It’s now been almost a month since the April 27 tornadoes, and areas within the Madison Baptist Association, like many other areas in Alabama, are still processing the recent destruction.
Madison Association Director of Missions Harold Sellers reported that significant damage occurred in the region, particularly in the hardest hit areas northwest of Huntsville. Entire subdivisions were destroyed, and to Sellers’ knowledge, 10 lives were lost.
“The damages are just astronomical,” he said.
But just like in other areas of the state, the initial disaster relief response within his association has been “tremendous,” Sellers said, noting the blessing for him has been to witness as local church leaders take the initiative and lead the way to provide help and healing.
A team from the association, mostly comprised of retired laymen, helped clear downed trees off houses. And several churches have stepped up to the plate, doing everything possible to give assistance and take care of those affected by the storms.
“We do what we have to do to serve the people and help out any way we can,” said Melana Lashley, wife of Harvest Baptist Church’s associate pastor of worship Brian Lashley.
Melana Lashley said on the first Sunday after the tornadoes, members arrived at the worship service in work clothes to go out into the community and be the hands and feet of Christ. She said through this initial opportunity to serve, the church’s desire to help only grew.
Harvest Baptist has since partnered with Manna House and other food donors to provide daily meals to disaster relief personnel. The church was serving between 200 and 300 people per meal the first week, she said. Volunteers have now scaled down to serving lunch only and continue to daily monitor the needs and adapt accordingly.
In addition to food distribution, Harvest Baptist also has a gymnasium full of donated clothes to give to those in need.
Mount Zion Baptist Church, Monrovia, near Huntsville, has also assisted in disaster relief response.
Pastor Ron Madison said the church served as one of the state’s 15 command centers and hosted a disaster relief feeding unit from South Carolina through mid-May.
Mount Zion Baptist mobilized 50–80 people out of the church each day after the storms hit to assist with any initial needs, particularly to check in on senior adults, he said, noting a “strong sense of community” overall. District Four Commissioner Dale Strong, a member of Mount Zion, mobilized teams of community-wide volunteers out of the Monrovia Community Center.
Mount Zion, like many other churches and organizations, is beginning to make the transition into a longer-term approach. A recent meeting by several church and associational leaders was held to assess long-term future needs and funnel those needs through the Madison and Limestone associations. The greatest challenge is coordinating so that relief efforts are not duplicated yet all the needs are still addressed, Madison noted.
Madison Association is seeking to be a center to connect volunteers with ongoing needs in the affected communities, and Sellers is currently focused on compiling a master list of those needs. He said the office is receiving many calls from groups across the U.S. who desire to travel to the area this summer for rebuilding projects, and the idea is to connect these groups to specific needs.
Several area churches also have canceled summer trip plans to focus on projects at home.
The association also plans to address the emotional needs of people affected by the storms. A group of licensed professional counselors is being developed, and those professionals will be routed through the association’s office.
Sellers said there would be traumatic emotional hardships resulting from the storms, particularly from those who literally lost all their physical possessions and had everything they owned bulldozed into one large rubble pile and hauled away.
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