It’s only been a year and a half since Alabama Baptists trained their first group of college students for disaster relief, but the move has already proven to be beneficial.
Nate Young, senior Baptist campus minister at the University of Alabama (UA), was part of the Baptist Campus Ministries (BCM) team trained in April 2014. In fact, he headed up the chainsaw training portion of the event.
And Oct. 29–31, he led a group of nine UA students to work in Manning, South Carolina.
“We are excited to be able to train, equip and give collegiates a vision for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR),” Young said. “I’m thankful to have the trust and partnership of our Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) disaster relief folks to be able to mobilize collegiates more quickly and easily.”
Alabama Baptist campus ministers have all been trained by the state’s SBDR to be able to provide emergency, abbreviated training sessions for college students when disaster strikes, said Mel Johnson, SBOM disaster relief strategist.
Young said, “My hope is that over time and deployments, collegiate volunteers will gain a greater vision, understanding and appreciation of what we (Southern Baptists) can do through DR. It’s an opportunity to work together for the Kingdom — being the hands and feet of Christ.”
While the UA team was in Manning, they placed tarps on homes with severe roof leaks and visited with the homeowners.
Caleb Andrews, UA sophomore, said, “It was challenging but very rewarding. The opportunity to share Christ’s love practically and bless individuals who have been through devastating events is something for which every disciple of Christ should have a passion. Love is a verb, now more than ever.”
David Herder, also a UA sophomore, added, “It is a little overwhelming to see the physical and emotional damage the flooding has caused. However, it is empowering to see many other followers of Christ come together from all over the country to try and help those affected.”
State missionary Brian Harris was in Manning on Oct. 29 and noted, “The students had positive attitudes and were willing to get dirty to get the job done. They literally took exams before fall break and drove through the night to get to the DR worksite the next morning.”
But the UA team was not alone. It basically grabbed the baton from a BCM group at Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM). The AUM team worked in Summerton, South Carolina, Oct. 22–25.
The team of eight — seven students plus AUM Baptist campus minister Lee Dymond — helped with demolition efforts and cleaning out (mud out) a low-income apartment complex.
Desire to do more
“We went in and everything [below the] 48-inch mark we took out so rebuilders could build it back,” Dymond said.
The students were struck with the amount of damage to neighborhoods and wanted to do more to help, he noted.
AUM student and DR team member Julie Fuller said, “You do service projects and you’re not really able to verbally tell people about the gospel … but a lot of people came up to us and told us how needed we were and how necessary the work was that we were doing.
“One woman in charge of (some) low-income housing that we worked on said, ‘If it hadn’t been for you then we would’ve been boarded up by now.’
“I think that service is one of the most effective ways of worshipping the Lord,” Fuller added. “The love that Jesus has shown to us is so great, and I think that it overflows from us. And one way to show other people that love is through acts of service like [disaster relief].
“Even if we weren’t able to share the gospel verbally, we were able to share the gospel with our actions.”
Fuller added that the work done by SBDR helps cut down costs for homeowners as they rebuild.
“It was such a blessing to be the blessing. If it hadn’t been for our team and other teams like ours, then so many people would be out of housing.”
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