McCain urges those at home to pray for the people of Hawaii.

"We haven't had a large hurricane like this since '92 when Hurricane Iniki came up the same path and went across the island of Kauai," he told CBN News. "We have challenges living on the islands, and as we've heard from Puerto Rico and other islands from Hurricane Maria."

McCain encourages people to pray that God would move the storm away from Hawaii, and it would break apart.

"I also ask that you pray for us as faith-based groups – Southern Baptist Disaster Relief – our churches, our pastors," he requested. "They get very stressed during times like this, and so pray for them."

"Pray for strength; pray for encouragement; pray that God will give us his wisdom to be able to not only help people in a time of crisis physically but what we're all about is sharing the love of Christ with people," McCain said.

"We just need to be able to let people know that Christ is still in control and that he can handle this, and we just want to be his hands and feet on the ground," he continued.