By Maggie Evans, TAB Media HOUMA, LA. -- When Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers hear that they’re needed, individuals from across the state put their lives on hold and descend on an area. And these strangers form teams, work long days and pour themselves out into disaster-ridden areas. “It’s amazing how God works — how He puts teams together of people with different skill sets for this work we’re doing,” said Farrell Hataway, a “blue hat,” or team leader for the feeding unit in Houma. Take the team in Houma, for example. “We’ve got a gentleman on a forklift who has had a knee replacement and both shoulders are bad,” Hataway said. “But he’s the best forklift driver I’ve ever seen. He can land what we need on a dime target.” Even through near constant rain Sept. 14, the team in Houma has big smiles behind their masks and jokes keep the atmosphere upbeat, even when things don’t go to plan. Alabama Baptists were called out to Louisiana after Hurricane Ida struck the state Aug. 29 as a Category 4 storm. This team is hosted by Mulberry Baptist Church in Houma. More volunteers are expected to arrive Sept. 15. For Cheryl Davis, who’s a member of Hunter Street Baptist Church in Hoover, this was her first time … [Read more...]

By Maggie Evans, TAB Media HOUMA, La. -- The week of Sept. 12, Cheryl Davis was all set to go on a vacation with a friend. Then Hurricane Ida hit Aug. 29, and the call went out that volunteers were needed to serve in a variety of ways including feeding ministry — the area where Davis just received training. “I thought to myself, ‘Why did I train if I’m not going to serve?’” So, she canceled her trip and headed down to Houma, Louisiana, south of New Orleans, to wake up at 3 a.m. every day and help produce thousands of meals for the community. “I can’t replace everything they lost, but I can feed them a hot meal today,” said Davis, a member of Hunter Street Baptist Church in Hoover. “Why would you not want to be a part of that?” Davis considers her retirement an opportunity to serve people with her more flexible schedule. She heard about a Disaster Relief training session at The Baptist Church at McAdory in McCalla and decided to check it out since she didn’t know much about it. “The woman who taught the class was just so passionate,” she said, and it made her want to invest in this ministry. “[Disaster Relief] is a very good opportunity to be the hands and feet of Christ like God has commanded us to be,” … [Read more...]

By Maggie Evans, TAB Media METAIRIE, La. -- Ever since Hurricane Ida struck Louisiana on Aug. 29 as a Category 4 storm, Metairie Baptist Church outside of New Orleans has hosted an average of four teams a day, according to Sonny Davis. Davis serves as the “white hat” for the command center that works out of Metairie Baptist, meaning he’s the person in charge of all the teams coming and going out of that location. It’s his job to know where everybody is and what they’re doing. The “blue hats,” who serve as team leaders, keep their focus on what’s going to happen in that particular day. “I’m concerned about what’s ahead,” said Davis, who works to keep everything flowing as efficiently as possible, which includes a computerized tracking system for teams, the priority levels of incoming jobs and data. There are currently 70 volunteers working out of this command center. “I do a lot of work in the off season to try and make the process run as smoothly as possible,” he said. Sonny and Terry Davis pull up their map of jobs in the area where they’re working. The different color pins denote different priority levels. The visual mapping helps the pair coordinate teams. And while he has a lot of data to keep track of, … [Read more...]