By Neisha Roberts
The Alabama Baptist
It’s been hard, back-breaking work for the Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief (DR) volunteers and others who have given of their time the past two weeks to help those in need in South Carolina.
After record rainfall and disastrous flooding caused by Hurricane Joaquin, Alabama Baptist DR was called upon for assistance and teams began arriving in South Carolina around Oct. 11, according to John Hayes, an Alabama white hat who also arrived with the first team.
The first round of volunteers, totaling 62 from Bessemer, Etowah, Cleburne and Elmore Baptist associations, worked together on clean up/recovery/mud out teams, assessment teams, administration, a separate chaplain team and a feeding unit.
Hayes said teams from Alabama, South Carolina and Oklahoma are working together through an established operation center at North Trenholm Baptist Church, Columbia.
Go in, clean out
At press time, Hayes said teams had mainly been working on mud out operations because houses were flooded and the teams “go in and clean the stuff out and throw away the damaged items.”
Alabama DR teams also have been sanitizing cleaned-out homes and helping families sort through their belongings because the two counties that Columbia sits in require the debris to be sorted into building debris, clothing, trash, etc.
“That part is time consuming and hard work but it’s also a great opportunity to minister to the homeowners and work with them,” Hayes said. “It’s also a time to witness to the neighborhood as we work out in the streets. … These people are sitting there seeing everything they own piled on the street. We have a chaplain on every team and their primary purpose is to talk to and minister to the people [through this crisis].”
Mel Johnson, disaster relief strategist for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), said, “Alabama has been asked to assume complete onsite responsibility and coordination in the Columbia area for our volunteers as well as any incoming teams from other states. We have committed to manage the area-wide effort and will continue operations as needs dictate.”
A second rotation of five teams deployed over the Oct. 17–18 weekend to work in clean up/recovery/mud out. Some team members also will work in administration, as a feeding unit and on a chaplain team. The teams serving Oct. 18–24 are from Alabama’s DR districts 4, 7 and 12.
Mark Wakefield, an associate in the SBOM office of global missions and state chaplaincy strategist, was in Columbia until Oct. 15.
Sharing the gospel
He shared a story about an elderly Jewish woman in the city who lived in a severely flooded area. Her home was destroyed. She later shared her story of how she had cried out to God, not knowing who to turn to, when the doorbell rang. It was two Alabama Baptist DR chaplains. They ministered to her and got her connected to receive DR assistance.
“It’s a phenomenal thing how the Lord provides,” Wakefield said. “And in time maybe we will be able to lead her and others in her neighborhood to the Lord.”
Share with others: