English
Korean
Spanish
LOS ANGELES—January’s devastating wildfires in Southern California prompted a massive response from recovery and disaster relief agencies, including Southern Baptist Disaster Relief.
SBTC DR, the disaster arm of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, answered the call, sending feeding and chaplaincy volunteers to Los Angeles County at the request of California Baptist DR.
And they may go back.
“Today our bunkhouses [dormitory trailers] are at alert status to support volunteers in LA County sifting through the ashes to help survivors recover personal property,” said Scottie Stice, SBTC DR director. SBTC DR recovery teams are also on alert for potential travel to LA, Stice said.
From late January to mid-February,11 SBTC DR volunteers deployed under the overall direction of California Baptist DR to address feeding needs at one LA area disaster recovery center and a Red Cross shelter. SBTC DR volunteer Debby Nichols of De Kalb hopped in her vehicle on Jan. 29 to start the 26-hour drive to LA, first picking up fellow volunteer Carmel Porter in Arlington and then Freddy Dykes at Abilene.
The trio arrived at Mandarin Baptist Church of Los Angeles in Alhambra where they would stay, preparing and delivering meals with Nichols as team leader of a Texas crew mostly from First Baptist Pflugerville and including two Arkansas residents who deploy with that SBTC DR team.
“California DR already had a cooking kitchen set up. All we had to do was get in and start cooking,” said Paul Wood of FBC Pflugerville.
It was a different deployment in some ways, Nichols noted. “We normally cook the food and send it out to be served by the Red Cross or Salvation Army, but here we were required to cook, take the food, serve it, clean up, and return to our location.”
They transported meals packaged in Styrofoam clamshells packed in insulated Cambro containers to a central disaster recovery center where survivors could find representatives from numerous federal, state, and county agencies including FEMA, the Veterans Administration, and public health services. They fed workers and survivors who came in for assistance.
They also served meals to survivors at the Red Cross shelter set up at Westwood Recreation Center in LA, by early February populated mostly by people waiting to arrange housing.
“A lot were waiting on housing or leases or insurance to get them out of the shelter,” Nichols said. “Many were homeless, some before the fire. It doesn’t matter if you live in a house or a tent. You are still a victim.”
Not obstacles, but opportunities
DR volunteers encountered some restrictions at the Red Cross shelter, where they were instructed not to distribute gospel tracts, Bibles, or otherwise share their faith, Nichols and Wood said. They could not pray with survivors unless specifically approached to do so.
“We did respect their wishes, but if somebody came to our people and asked for prayer, we did that,” Nichols said. “If asked, we explained the gospel.”
Wood, who started the deployment working in the quick response unit kitchen, delivered meals later in the week. He, like the other yellow-shirted volunteers, greeted survivors with a smile and asked how their efforts in securing lodging were going. Theirs was a ministry of presence.
They privately prayed for the survivors they served, as well.
“Each day, after we loaded up the food to go to different locations, we gathered as volunteers to pray for safe travels, divine appointments, for the Lord to bless the food and those receiving it,” Nichols said.
They also prayed for the truck drivers and food service workers delivering propane and food supplies to the church to be cooked.
“None turned us down when we asked if we could pray for them,” Nichols said. One truck driver, with tears in his eyes, said, “You have no idea how much I needed that today.”
Another said, “You don’t know how long it’s been since somebody prayed for me.”
“That’s what we go for. The food is secondary to the Scripture, to the gospel,” Nichols said.
A cooperative ministry
Becoming acquainted with different cultures even in the U.S. is another bonus of deploying with SBTC DR. Mandarin Baptist Church was among the “most alive I have ever seen,” Nichols said. Located in a heavily Asian American community, the church offers services in Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, and English and is a hub of activity with youth and Bible study groups.
“The church was very nice and appreciated us being there,” Wood said. At age 73, he estimates he has deployed more than 100 times since 2015. His wife had undergone knee replacement surgery in December, so when the call to California came, he initially hesitated. Reassured by his wife that she was doing well and knowing family and church members were nearby, Wood set off.
“It’s a ministry that God gave me to do,” he said.
At Alhambra, Wood joined not just his fellow SBTC DR volunteers, but SBDR workers from California, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, Hawaii, and the Pacific Northwest—their numbers averaging about 35 a day, Nichols said.
January’s wildfires burned nearly 58,000 acres and claimed 29 lives, destroying more than 16,000 structures, according to the website of CAL FIRE, the fire response arm of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. While the LA County fires are considered contained, much work remains to help survivors recover.
Those who would like to give toward the disaster relief response in California can do so here.
