James Dixon’s home may be far from his Birmingham roots but his heart certainly isn’t.
On Sept. 26, Dixon, pastor of El-Bethel Baptist Church, Fort Washington, Md., and Darin Poullard, pastor of Fort Washington Baptist Church, arrived in the city with an 11-member team to take part in the continued tornado recovery work. Nine team members were from El-Bethel Baptist, and two were from Fort Washington Baptist.
The team connected with The Center at Central Park, a Birmingham Baptist Association ministry devoted to education and community development in Fairfield. It camped on the center’s linoleum floors, cleaned and painted several classrooms there and assisted in rebuilding a house in Pleasant Grove before returning home Sept. 30.
For Dixon, the decision to hop in a van and drive 13 hours through the night to do recovery work came after visiting Pratt City in the first weeks of May and seeing the work needed.
In July, he met with Sammy Campbell, director of the center and church-planting strategist with the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, and asked if there was some way his church could help.
Poullard had wanted his church to participate in relief work from the beginning.
“Right after the tornadoes happened, I contacted [Dixon] … and mentioned that I wanted to go down and help,” he said.
Fort Washington Baptist organized a fundraiser for the Adopt a Family program at Calvary Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, and raised $10,000 for disaster relief aid through August and September.
It had planned to travel down and deliver the money while doing relief work; however, Calvary Baptist had not been able to place it in a site.
Fortunately a week before El-Bethel’s group was to drive down, Dixon contacted Poullard to ask if his group wanted to join it.
“There were more [Fort Washington Baptist members] who wanted to come,” he said, “but arrangements had to be made more quickly [than we expected].”
Perhaps they will get another chance, as Dixon and Poullard plan to return.
They hope to keep working with the center and homeowners in the area, though they do not yet have definite plans. One project Dixon is considering is building low-cost housing for those displaced by the tornadoes.
Poullard hopes more churches from the Maryland area will get involved next time.
Campbell praised El-Bethel and Fort Washington Baptist for their belief that “the Church has to always be on mission.” Their presence in the area was a display of solidarity among Southern Baptist churches across geographic and racial lines, he said.
Darryl Fitch, an El-Bethel member, saw their work as an opportunity to inspire other believers to do ministry.
“I’ve loved seeing how everyone gives together, serves together, gets to know one another,” Fitch said. He was excited “to show others what we’ve done and encourage them in the work.”
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