"Where was God?" How Biblical Disaster Relief Ministry helps answer the question


When Hurricane Michael made landfall at Mexico Beach, Florida it packed 155 mph sustained winds. People who have seen the devastation in Panama City and other places along the Gulf are at a loss to describe what they have witnessed. The death toll eventually reached 45 and the agricultural losses in Florida alone totaled $158 million. The AJC reported agricultural losses exceeding $3 billion in Georgia. Insured property losses in Georgia are estimated at $250 million.

A great witness to our culture. The common question when tragedy strikes is typically, “Where was God?” If God is all-powerful, why doesn’t He intervene and prevent human suffering? The reality I have come to accept is that God has given to us a gift of freedom that is full of “glory and danger.” God is not aloof or indifferent to human suffering. I believe He identifies with us in our suffering, which was never more obvious than in Jesus’ incarnation. In 1 John 4:12 we read, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” When we respond to tragedy by showing up and serving people, we become the manifest love of God. In a post-Christian society which is deeply mistrustful of our traditional institutions, servanthood carries an undeniable mark of authenticity.

An aging volunteer base. I attended Disaster Relief training last year at an event we arranged with the Georgia Baptist Mission Board at Elam Egypt Baptist Church. One thing that was immediately obvious to me was that at 55 I was one of the youngest people in the room. Even though organized DR in the SBC is only about a quarter century old as I understand it, it is already facing a crisis regarding the age of volunteers. The average age of trained SBC DR volunteers responding to recent crises was 76. This is partly understandable, because retirees are more easily able to drop what they are doing and respond quickly when unexpected tragedy hits. On the other hand, without an interjection of youth, one wonders about the sustainability of this remarkable ministry.

I met a trained DR volunteer from the Atlanta area while serving in Bainbridge who was younger than me. She worked for a company which valued volunteerism and gave her paid leave to go and serve. She had been to GBC DR chainsaw school and went out with a clean up and recovery crew every day. I met another man younger than me from Murray County who took vacation time to serve. He had deployed in about 10 natural disasters with GBC DR teams. I met some very dedicated people who stretched my understanding of missionary commitment.

A cooperative, coordinated response. A statewide Disaster Relief (DR) call out mobilized assistance to people in places like Bainbridge, Donalsonville and Blakely that were particularly hard hit. Samaritan’s Purse, The Red Cross, the Salvation Army and Send Relief are serving along with many volunteers from churches who have mobilized outside of the institutional DR channels, and this is a very good thing. I know people from many MBA churches (Wades, Elam Millen, Millen, Double Heads, Douglas Branch, North Newington, Elam Egypt, FBC Springfield) who went to South Georgia to work, take relief items, and help with clean up. Many of them took advantage of fall break from school and took students to serve these stunned communities. The pictures and reports are heartening.

A nuanced SBC issue. While I was in Bainbridge I learned something I really didn’t know. Send Relief (NAMB) is not the same thing as SBC Disaster Relief. This article does a good job of helping the reader understand the finer points of this:  https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/how-southern-baptists-trained-more-disaster-relief-volunteers-than-the-red-cross/. I worked with a trained GBC DR team which put tarp on roofs with material provided by Send Relief. That kind of told me all I needed to know. Many people from a variety of churches and ministry organizations show up to be the hands and feet of Christ when disaster strikes. Showing up this way helps give visible evidence to the reality that God does not abandon us at our most trying moments.

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