I Need Your Money, Please: Not for Me. I Urge You to Give Generously to the Volunteer Workers Pouring Supplies, Searchers, Shelter and Souls Full of Love into Kerrville TX. Now. Right Now.

Vince Saben of Buck Up Relief Mission brings survival to those hit by disasters because his neighbors are in need. He and his buddies are racing supplies to the TX flood site now. They need your help.

First let me tell you that 4 girls were just found alive in a tree 18 miles downstream from Mystic Camp in Kerrville, TX, following the utterly devastating flash flood. But bodies are being retrieved from the Guadalupe River as I write this.

Next, let me tell you that I have just gotten off the phone with Vince Saben, of Buck Up Rescue Mission. He needs your help. Here is where you can help:
GiveSendGo | Buck Up Relief Mission

GiveSendGo | Buck Up Relief Mission

He and his volunteers

are loading trucks

from warehouses of donated disaster relief supplies

in North Carolina (where they remain following Hurricane Helene relief efforts last September) and thereafter (here you can see them loading Christmas gifts for the children of Asheville, NC)

and getting them to the people of Kerrville as quickly as humanly possible. Some supplies need to be purchased in addition to the ones they have already accumulated and have stockpiled.

This is grassroots aid coming strictly from the hearts and souls of men and women who believe in rendering aid when aid is essential to their neighbors. That means Vince. That means me (I am donating trauma and grief counseling to workers or residents). That means you. GiveSendGo | Buck Up Relief Mission

There are organizations, huge ones, like the Red Cross and Samaritan’s Purse and I am in no way discussing what they do or do not do on the ground or behind the scenes. And I certainly am not talking about FEMA. Organizations like Red Cross and Samaritan’s Purse take in vast amounts of money and have correspondingly vast administrative and overhead costs.

“American Red Cross, for example, receives widespread public support having raised $3.2 billion (for the year ending June 30, 2023) compared to $3.2 billion in 2022, $3.1billion in 2021, $2.8 billion in 2020, $2.8 billion in 2019 and $3.7 billion in 2018.

Most of the organization’s revenue ($2 billion or 63% of revenue) came from the sale of biomedical services (i.e. blood and plasma collected through donations and sold) with the remaining revenue obtained primarily through contributions, gifts, and grants ($900 million including $54 million from the government).”
The people who make the American Red Cross run are most assuredly NOT volunteers: “Salaries at American Red Cross typically range from $71,227 to $92,729 annually”¹ although some locations command higher salaries than others (“The average American Red Cross in Tucson, AZ makes $103,396, 5% above the national average American Red Cross salary of $98,264.”)²

Samaritan’s Purse, a large organization with an ample surplu, does not pay as well: “In 2023, Samaritan’s Purse reported total revenue of $1.2 billion (compared to $1.3 billion in 2022, $1 billion in 2021, $894 million in 2020, $734 million in 2019, and $700 million in 2018) most of which came from cash contributions ($768 million), non-cash contributions ($328 million) and government grants ($54 million). Non-cash contributions were primarily shoe box items.

Expenses totaled $1.037 billion (including $29 million in depreciation) – 86% of revenue –”³ but “($232 million) for the 5,144 employees who received an average compensation of $45,000. The most highly compensated employee was William Franklin Graham, the Chairman, President and CEO who received $882,156.”⁴

Vince and his buddies are grass roots helping hands. All of the money they take in goes to getting the goods that people need, getting the goods to the people in need and serving and supporting the people who are serving the people in need.

All of it. The goods donated go to the people in need. So does all of the money. During Hurricane Helene, someone handed $20,000 in cash to one of Vince’s buddies. He divided it up into packets of $700 each and walked around handing the money out to the people there who had literally lost everything. Not a penny remained in his pockets when he was done.

Relief workers and support volunteers are being housed in temporary houses, including B&Bs when other accommodation is not available. They and the families and victims are being fed and tended to. With your money.

How do the goods get there? Truckers either use a truck they borrow or one that they own, fill the trucks up from the warehouses and head off to where the load is needed to sustain life, hope and purpose. In this case, that’s Kerrville, TX.

It costs about $3500 to pay for fuel and maintenance of big rig from the North Carolina warehouses to Kerrville in Central Texas. If a trucker were being paid on that run, he would pocket about $1000 for his time and trouble. But these men and women are surrendering that money in order to bring essentials to their not-so-near-but-very-dear neighbors, the friends they have never met.

The owners of companies sometimes lend their trucks for these missions, so their dispatchers and mechanics and accountants and owners and drivers are all giving time and skill to make these runs of compassion and care happen.

Vince needs your donations now. He is not alone. There are people like Dr. Pete Chambers there right now. Here is the link: GiveSendGo | Buck Up Relief Mission

Oh, one other thing. Vince is a Christian and Buck Up Relief Mission is a Christian Organization. I am not a Christian. It makes absolutely no difference. Following what his truth and his Lord have told him to do, just as I follow what my inner guidance tells me to do, we are linked in purpose. Please join with us and help those who need your help now.

What’s the link? Here you go: GiveSendGo | Buck Up Relief Post

1. American Red Cross Average Salaries | Salary.com

2. American Red Cross in Tucson, AZ Salary - July 2025

3. Where Does $100 to Samaritan’s Purse Go (2023)? | Paddock Post

4. Ibid.