Baptist & Reflector

Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835

FIRST HURRICANE OF 2021 SEASON ARRIVES AS SBDR, SEND RELIEF GEAR UP FOR ACTIVE SEASON

By Brandon Elrod

Baptist Press

Photo from the main Hurricane Laura SBDR hub at Trinity Baptist Church in Lake Charles, La. — Photo by Brandon Elrod

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — The first hurricane of the 2021 season has been named, and it’s already a record-breaker. Tropical Storm Elsa became a hurricane on July 2 in the Atlantic Ocean near Barbados, the easternmost Caribbean Island.

The storm, which had been fast-moving, was projected to arrive near the shores of the Dominican Republic and Haiti by July 3. The National Hurricane Center was projecting Elsa would weaken to a tropical storm by July 4 before hitting Cuba and making U.S. landfall in Florida on July 6, though hurricanes are notoriously unpredictable.

“We are tracking and monitoring Hurricane Elsa. Currently, it is moving at a speed of about 28 mph with winds of 74 mph and gusts up to 86 mph,” said Coy Webb, Send Relief’s crisis response director who oversees national and international disaster responses.

Webb joined Send Relief in 2020 after leading Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) in Kentucky for 13 years.

“The greatest current potential impact appears to be Haiti and Cuba with heavy rains and potential flooding,” Webb said. “The hurricane season started early this year, and it is looking like it will be an active year. We stand ready with our SBDR partners to respond when needed.” [Read more…]

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TENNESSEE DR VOLUNTEERS HELP OUT DURING SBC

Baptist and Reflector

Knox County Baptist Association volunteers, from left, Edd Hancock, Carol Houser, Carol Webb and Kathy Hancock, serve Southern Baptist child care workers dinner on Sunday, June 13, at Hermitage Hills Baptist Church, Hermitage.

NASHVILLE — Tennessee Baptist disaster relief volunteers are out in full force this week to assist as needed during the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Nine members from Knox County Baptist Association set up a feeding unit at Hermitage Hills Baptist Church, Hermitage, to provide meals for DR volunteers working in child care at the Music City Center in Nashville.

The team began with dinner on Sunday, June 13, for the child care workers. The team expects to serve 170 meals for breakfast and dinner each day, said Carol Webb, team leader and member of First Baptist Church, Concord, in Knoxville. They also will provide lunch for workers who will be providing child care later in the evening, she said. [Read more…]

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DR VOLUNTEERS ASSISTING WITH VACCINATIONS IN MEMPHIS

Baptist and Reflector

MEMPHIS — It was not the typical request for help, but Tennessee Disaster Relief volunteers have responded to a request to assist with COVID-19 vaccinations in Memphis.

“It is one of our most unusual responses,” acknowledged Wes Jones, disaster relief specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.

He noted it is unusual for government agencies to request help from volunteer organizations, but it was necessary to help speed up the vaccination process to get more Americans vaccinated as quickly as possible, Jones said. [Read more…]

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DR LEADER: ‘RECOVERY IS JUST BEGINNING’

By David Dawson
ddawson@tnbaptist.org

Wes Jones, left, disaster relief specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, joins Butch Porch, right center, disaster relief unit leader for Woodland Baptist Church, Brownsville, and other DR volunteers for a time of prayer. — Photos by Lonnie Wilkey

FRANKLIN — More than a year after a series of tornadoes ripped through parts of Middle Tennessee, many people in the affected areas are still hurting. 

And Tennessee Baptists are still helping.

Undaunted by the enormity of the workload, Tennessee Baptist disaster relief teams have remained in action, continuing to assist those in need. And there’s still a long way to the finish line. 

“The truth is, for many people, the recovery is just beginning — and our efforts are ongoing,” said Wes Jones, disaster relief specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. 

“Given the distance the storm track covered, you knew that it was going to take some time for residents to recover from what happened. So, we were prepared for it to be a long process.”  [Read more…]

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TOP 10 MOST-READ STORIES OF 2020

Baptist and Reflector Staff

FRANKLIN — The Baptist and Reflector website, launched in 2016, is the digital counterpart to the print edition.

The site inlcudes stories, information and photos that are published in the print edition of the B&R, and is also the home for breaking news that pertains to Tennessee Baptists.

This past year, the B&R website experienced its biggest year to date (see below for a look at the increases in numbers).

The chart below recaps the most-read stories from 2020 based on website views.

Spotted on the list are feature stories, hard-news stories and opinion columns. Interestingly, some of the stories were published before the start of 2020, but still received a high amount of views this year. [Read more…]

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2020: A YEAR TO REMEMBER

Ministry created by tornadoes, pandemic dominate year’s top stories

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org 

FRANKLIN — The year 2020 began on a positive note with giving through the Cooperative Program at a high level for the first four months of the fiscal year and after a record-breaking year for gifts through the Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions in 2019.

Then came March — and life turned upside down, not only for the nation, but for Tennessee Baptist churches as well. [Read more…]

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TENNESSEE DR VOLUNTEERS EXPERIENCE ‘DIVINE APPOINTMENTS’ WHILE SERVING

By Jane Rodgers
Correspondent, Southern Baptist TEXAN

Mykel Newman of Pineville, La., gets a ride on a skid steer with Tommy Wilson of Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief. — Photo by Karen Wilson

ALEXANDRIA, La. — Pummeled first by the category 4 Hurricane Laura on Aug. 27, then inundated by torrential rains from Hurricane Delta only six weeks later, Louisiana endured a double hit prompting a multi-state response by Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers — including DR teams from the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention — that is bearing fruit.

DR crews serving in the Bayou State after Hurricane Laura paused work as Delta churned its way inland. Volunteers returned to the field Oct. 11, as a SBTC DR administrative team assumed responsibility from Louisiana Baptist DR for coordinating SBDR recovery efforts based at Philadelphia Baptist in Alexandria.

Volunteers from Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas and Louisiana reestablished operations in Alexandria, with additional teams from Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Alaska and Texas’ Jacksonville College expected to rotate in, said Wally Leyerle, SBTC DR associate and incident leader. Leyerle told the Texan much of the work based in Alexandria is a continuation of Laura recovery efforts and was expected to wrap up on Oct. 31.

Divine appointments

For volunteers like Tennessee’s Karen and Tommy Wilson, the deployment has brought unexpected blessings. The couple returned to Alexandria after serving two weeks there following Laura and spending a week at home in Martin, awaiting Delta. They are members of First Baptist Church, Dresden. [Read more…]

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DR TEAMS PROVIDE ‘A STRIKE FORCE’ OF LOVE

By Bob Holeman
Retired journalist, Winnfield, La.

In August, Hurricane Laura dealt havoc to Winn Parish, leaving a tangle of downed trees, damaged homes and a spaghetti mix of wires, broken power poles and transformers that left us without power and in a communication blackout.

Our home got power back after 10 days but it was two weeks before our internet and TV service was restored.  We then tuned in to see what damage Laura had wrought but found no coverage of a storm that had devastated Louisiana, for she was then two  weeks old.  There was scant coverage even of the wildfires that continued to rage along the Pacific west coast.

Instead the media, both left and right, seemed to focus their airtime on the acts of social and racial hatred that boiled over in a number of metro areas.  They’d like to hold that this is what America is today: a Republic founded on the Judeo-Christian ethic whose wheels have fallen off after some 250 years; a nation that has turned from God and is so flawed with discrimination that it can’t be fixed. [Read more…]

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DISASTER RELIEF CONTINUES TO MEET NEEDS LOCALLY, NATIONALLY

By Lonnie Wilkey
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

Wes Jones, left, disaster relief specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, joins Butch Porch, right center, disaster relief unit leader for Woodland Baptist Church, Brownsville, and other DR volunteers from across West Tennessee at Philadelphia Baptist Church, Alexandria, La., prior to heading out to job sites in the area to clean up after Hurricane Laura. — Photos by Lonnie Wilkey

MOUNT JULIET — In September Wes Jones celebrated his fifth anniversary as disaster relief specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.

To say the former Southern Baptist missionary (along with his wife Pam) and director of missions in Iowa has been busy over those five years would be an understatement.

The humorous part is that during the interview process for the position he was told that there were not that many callouts. Most of his time would be spent training DR volunteers and having them prepared when needed. “I was told things would be pretty mellow,” he recalled with a grin.

Instead, “hectic” best describes the last five years of Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief. 

When Hurricanes Laura and Sally struck in late  August and early September, it marked the 78th and 79th DR responses by Tennessee volunteers over the past five years. “What an adventure it has been.” [Read more…]

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‘LAKE CHARLES GRIT’ TESTED BY TWO HURRICANES IN WEEKS

By Diana Chandler
Baptist Press

Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers planned to prepare 3,500 meals for distribution Monday at The Bayou Church in Lafayette to serve those impacted by Hurricane Delta. — Submitted photo

LAKE CHARLES, La. — Trinity Baptist Church senior pastor Steve James calls it “Lake Charles grit,” an ability to persevere during hardship on top of hardship. “Grit up” is the local rallying cry after Hurricanes Laura and Delta hit western Louisiana just weeks apart.

“We had one hand tied behind our back, and now somebody blindsided us,” James said on Oct. 12 after Hurricane Delta, a Category 2 storm, hit Louisiana’s western Gulf coast Oct. 9, compounding damage wrought six weeks earlier by Hurricane Laura, a Category 4 storm.

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) and Send Relief are coordinating responses from several state disaster relief teams. In coordination with Southern Baptist partners, local churches and associations, they are repairing homes, clearing debris, serving meals and sharing the Gospel. While numbers vary, SBDR has reported more than 400 salvation decisions since Laura’s cleanup began, with more than 300 of those at Trinity.

One death has been attributed to Hurricane Delta, an 86-year-old man in St. Martin Parish who died while refueling a generator in his shed, Louisiana officials said Sunday. [Read more…]

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