Your turn to serve?

DULUTH — Even before Hurricanes Gustav and Ike finished tearing up eastern Texas, Jimmy Harris had made plans to be away.

As owner of Jimmy Harris Trucking in Covington, there was a little bit of flexibility for the Calvary Baptist Church deacon and leader of GA feeding unit 11F. Heading up a first response team, Harris’ presence would be required a little longer than most.

“The Lord’s blessed me with some quality employees who take care of things here,” he said recently from his office. “They’re part of disaster relief, too.”

For a solid month beginning Sept. 14, Harris covered the 822 miles three times between Covington and the Houston suburbs, where the Blue Hat (Disaster Relief field manager) helped prepare meals in conjunction with the Salvation Army.

As of Oct. 28 Harris became part of a Southern Baptist Disaster Relief response that has served more than five million plates of food including hamburgers, hot dogs, fried chicken, beef stew, chili and rice, green beans, corn, peas, baked beans, peaches, pears, fruit cocktail, barbecue pork and beef,

burritos, ravioli, and chicken and dumplings. Volunteers with Georgia Disaster Relief prepared nearly 200,000 of those meals.

Collectively, Southern Baptists completed more than 300 mudout jobs and 3,700 chainsaw jobs in addition to repairing homes, providing laundry and shower services, and presenting the gospel, seeing nearly 200 professions of faith.

All of that takes man (and woman) power, though. Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief director Stuart Lang said it can pose a challenge when disaster strikes and warm bodies aren’t available.

“The Texas cleanup came at a time when we had already had significant responses in state (Mother’s Day tornadoes) as well as out of state,” Lang pointed out. “We staffed a unit for four weeks in Iowa (flooding).?It had taken a toll on our recovery people.”

Disaster Relief volunteers often use vacation days to clean sewage from flooded basements rather than relax on a beach. Those days get used up, often earlier in the year when units respond to tornados in the spring. Heavy rains during that time can also lead to flooding, as it did this year in the Midwest, though that weather event typically is experienced more during

hurricane season from June through the end of November.

Tim Beck, a member of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Toccoa and member of GA 7R, clean-up and recovery, went to the farming community of Hamshire, Texas – about 25 miles south of Beaumont off I.10 – in late September.

The first on the scene, Beck’s team was charged with establishing an operation base at First Baptist before spreading into the community to talk to homeowners and assess needs. Flooding had come into the area from the storm surge after overtaking the beach some 20 miles to the east.

“One home came off its piers and stopped floating about a half-mile away,” said Beck. “While in Texas we picked up more than 100 jobs. By Oct. 8 that had gone up to 192. We had completed 70 at that point.

“We were shorthanded,” he admitted. “We had trouble getting people to respond. Many had already used up vacation time.”

“We have close to 6,000 volunteers,” said Lang. “The average age is around 50, split fairly evenly among male and female with a few more men. We rely heavily on our retired volunteers because of their flexibility. We also have a lot of people who may own their own business and can get some extra time off.”

Although the number seems high, Lang compares it to enrollment numbers in a church. Many sign up, but all can’t be available on short notice to drop everything and go three states away for a week.

“You’re going to have a much smaller percentage that are able to actually respond,” he added. “Some of our unit leaders may have to make ten calls before getting the first person available to go.

“To be really effective, we need our volunteers to give seven days, minimum. Work and family schedules pose a challenge. If you’ve already done it once or twice that year it gets even more difficult to go later.”

Human nature keeps people from confronting something until they’re nose-to-nose with it. That principle applies to Disaster Relief work as well.

“There are a lot of people out there who would be great volunteers but won’t until their church or community gets hit,” said Lang. “I don’t want to sound derogatory with that statement, but it’s the truth.

“Since we’re a volunteer organization and everyone agrees to pay their own way, it’s more about time restraints than anything else.”

Lang became involved in Disaster Relief through his dad, Tom, ten years ago while serving as pastor of Comer Baptist Church. Tom Lang was Sarepta associational missionary at the time and unit director for 19R, clean-up and recovery.

“My dad always had a passion for ministry and missions opportunities,” he said. “He saw a need that could be met through disaster relief and was involved in it when it was just a bunch of guys who threw some tools in the back of the van and hit the road.

“Ministry is the key to reaching people for the Kingdom. Unfortunate as they are, disasters give us the opportunity to ministry we may not have otherwise. It opens doors for people who otherwise might be callous to the gospel and helps us meet a practical need in their life, then share the love of Christ.”

 

For information on volunteering through Disaster Relief go to www.gbcdisasterrelief.org