Meg Pelley, of Rockwood, Tenn., attended a summer camp near Anniston when she was a child. This past Memorial Day weekend, Pelley returned to Calhoun County to do disaster relief ministry in the Ohatchee and Webster’s Chapel areas with her four teenage children.
They were part of a group of 43 volunteers from three Tennessee churches — First Baptist, Rockwood, and South Harriman Baptist and Lee Village Baptist, both in Harriman — who assisted Calhoun Baptist Association in three construction projects to aid survivors of the April 27 tornado.
One group of volunteers repaired a damaged mobile home in Webster’s Chapel. Another group repaired a 71-year-old widow’s roof in Ohatchee. A third group built a wheelchair ramp, porch and deck for a mobile home in the Wellington community. This mobile home replaced a home destroyed by the EF-4 tornado.
Money for these projects came from Calhoun Association and the Tennessee churches.
“Our three churches received a one-day love offering for Calhoun Baptist Association disaster relief,” said Josh Lancaster, senior pastor of First, Rockwood. “We raised nearly $14,000 to add to money already given by Calhoun Association churches.”
First, Rockwood, member Jeff Rone said what motivated him to come to Alabama was service in the name of Christ.
“The very second my pastor mentioned this opportunity, my eyes lit up,” he said.
On Memorial Day, the association’s disaster relief ministry continued with two additional construction projects. Volunteers from Bon Air Baptist Church, Richmond, Va., and Grace Baptist Church, Springfield, Tenn., joined with volunteers from Calhoun Association churches Greenbrier Road Baptist, Anniston, and First Baptist, DeArmanville, to start rebuilding two homes from the ground up in the Ohatchee area.
Greenbrier Road Pastor Brad Williams and First, DeArmanville, Pastor Tom Bonds coordinated this effort.
“Brad had connections with people, and I had connections with lumber yards,” Bonds said.
“It’s all just fallen into place. God can put things together when no one else can.”
Behind the scenes, Director of Missions Sid Nichols and Associate Director of Missions John Thomas provided their skills and motivation for the five disaster relief projects.
“We’re assisting people who had either no homeowners insurance or limited insurance coverage,” Thomas explained.
According to William Cain, pastor of Asberry Baptist Church, Jacksonville, “God has blessed our association’s efforts to minister to people.”
While Cain has volunteered his carpentry skills, members of Oak Grove Baptist Church, Glencoe, have converted their fellowship hall into a ministry center.
They were assisted by other Calhoun Association churches, Etowah Baptist Association churches and churches of all denominations in the community, as well as some businesses.
Food, clothing, personal items and bedding are still being distributed to tornado survivors.
Oak Grove Baptist member Tena Norton pointed to massive rows of canned food and said, “Our food pantry has been replenished four times over.
“We haven’t lacked for anything. God has supplied our needs in a big way.”
Amazingly the church’s relief operation received a shipment of chicken from Arizona.
A Delaware resident drove to Oak Grove Baptist in an SUV filled with baby items.
Churches and community groups from the greater Anniston-Jacksonville-Gadsden area set up a massive array of tents in Webster’s Chapel for a relief operation called Storm Troopers.
Volunteers, backed by their Facebook page, Storm Troopers (for Webster’s Chapel Tornado Survivors), have provided 800 to 1,000 meals per day, as well as bedding and personal supplies.
Sylvia Benevides, who lives in Anniston but grew up in Webster’s Chapel, helps give leadership to the Storm Troopers ministry.
“We started with one tent we called a canteen center and it’s just mushroomed,” she said.
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