Wes Jones, disaster relief specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, issued a call-out Thursday for teams to respond to the Memphis area, including the Bartlett and Millington areas.
“We have over 140 work requests already,” Jones said.
The DR teams will be working out of Bellevue Baptist Church.
The list of needed volunteer positions includes chaplains, assessors, chain saw teams and heavy equipment operators bucket truck/skid steers. Jones said a four or five-person feeding team is needed each week to work out of the yellow feeding trailer and feed crews.
Jones said a laundry unit might be needed, but said he is “still checking” to finalize that need.
Jones said he needs teams to start arriving on Wednesday (July 5) — unless they are local — and will use teams probably through the month of July.
Volunteers and teams who are available should email all three of the following: Wes Jones (wjones@tnbaptist.org); Elizabeth Holmes (eholmes@tnbaptist.org); TN IMT (drelief@tnbaptist.org)
Jones also added the following information / reminders:
What we need from each team is:
- Type of units available?
- When are you available?
- How long could you operate your unit?
- Does your unit have any special needs to operate? If so, what?
Reminders:
- Please try to take a chaplain with your team each time you deploy.
- Be sure and use FormStack (roster and daily reports) each time you deploy. “June 2023-TN Wind Event.”
- Please do not self-deploy.
Jones asked that all Tennessee Baptists please be in prayer for the following:
- Pray that God will wrap his arms around those affected to comfort them.
- Pray that those who do not know Christ would come to know Him.
- Pray for the right place to set up and run the recovery operations out of.
- Pray for all those who will be responding that equipment will work correctly, everyone will be safe, and that many will come to know Christ.


