This week I’m writing my article from Swainsboro, Georgia. It is about 90 minutes or 92 miles east of Savannah. We are staying in the gymnasium of FBC Swainsboro, sleeping on cots with about 70 other men. I am here with the Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief. We are one of many teams of Disaster Relief workers from all over the U.S.
I ended up working with a team from western Oklahoma. They are a chainsaw team. Scott, the team leader, was putting the team together and needed a chaplain (all teams are required to have a chaplain assigned to them). My schedule permitted me to be gone and the church gave me the time to go. Now, before you get too excited about me being with a chainsaw team, I would like to say I have not had the training to operate one and with my inclination to cause disasters, it is for the better everyone that I service them and watch from a distance, not operate one.
Our crew is made up of 11 men with ages ranging from 76 to 20. We have a team leader, Scott. There are two Bobs, one Bobby, a Jay, Jacob, Jim, Adam, Paul, Raymond and Tim. The team has all kinds of work backgrounds from retired to general laborers, oil and gas industry and one team member being a retired high school principal with two of us being preachers.
None of us do Disaster Relief for a living. We all just volunteer our time once or twice a year with a couple of the guys serving more. There is no pay for this, we volunteer our time. We cover our meals traveling but the host church has Disaster Relief cooks that use the church kitchen to cook breakfast and supper.
We get up at six a.m., dress for the day, have breakfast, get our work orders and take off to work. We cut trees that have blown over in the yard, on the driveway, some on the house or maybe the barn or carport. We cut them up and drag them to the road or stack them up for the skid loader to pick up and move.
Sometimes this can be an easy job and other times it can be quite difficult. Cutting the tree could cause it to fall on the house, an outbuilding, a vehicle, in the street or on a powerline. So there is some skill, training and a lot of thought that must go into each job.
The crew I am working with has only 6 of the 11 that have worked together. Five of us are NEWBIES! (First time being deployed.) Yet, it is amazing. Whenever we pull up to a job each one of us jumps into action. Jacob puts out the red cones, Scott and Adam access the job. Bobby and a couple others unload the skid loader. I and another will grab tables, set them up and start getting the saws ready to be used. Then we go to work with five of the guys trading off running the saws. The rest of us start stacking or dragging the brush.
And the homeowner… they sit back in amazement at how we all work together clearing the trees, brush and limbs off the property. But the truly amazing part is there is absolutely no cost to the homeowner. That is right, it is totally FREE. This is all a ministry of the Oklahoma Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention in large. The only thing the homeowner gives to this ministry is permission for the work to be done!
My job as a chaplain is the best I think. When each job is done, we give a Bible that has the SBC Disaster Relief logo on the front. I get to write the occasion (Hurricane Helene), the year, a brief message and scripture and then all of the crew sign their name and where they are from. I then (with the group standing around me) present the Bible to the family or individual. And I will tell you it has been very emotional. Many grown men leave with tears in their eyes. After a prayer and goodbyes we leave to go to the next job.
“Why do we do this?” You and many (especially homeowners) others ask. Why not? I mean are we not supposed to be the hands and feet of Jesus? Almost every home where we worked has told us that without our help the mess would not be cleaned up, the tree removed off the house or the tarp put on the leaking roof. Me, and others that sacrifice to help others in times of crisis just seems like the right thing to do. This ministry, sacrifice and work done is summed up in Matthew 25:40 (Matt. 25:31-40 for context).
Serving the Least of These Bro. Tim
