Cookie Baker says she always prays for divine appointments when she goes out on an Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief trip.
And in Indiana, she’s seeing those divine appointments, even though her team has only been there two days.
“Yesterday (Aug. 20) was our first day of work with assessors,” said Baker, ABDR white hat leader in Anderson, Indiana, where 37 volunteers from Alabama are working to help those affected by historic flooding.
The team has set up their command center at Kingston Avenue Baptist Church, and Baker said the “first person who walked in to request help got saved.”
That happened two more times as chaplains sat down to talk with area residents who came in carrying a tremendous emotional weight over the state of their homes, she said, adding that many are in need of help and hope.
The team has taken 42 job requests so far, and as assessors have gone out to see the damage, they’ve found homes with basements caved in and water damage up into the upper floors.
“It’s a mess, and the people are hurting,” Baker said.
The first mud-out team went out today (Aug. 21) to start cleaning out a water-damaged home.
Mark Wakefield, state disaster relief strategist, said residents have seemed very appreciative that ABDR is there to help, and the pastor and congregation at Kingston Avenue Baptist have expressed gratitude as well. Wakefield said he hopes the team’s presence will be an encouragement to the church as they try to minister to their community.
“When we leave, we don’t want them to remember us — we want them to remember that the church is where they got help,” he said.
Wakefield said he wanted to “challenge our volunteers across the state to make time to join in this particular ministry assignment.”
For more information about Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief or to contribute to the efforts, visit sbdr.org.
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