ABDR recently deployed to Louisiana. (Submitted photos)
When Arkansas Baptist Disaster Relief (ABDR) volunteers were making initial plans following Winter Storm Fern to head to northeast Louisiana to lend aid, Lake Providence was not on their radar.
Teams had planned to serve in Delhi, working west. The deployment was expected to be limited and geographically contained.
Then came a phone call.
Terry Barclay, an ABDR volunteer, received a call from David Abernathy, director of Rolling Hills Ministries in Ruston. Abernathy had been alerted that Lake Providence, a small town in East Carroll Parish near the Mississippi River, had sustained significant damage from an ice storm.
Soon after, local attorney Andy Brister called with a direct appeal, encouraging ABDR to send teams to Lake Providence.
Barclay rerouted two Arkansas volunteers who were already traveling south and asked them to assess conditions. Their report was blunt.
“This is the worst place we’ve seen,” they told him.
That assessment changed the plan. What had been a single-site deployment quickly expanded into a dual operation serving both Delhi and Lake Providence.
A storm no one expected
Brister, who serves as an assistant district attorney and chairman of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, said the storm’s impact stunned the parish.
“In Louisiana, we’re used to hurricanes,” he said. “We understand Category 2 versus Category 5.”
He said residents expected a manageable winter storm — brief outages, scattered debris.
“This was something we could have never prepared for,” Brister said.
Freezing rain coated trees and power lines before a thunderstorm moved through in the early morning hours, dropping additional ice.
“It was thundering and lightning and raining ice,” Brister said. “We were lying in our beds listening to limbs pop.” By daylight, the entire parish was without electricity.
“There was not one person in East Carroll Parish who had power,” Brister said.
Recognizing the severity, Abernathy contacted Arkansas leaders. Brister’s son-in-law works with Rolling Hills Ministries, giving Abernathy firsthand awareness of conditions in Lake Providence.
Within days, ADBR established lodging at Providence Church and began daily work in Lake Providence while maintaining its command center in Delhi.
“We were never even going to go there,” Barclay said. “But when the opportunity came, we had to take it.”
Reaching a rural community
Lake Providence, unlike larger Louisiana cities such as New Orleans and Baton Rouge, does not typically draw national attention after disasters. Barclay described it as an area that has “kind of been forgotten.”
One of the early challenges, he said, was building connections within the Black community.
“In most places, there’s a pastor or key leader you can talk to,” Barclay said. “Here, we were having trouble reaching them.”
Brister helped arrange a meeting between Barclay and a respected local leader named Rosie.
“She asked me, ‘Why are you doing this?’” Barclay said.
He told her the volunteers were motivated by their Christian faith and were prepared to help anyone in need.
“I told her we’re doing this for the Lord Jesus Christ. We use our chainsaws to present the gospel,” he said. “We’re going to help anyone you send us.”
The following morning, Rosie shared that message at church. Requests for assistance followed quickly, Barclay said.
The speed and scope of the response made a measurable difference.
“Had it not been for the Southern Baptist Convention — and particularly Terry Barclay organizing groups to come in — we would be in a far worse situation than we are,” Brister said. “They came in immediately, recognized the need to have a team here and in Delhi. They recognized that and got that set up. Because of that we got help and relief faster than we would have ever been able to get help and relief. … It was a blessing to everyone in the community, and it had the community abuzz about Southern Baptists. It made me smile; I love seeing the SBC make such a grand impact.”
Lake Providence was not initially part of the plan. But after one phone call and a quick assessment, it became central to the mission. ABDR was deployed 26 days total in Louisiana and reported 15 professions of faith. They had a total of 653 work requests – 305 were in Lake Providence. ABDR was able to completed 166 of the Lake Providence work requests and transferred the majority of the rest to Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief.
Upcoming trainings
ABDR has four regional training events planned for 2026. The trainings offer a firsthand look at how ABDR brings help, healing, and hope to those affected by disaster as volunteers follow Christ’s example of meeting physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.
The 2026 training events are:
- March 7 – Central Baptist Church in Jonesboro
- April 18 – Indian Springs Baptist Church in Bryant
- August 15 – New Life Baptist Church in Alexander
- September 5 – Cross Church Pinnacle in Rogers
For more information on ABDR or to register for trainings, visit abscdisasterrelief.org.
The work of ABDR is made possible thanks to the generous giving of Arkansas Baptists through the Cooperative Program and the Dixie Jackson Arkansas Missions Offering.