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When wildfires devastated California last winter, Southern Baptists of Texas Disaster Relief workers, partly supported by Reach Texas funds, answered the call.
For SBTC DR feeding volunteer Paul Wood, 73, of First Baptist Church in Pflugerville, last winter’s deployment to the Alhambra area of Los Angeles was life changing.
When Wood, accompanied by fellow Texans from SBTC churches in Central and West Texas, arrived in LA County, they got to work quickly preparing food for survivors, first responders, and volunteers.
“California DR already had a [quick-response unit] cooking kitchen set up. All we had to do was get in and start cooking,” Wood said.
Volunteers transported meals to a central disaster recovery center, where survivors could find representatives from federal, state, and county agencies. There, volunteers 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 Los Angeles, which by early February was populated mostly by people waiting to arrange housing.
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. They also prayed for the truck drivers and food service workers delivering propane and food supplies to the church. One truck driver, with tears in his eyes, said, “You have no idea how much I needed that today.”
Wood 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.
