Explosion Rips City of West

Dear SoupFriends,

April 17, 2013 will be a day that will long live in the memories of all Texans. The Texas City of West was hit by a massive Fertilizer Plant explosion. An explosion of such intensity that homes & businesses were destroyed in the blink of an eye. The city’s infrastructure took a huge hit. Most devastating were the lives lost in the blast. 14 people are known to have lost their lives. Countless others suffered injuries. In a town of 2,800 residents, it was a miracle that more lives were not lost. Parts of the town were literally leveled. 

The SoupMobile’s main missions are ‘Feeding & Sheltering’ the homeless. However in 2011 the SoupMobile formed an Emergency Response Team. Its purpose was to respond to natural and man-made disasters in Texas. Since its formation we have responded to a whole host of emergencies including apartment fires, tornadoes in Lancaster and now most recently the disaster in West.

Since the explosion the SoupMobile has delivered more than 4 tons of food, blankets and supplies to West. Then on Monday April 29^th we did something very special for the city of West. The SoupMobile Emergency Response Team set up camp in a Chevron Gas Station in West. We gave out $10,000 of Gas Money to pump FREE gas in the cars of 500 West residents, volunteers and first responders. As a special act of kindness we also washed the windshields of every car that received gas.  The response was overwhelming! The number of cars was astonishing as they were lined up down the street and around the block. More telling were the tears in their eyes and the smiles on the faces of the West residents as they received their free gas and sparkling clean windshields. Hearts were touched as we blessed the residents with the love of Jesus. We believe that if Jesus were walking the earth today, HE would have been right there pumping gas and washing windshields.

CBS DFW Channel 11 also made the trip down to cover the FREE gas event - http://youtu.be/QhqOQyggK5g 

Go here for our Facebook Album of the day - http://on.fb.me/12XWLeb

Special thanks to our SoupMobile friends, donors, supporters and Prayer Warriors for helping make this all possible. Without YOU, we could not feed 200,000 meals a year; shelter the homeless in our 7 group homes; give 500 homeless a magical Christmas every year and run the SoupMobile Emergency Response Team. YOU are the heart and soul of what we do. Please accept my grateful thanks for helping make it all happen. ‘Together’ we are serving Christ by serving the ones HE called the ‘least of these.’

May the Lord Bless & Keep You & Yours.

Signed, David Timothy, a.k.a. The SoupMan