
Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers John Van Dyke, left, and his son, Matthew, on the tractor, clear away tree branches at a resident’s house in Spring Hill on May 20. — Photos by David Dawson
SPRING HILL — With chain saws buzzing and tractors rumbling, Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers spent the week of May 20-25 checking off a long series of job requests in Maury County.
Trees were downed and many roads were closed throughout Spring Hill and the surrounding areas after deadly storms swept through the area — and other parts of Tennessee — on May 8-9, leaving many homeowners with extensive damage and power outages.
Tennessee Baptist DR teams have helped many of the storm victims put the pieces back together. As of May 23, Tennessee Baptist DR teams had completed 42 jobs in Maury County and had about a dozen more to go.
“Our teams have been awesome,” said Kathy Henry, who is serving as the “co-white hat” — along with Tina Golden — at the incident command post for the response efforts in Maury County.
Gary Cate, who is serving as crew chief for a team from Knox County, said that while it was indeed a busy workload, he considers each day to be a ministry.
Cate, an electrician in his “real” job, first began volunteering with Tennessee Baptist DR in 2000.
He uses one of his vacation weeks each year specificially for DR trips.

Disaster relief volunteer Joe Sullivan, of First Baptist Church, Powell, uses a chain saw while clearing trees from a resident’s home in Spring Hill.
“Ever since I was a little boy, chain saws have been part of my life,” Cate said. “And when I found out there was a way that I could serve the Lord through chain saw work, I said, ‘Count me in.’ ”
The crew from Knox County included the father-and-son tandem of John Van Dyke and his son, Matthew, age 19.
Matthew graduated from First Baptist Academy, Powell, on Saturday, May 18, and “reported for duty” with the DR team the very next day.
His dad, John, said Matthew is highly skilled with landscaping equipment, and said he is happy to put those skills to work to help others.
The DR teams were scheduled to remain in Maury County for the better part of two weeks, with work scheduled to be completed on May 29.
The May 8-9 storms — which spawned tornadoes, hail, high winds and flooding — resulted in at least two known deaths and many injuries.
Wes Jones, disaster relief specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, asked Tennessee Baptists across the state to remain in prayer for those effected by the storms. B&R — Donations to Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief can be made online at tndisasterrelief.org/contributions. Click on 2024 Tornadoes Fund.


