September 7, 2024
Thelma Goolsby said now that she’s back in Alabama, she wants to keep the feeling she had all last week. She saw God at work in Huffman, Texas, as Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief teams helped clean up trees and limbs after Hurricane Beryl.
“It’s been glorious and humbling,” said Goolsby, who serves as an ABDR chaplain.
Since teams from Alabama started arriving in Huffman on July 11, they’ve seen 13 people make a decision to follow Christ.
Goolsby got to talk with five of those individuals, and the movement of the Holy Spirit in their lives was on display, she said.
One woman arrived at the ABDR command center at First Baptist Church Huffman with tears in her eyes, saying the weight she was carrying was too much. After talking with Goolsby and telling her she wanted to know the truth about Jesus, she prayed to receive Christ and said the weight on her shoulders was gone.
“He had already pierced her heart; she came ready to talk,” Goolsby said.
Another man came to ask for help with a fallen tree at his house, and as Goolsby talked with him, she asked him a question.
“I said, ‘If your life ended the same day that tree’s life came to an end, where would you be?’ He thought for a minute and said, ‘Well, that’s a good question,'” Goolsby said.
They talked, and he accepted Christ. As he left, he held up his new Bible and said to the volunteers outside, “I got more than I came for.”
Goolsby said she and other disaster relief volunteers have the privilege of reaching others “because God so loved” and sends them to share His message of love.
“We go to serve because we love,” she said. “We give ourselves so others see Jesus in us to bring glory to God while we help others.”
John Thomas, the current white hat leader on site, said as of last night (July 22), ABDR teams had received 324 requests for chain saw help and had completed 72 of those requests. More than 100 volunteers are currently on site.
“We will probably be here another week and a half, two at the most,” he said.
Thomas said chaplains have done “a great job” of offering a listening ear to people in the community. He asked for Alabama Baptists to “keep praying, because people are responding.”
One of those responses came as a team from the Madison Baptist Association traveled back to Alabama. After their tractor-trailer had a blowout on the interstate, the rest of the team tried to help and also look for food, and they hit delay after delay.
Eventually, Chaplain Al Rudd ended up at a gas station getting coffee from the coffee machine.
“Unfortunately it was very complicated to use,” Rudd said. “Fortunately an elderly gentleman named Joseph was there and offered his assistance.”
As they fixed their coffee, Rudd shared his faith with him, and Joseph said he wanted to know Jesus. Rudd prayed with him.
“As he stirred his coffee, he accepted Christ,” Rudd said. “I’m not sure he even stopped stirring as he prayed. If we had not had all those delays, I would not have met Joseph. Maybe some of your delays are so you can meet your Joseph.”
___
This story was first published by The Alabama Baptist.
