By Staff, Baptist Message
LEESVILLE – Don and Margie Fulkerson’s faithful service to Christ brought the couple great joy as they served side by side in disaster relief.
The couple, who would have celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary next month, had served on 15 disaster relief trips together since their first assignment in 2012.
Fulkerson died of a heart attack on March 29 while serving with his team from First Baptist Church in Galatia, Ill., along with other Illinois Baptist volunteers in Leesville. The visitation took place on April 1 at First Baptist Galatia, with the funeral occurring the following day at the church.
Both the Louisiana Baptist Convention and the state of Louisiana not only paid their respects but also showed their appreciation for this faithful servant of God.
The Louisiana Baptist Convention paid for the embalming and flying of Fulkerson’s body back to Illinois. Gibbie McMillan, state disaster relief director for Louisiana, added that when the LBC offered to pay for a plane ticket for Fulkerson’s widow, she declined because “she had never flown before and wasn’t going to start now.”
She returned home with the Illinois team.
“What the LBC did was to say ‘we appreciate the help we have gotten from other states and are sorry something tragic happened on our watch,’” McMillan said. “By paying for the embalming and transporting of the body back to Illinois, we went above and beyond what was expected. We felt it was the right thing to do.”
However, the support in the state for the Fulkersons didn’t stop just with the LBC. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, upon learning of the tragedy, attempted to call Fulkerson’s widow. When he could not reach her, he left a phone message.
According to Lisa Sergent, communications director for the Illinois Baptist State Association, Edwards “called while she was at the beauty shop, so he left her a message on the answering machine, which now she can play over to her kids and grandkids.”
Sergent said ISBA state disaster relief coordinator Rex Alexander was at the visitation and funeral and he estimated 300 were present.
“The family felt overwhelmed by the support and encouragement of family and friends, the Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief leadership, and North American Mission Board leadership,” he said. “The service was a genuine celebration of a life spent in service of Christ. Many testimonies were shared of his service in the local church as well disaster relief ministry.”
