Kitchen director, Grace Baptist Church
JOHNSON CITY — Keith Davenport is an avid golfer. He plays several times a week, often arriving at the first tee box before most people have had breakfast.
Last fall, Davenport found himself setting his alarm clock even earlier than usual. And the early wake-up calls had nothing to do with tee-times.
Davenport is a deacon at Grace Baptist Church in Johnson City. The church has been housing Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief teams since last September, when Hurricane Helene ravaged the area with flooding.
In the early days of the recovery efforts, Davenport was appointed as the chair person for Grace Baptist kitchen ministry, and was put in charge of coordinating meals for DR volunteers.
He admits that the role has been perhaps a little more involved than he might have expected.
“It’s been … busy,” Davenport said with a smile. “For me, it meant getting up at 4:45 in the morning to start cooking and preparing.”
Davenport maintained that schedule for six straight weeks in the immediate aftermath of the storms. His schedule has slowed down a little bit since then, but not much, he said.
He said the work has been extremely rewarding, knowing that he is helping those who are, in turn, helping others.
“Watching the DR teams in action has been awesome,” he said.
The church’s first involvement with the recovery effort was hosting a DR team from Texas in the first few weeks after the hurricane. “We housed about 30 to 40 of them for about five weeks,” he said.
Shortly thereafter, teams from Tennessee began arriving.
For a brief time, the church housed volunteers from both states, before the Texas teams were needed elsewhere. Grace Baptist has continued hosting teams from Tennessee.
Davenport said he has enjoyed getting to know the DR volunteers, and he has found his role to be a fulfilling.
He said it was especially meaningful to observe the teams during their devotional and sharing time.
“Hearing them talk about the day that they’d just encountered — and hearing the stories of lost people coming to Christ through their ministry — is just heartwarming,” he said.
Davenport, like so many others connected to the DR efforts, has had a first-row seat for some life-changing moments.
For instance, one day when Davenport was in the downtown area, passing out DR flyers, he spotted two ladies carrying items out of their house and taking them down to the curb to be thrown away.
He struck up a conversation with the ladies, and was told that they planned to sell their house because of all the damage. He learned that they didn’t want to sell, but felt they had no choice.
Davenport suggested that they hold off on that decision, and he helped them get connected with the DR team that was staying at Grace Baptist.
“I told her to let the teams come in and clean — and get started on the rebuild,” he said.
She agreed to do that. In the days that followed, when she saw the work being done, she decided not to sell.
Davenport stayed in contact with her, and recently visited her at the rebuilt home.
“She said she was just overwhelmed by what they had done,” he said.
Stories like that, he said, have taken place time and time again throughout the past year. And they have meant more to him than back-to-back birdies on his scorecard.
“It’s been amazing,” he said.
