December 9, 2024
STATESBORO, Ga. — Energetic volunteers gathered at Southbridge Community Church on Saturday, Nov. 10, before spreading throughout Statesboro to help homeowners still cleaning up after Hurricane Helene. The effort, coordinated by the Ogeechee River Baptist Association and Southbridge Church, was dubbed “Love Statesboro.”
Jeff Parmer, associational mission strategist for the Ogeechee River Baptist Association, explained that the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, Bulloch County Emergency Management, and Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster supported the event. “Jesus said love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. This is our opportunity to love our neighbor in a very tangible and needed way,” said.
Close to 70 volunteers arrived at the church eager and ready to work. “It’s a diverse mix,” he said. “We’ve got folks from churches, local folks, folks that have come from other places across the state that found out about the need and said, ‘Hey, we want to help.’” Parmer said a group of students from the Georgia Southern BCM also turned out to help. “It’s just exciting to see the number of people and the number of different generations that have shown up.”
Justin Abercrombie, a next-generation pastor at Southbridge, coordinated the effort, assigning jobs to the various groups. By the end of the day, he said, volunteers had worked at 43 sites across Statesboro.
The teams of volunteers came from Southbridge, Friendship Baptist Church, Fletcher Memorial Baptist Church, Statesboro Baptist Hispanic Mission, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Parmer started in his role as ORBA AMS just four days before Hurricane Helene tore through Georgia, leaving a trail of death and destruction. When one overwhelmed pastor came to him, Parmer told him, “Just do what’s in front of you.” He added that the 36 churches and missions of the association came together to meet the extensive needs in their communities, "by doing what was in front of them."
Those churches had help, Parmer said, from Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief. “Right after Helene,” he recalled, “Disaster Relief showed up and set up in Statesboro. They were here for about three weeks and did tremendous work. I cannot thank them enough.”
The extent of the damage caused by Helene was so great that despite the best efforts of relief agencies, much clean-up and recovery work remains to be done. “Today we are gathered to address a lot of those remaining needs throughout our community,” Parmer said.
Cory Kemp, director of emergency management for Bulloch County, said, “The past month has been pretty devastating. He described the damage as “catastrophic for the entire county.”
Most of the day’s efforts involved clearing debris from yards and removing fallen trees. Helping homeowners clear their properties helps them get back to a sense of normalcy in their lives, Parmer said. "After an event such as that, everything feels very much up in the air.”
That uncertainty, Parmer added, can open the door to discussions of a spiritual nature. “One of the things I have experienced in pastoral ministry,” he explained, “is that people’s hearts become more sensitive when they experience a natural disaster or emergency situation and recognize the very tentative nature of life itself.” Those discussions led to disaster relief teams seeing several professions of faith during the response.
Todd Wiggins, lead pastor of Southbridge, even used turkey hunting as a means to invite one homeowner to church. After learning they shared a passion for hunting gobblers, Wiggins showed the man a photo of his collection of turkey calls, kept in his office at church, and welcomed him to come see it in person.
Homeowners were grateful to have the help. “It’s hard doing this by myself,” said Amy Morgan. “I couldn’t do it without the wonderful people that volunteer and help.”
Parmer credited the churches of the association and the GBMB for working together to meet needs. “This is a partnership,” he said. “and I have said this before. One thing that we learned because of Helene is that nobody can do this by themselves. It takes everybody.”
And the importance of collaboration, Parmer emphasized, extends beyond just meeting physical needs. “As we think about lostness across our community and across our state and across our world, the lesson is the same,” he said, “no one church, no one person, no one organization can address all that lostness. It is going to take all of us working together, cooperating together, for the Kingdom of God.”
