Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers see gospel impact during summer disaster responses

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers have spent much of July and August serving flood-damaged communities in Louisiana and Texas, where their service opened doors for several hundred gospel conversations, four salvations, and one rededication.

Less than a week after teams returned from Texas, deadly storms leveled trees and knocked down power lines across northwest Indiana. The damage led to a call from the Indiana Disaster Relief Director asking for support from GBDR chainsaw and recovery teams.

Dwain Carter, director of GBDR, said volunteers responded in each location by bringing help, hope, and healing, while meeting practical needs and sharing the love of Jesus.

“The months of July and August have been very busy for GBDR volunteers,” Carter said.

In July, after a tropical storm brought flooding to several Louisiana communities, GBDR was asked to send flood recovery equipment and volunteers. Three GBDR recovery units served for two and a half weeks in what Carter described as "Cajun heat and humidity."

Volunteers helped residents clean out flooded homes, treated mold, provided boxes for belongings that had not been contaminated by floodwaters, offered encouragement, and showed the love of Jesus in practical ways.

As July turned to August, massive rains caused flooding in South Texas, including in communities that had not seen floodwaters in years. Southern Baptists of Texas Disaster Relief reached out to Carter, asking Georgia Baptists to set up a recovery site at First Baptist Church in Carrizo Springs.

Carter said the site served two rural counties, including one county with no evangelical ministry.

GBDR averaged about 40 volunteers each week for two straight weeks in Texas. Teams from Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas served alongside Georgia Baptists.

During the Texas response, volunteers received more than 50 requests for help, had several hundred gospel conversations, and saw four salvations and one rededication. “We saw God work as only God can,” Carter said.

Then came the call from Indiana, and GBDR again answered.

On Monday, Aug. 17, two recovery units deployed to Indiana, with two replacement teams preparing to go later in the week.

Volunteers from Washington Baptist Association were themselves blessed and encouraged even before reaching Indiana. The team left Milledgeville headed for Merrillville, Ind., but a tire on the trailer soon blew. After pulling onto a dairy farm property, Jerry Swafford, a pastor and dairy farmer from Marshall Memorial Baptist Church, helped the team and prayed over them.

The team later learned the trailer needed all four tires replaced. At an auto center, the manager told them the bill had already been covered after a man saw the disaster relief trailer and offered to pay for whatever was needed. “God protected us and provided exactly who and what we needed in a powerful way today,” the team wrote in the update on Wednesday, Aug 19.

The team arrived safely in Bowling Green for the night, met up with another GBDR unit, and planned to continue to Merrillville the next day.

Several of the volunteers who deployed had been trained just two weeks earlier at First Baptist Church in Sandersville. Carter said they quickly "jumped at the chance to put their yes on the table.”

Two more training opportunities remain this year for Georgia Baptists who want to become credentialed GBDR volunteers. 

“Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief is continuing to train, build, and involve more and more Georgia Baptists in the very practical ministry of disaster relief,” Carter said.