Flood relief volunteers in Bethel Park receive big ‘thank you’
The June 20 flooding in the South Hills spared Claire Lucas’ Priscilla Drive home in Bethel Park.
“I’m at the top of a hill,” she said. “But on my street there were a number of people, as you went down the hill, who were affected.”
She was among those who lent helping hands to her neighbors, and she noticed other folks coming in from out of town to provide assistance throughout the community. Among them was a well-traveled contingent of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers.
Source: Southern Baptist Disaster Relief
To show gratitude to the visitors on behalf of herself and everyone involved, Lucas decided to cook them dinner midway through their weeklong stay, serving it on July 24 at the Bethel Park Community Center.
That’s next door to the Schoolhouse Arts and History Center, where the Bethel Park Historical Society provided temporary living quarters for the dozen volunteers, mostly from South Carolina and one from Virginia.
“We have been as far as Rhode Island and Vermont, and as far as Texas, Missouri and Arkansas, wherever there’s a need,” Jeff Heath of Greensville, S.C., explained.
He was serving as leader of what is called a “mud-out” unit, consisting of volunteers who are specially trained in clearing homes and other structures after flooding. Southern Baptist Disaster Relief also addresses other needs, including providing equipment for showering and laundering, along with helping to feed victims.
“When a big disaster happens, you hear a lot about the meals that the Red Cross is taking to people,” Heath said. “The vast majority of those meals are being cooked by Southern Baptist Disaster Relief feeding teams.”
The organization, which has its roots going back more than 50 years, boasts more than 65,000 trained volunteers and is the third-largest disaster relief agency in the nation.
“It’s tremendously rewarding to be able to help people who are in the middle of a crisis,” volunteer Ron Peek of Charleston, S.C., said.
“Our motto is, ‘We’re here to bring help, healing and hope,'” he explained. “Seeing us there to help, we establish a relationship with them, a trust relationship, where they’re willing now to share with the healing part. We’re Christians, so that involves sharing our faith. And then the hope part continues on with that: How do we get through this disaster? What’s on the other side of it?”
The Southern Baptists’ efforts in Bethel Park started with a group representing the Baptist Convention of Pennsylvania/South Jersey, which is coordinating local relief and sent out the word for further assistance.
“Our local coordinator sent out an email to see if any of the unit leaders could go, and I could,” Heath said. “So we got volunteers, loaded up and headed to Pennsylvania.”
He stressed their mission of service to God:
“The whole reason we’re here is to glorify Him and to be obedient to His call, and try to minister in His name to the people here in this community.”
For more information, visit www.namb.net/southern-baptist-disaster-relief.