When Dwight Kizziah was ordained as a minister just a month before the tornadoes hit last April, he had no idea what his first year as a pastor would entail. Soon after the storms, Kizziah decided to undergo training to be a volunteer chaplain.
“They saw a need and went and got training,” Dan Wiggins, director of missions for Pleasant Grove Baptist Association, said of Kizziah and fellow volunteers Debbie Cohen and Joyce McFerrin.
The trio received Southern Baptist Disaster Relief training through the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions’ disaster relief ministry as well as training through the Shelby County police chaplaincy program.
“We deploy to different areas as disaster relief calls us,” said Cohen, a member of Evergreen Baptist Church, Vance.
Alongside his fellow volunteers, Kizziah soon found himself reaching out to people across the association. “It was a different outlet God sent me in,” said Kizziah, pastor of Antioch Baptist Church, Brookwood. “Working with the association, we’ve been able to help with the tornado recovery program that’s connected to all churches in the association.”
They have helped meet physical, mental and spiritual needs of those in the community.
“People are getting their lives back,” Kizziah said. “You see smiles again, hugs again. Our association was lucky because when people needed someone, there were lots of shoulders to lean on.”
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