October 1, 2026
ALPHARETTA, Ga. — When storms left hundreds of Indiana homeowners requesting help, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers from multiple states came together to do what one state could not do alone.
Dwain Carter, director of Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief, said the response in northwest Indiana was a clear picture of the Cooperative Program at work.
Indiana Disaster Relief needed help because its teams were not large enough to handle the scope of the response, Carter said. When the call went out to other state conventions, multiple states answered.
“It’s the idea that we can do more together than we can individually,” Carter said, “That’s what the Cooperative Program is all about, doing it together.”
Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers were among those who responded, serving alongside Southern Baptists from other states after severe weather left residents needing help with recovery work. At the site where Georgia volunteers served, Carter said the work centered on chainsaw ministry after a windstorm and possible tornado caused tree damage in the area.
Other parts of Indiana were dealing with flooding, Carter said, with teams assigned to mud-out work and removing materials from homes that had been contaminated by floodwater.
The response, he said, showed the strength of Southern Baptist cooperation when a disaster overwhelms the capacity of one state. Georgia volunteers worked alongside teams from Kentucky, Oklahoma, New England, Minnesota-Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Iowa, as well as Indiana responders in their home state.
“When you have a need, and more come to help, the better you are in meeting the needs that are out there,” Carter said.
The need after a major disaster can quickly become overwhelming, Carter said. A large-scale response can involve 400 or 500 work requests from homeowners who need trees removed, homes cleaned out, or other recovery work completed.
“When you’re looking at that many work requests, that is a daunting task,” he said. “You only have a certain amount of people to come and help do that. When that happens, the more teams that you can get from the outside to come in makes the hard work doable.”
Georgia Baptists know the value of that help because they have received it themselves. Carter said 21 state conventions sent teams to Georgia two years ago after Hurricane Helene.
Carter said the work is practical, but the purpose is spiritual.
When homeowners see volunteers arrive from another state to help them without charge, it often makes them wonder why strangers would give their time, energy, and money to serve someone they have never met.
“It makes that homeowner, especially if they don’t know the Lord, think that he's important,” Carter said. “Someone’s driven from the state of Georgia to the state of Indiana and given of themselves to come help them for free."
That gives volunteers an opportunity to show God's love in a visible way, he said.
“Disaster relief is a practical ministry,” Carter said. “Going to cut that tree down is a practical way of showing the love of God.”
Carter said that is why Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief continues to train and deploy volunteers. The more people who are trained and credentialed, he explained, the more people are ready to say yes when the call comes.
Some of the volunteers who served in Indiana had recently been trained at a Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief training event. Carter said it was encouraging to see newly trained volunteers move quickly from preparation to deployment.
“When you come out of that training scenario, you’re ready to go,” he said. “Your mindset is there, your heart’s there. You’ve been filled up with everything you need to be able to go.”
Carter said Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief has a place for anyone who wants to serve. The ministry includes 10 areas of service, and volunteers receive introductory training before learning more through hands-on experience in the field.
“If you have a desire to volunteer, we have a place for you to serve,” he said.
Disaster relief ministry also builds relationships among Georgia Baptists from different parts of the state. Carter said volunteers from communities such as Dalton and Brunswick may end up serving on the same team, building friendships that carry into future deployments.
“This becomes a family,” he said.
Carter acknowledged that disaster relief work can take an emotional and spiritual toll. Volunteers may encounter people who have lost homes, belongings, or loved ones. Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief trains chaplains to minister not only to disaster survivors but also to the volunteers serving in difficult circumstances.
“Disaster relief ministry is very emotional, and it can be very spiritually draining,” Carter said.
Across the country, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief ministries work under a shared commitment to bring help, hope, and healing.
Carter said his prayer is that the practical help offered by volunteers will allow residents to see that tomorrow can hold more hope than today, and that God will use the ministry to open doors for the Holy Spirit to bring emotional and spiritual healing.
“One of the misconceptions of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief is that we are a humanitarian aid ministry,” Carter said. “We’re not. We are a gospel-advancing ministry using humanitarian work to be able to share the gospel.”
That gospel focus is also why financial support matters, Carter said. Cooperative Program giving helps fuel ministries such as Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief, and direct gifts to disaster relief help keep teams ready to respond when the next call comes.
“It’s not cheap to send 60, 70 people halfway across the country to help other people out,” Carter said.
That willingness to work together, Carter said, is at the heart of the Cooperative Program and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. When disaster strikes, Southern Baptists are able to go farther, stay longer, and serve more people than they could alone.
“We can do more together,” Carter said.
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