Love in Action

The tragedy and devastation of April 27 were beyond words. But so was the response of Alabama Baptists and other Christians to the needs and hurts of that catastrophic day. Individuals, churches, associations, the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions — all responded.

It was love in action as Alabama Baptists saw people who were homeless, hungry and hurting and answered with compassion and care. And it was only the beginning.

The straight line winds of that early morning were barely out of the area before some associations had chainsaw crews hard at work helping cut some of the thousands of trees that fell across church buildings and homes. At least one crew had to stop working and take cover as the afternoon’s monster tornado neared Birmingham.

As weather warnings increased that afternoon, some churches like Chapel Hill Baptist Church, Northport, opened their facilities for neighbors to take shelter in their basements. And after the tornadoes passed, numerous churches like Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church, Hueytown, worked with Red Cross officials to become official sites providing temporary shelter and other basic necessities for those whose homes became part of the waste left in the wakes of the storms.

Alabama Baptists have a long and extensive relationship with the Red Cross. Nationwide, Southern Baptists have more trained disaster relief volunteers than any other organization. We also have more disaster relief units than any other organization. In Alabama, three feeding units were called into service within 24 hours of the storms passing.
Also feeding units from other states were invited to Alabama. Michigan Baptists (with whom Alabama Baptists have a missions partnership) sent a feeding unit to Cullman. Florida Baptists dispatched a feeding unit to Walker County.

From the Mississippi border to the Georgia state line, Alabama Baptists provided chainsaw units, cleanup volunteers, trained chaplains and more in the immediate aftermath of the weather’s fury. Some churches were designated collection sites for donated goods. Volunteers from other churches sorted the goods and continue to help with distribution.

The Baptist system of working together demonstrates again that more can be accomplished when Baptists work together than when each church ministers in its own name. After all, the goals are to help the hurting and build up the kingdom of God, not build up the reputations of individual congregations.

The rescue stage of this disaster relief effort has already passed. Hundreds died; an untold number suffered injuries. Princeton Baptist Medical Center in Birmingham and Walker Baptist Medical Center in Jasper are both working at full capacity as are other hospitals in the disaster area. Now we are in the recovery stage and soon will move in to the rebuilding stage.

Alabama Baptists will continue in the forefront of these efforts. Countless churches will furnish cleanup teams as they did following the F-5 tornadoes in 1998. That will be followed by rebuilding teams like those Alabama Baptists provided for New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. And help will come from Baptist churches outside the state, too. The disaster relief website of the Federal Emergency Management Agency describes the services offered by Southern Baptists. The list includes mass and mobile feeding, temporary shelter, counseling, collecting and distributing goods, disaster child care, cleanup activities, repairs, reconstruction and bilingual services. Alabama Baptists even provide a unit for showering and washing clothes. All of these will be needed before April 27 is a memory.

Coordinating all of this is a statewide disaster relief headquarters in Montgomery, which works closely with the federal and state Emergency Management agencies, the Red Cross and the state’s Baptist associations.

The associations, in turn, work closely with church volunteers to coordinate efforts to make sure the right kind of services are available at the right times and in the right places. The process avoids duplication of efforts and wasted resources. It gets help to people who need it in the most efficient way possible.

The system also reflects the hearts of individual Baptists. If individual Baptists did not work through the night helping medics and other first responders care for the injured, help their neighbors salvage mementos from the rubble, volunteer to help people clean up their property or listen to their stories, show God’s love in action, then Alabama Baptists as a group would not be able to respond in an organized fashion all across the state.

All of this is possible because of the financial faithfulness of Alabama Baptists. Little money is appropriated from the Cooperative Program (CP) state budget for emergencies. The CP helps underwrite some of the equipment, training and leadership related to disaster relief. But funding love in action during emergencies requires individual Baptists giving above and beyond their local church tithes.

Many organizations are providing channels of giving to disaster relief efforts in the wake of the April 27 tornadoes. Most are outstanding and worthy of support. But giving through the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, your Baptist association or your local Baptist church will help Alabama Baptists continue to reach out to the victims of the tornadoes with the love of God communicated in word and deed.

Through God’s people, others will see His love in action.