(Submitted)
While the flood waters may have receded, the effects and need for aid remain in areas of Kentucky and West Virginia that were left devastated after torrential rains over Valentine’s Day weekend.
Three Arkansas Baptist Disaster Relief (ABDR) units are currently deployed in Pikeville, Kentucky, and Welch, West Virginia, providing help and hope to those impacted by the flooding. Unit leaders are Milton Teal of Cross Church Northwest Arkansas, Robert Thompson of Gum Springs Baptist Church in Siloam Springs, and Roger Fryar of First Baptist Church in Russellville.
They are staying at Meta Baptist Church in Pikeville, Kentucky, and Reclamation Church in Welch, West Virginia. More units are expected to deploy in the coming weeks. ABDR volunteers in these units are not from any one church.
ABDR Director Randy Garrett said they reached out to unit leaders to see who would be interested in going and then put the call out to all volunteers. They sent out emails first but did not receive much of a response. Then, utilizing a resource they have not in the past, they sent out a mass text message. Terry Barclay, ABDR volunteer, who has been coordinating the effort, said it went to 3,300 phone numbers associated with ABDR. The teams were formed based on the people who answered the call.
“Even though we didn’t have units stand up, we had volunteers that answered the call,” Garrett said. “We’ve got more folks going than we would have had if we just had units go out. I am real proud of our volunteers.”
Barclay said several of the volunteers this time around are teachers, who have decided to spend their spring break on this Disaster Relief deployment.
“They are taking their spring break to go help these folks in these states,” Barclay said.
Initially, Garrett said they had only planned to deploy to Kentucky, but the folks from West Virginia reached out, expressing the need in their area. ABDR adjusted its plan and organized deployment to Welch, West Virginia. Barclay said you could hear the emotion in West Virginia Convention of Southern Baptists Disaster Relief Coordinator Roy Polmanteer’s voice when he received news they were coming to help.
“They’re hurting out there … It’s just a wonderful thing to see that our efforts are really needed. We’re not just doing an activity, we’re doing something that reaches people that need us,” Barclay said.
Among the volunteers heading to Welch, West Virginia, this weekend is Sophie Bravo of Cross Church Pinnacle Hills in Rogers.
An Arkansas native, Bravo attended school at Arizona State University. A month before she graduated, her friend invited Bravo to Easter service at her church.
Despite growing up in Little Rock around church and attending summer camp, Bravo said for most of her life she did not “know anything about having a relationship with Jesus.”
“I was surrounded by church; I even went to Catholic high school, but the words of the gospel never penetrated my heart. I honestly probably couldn’t have told you what the gospel meant,” she said.
When she agreed to go to the Easter service with her friend, Bravo thought it would be like what she grew up with, dress up, sing songs, and listen to a preacher. But God had more in store for her.
“It was on that day that I actually understood the gospel for the first time and recognized how my life is not in line with God’s word,” Bravo said. Additionally, the service she attended was part of the church’s college ministry.
“I was seeing people my age, all worshiping God and singing with such passion. Seeing that, I knew it was something I wanted, and I wanted to learn more about this Jesus they were all praising and loving so much,” she said.
“I went home from that service and remember laying in my bed and just praying to God, thinking about the times I had been to summer camp and remembering that feeling of worship and just praying that He would never leave me again.”
After graduation, she took a job with Walmart and moved to Bentonville. Six months later, she got plugged in at Cross Church, publicly gave her life to Jesus and got baptized.
Bravo learned about Disaster Relief and attended training in the fall. This will be her first Disaster Relief deployment.
“I’m excited to see what God will do with it,” she said.
ABDR unit leaders of the teams deploying this next week are Steve Burch of First Baptist Church in Clarksville, Bill Gegumis of Balboa Baptist Church in Hot Springs Village, and Rick Hassell of the Rocky Bayou Baptist Association.
For more information about ABDR, visit abscdisasterrelief.org.