October 11, 2024
VALDOSTA, Ga. — In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers, supported by teams from other states, spread through the affected area. In some cases, they were joined by local college students from Georgia Baptist Collegiate Ministries.
At Northside Baptist Church in Valdosta, where Kentucky and Arkansas volunteers had set up a mobile kitchen and sent chainsaw teams into the community to clear fallen trees, students from Valdosta State University did their part. David Williams, VSU campus minister said, “I am so proud of them! Most days the students served from 6am to 6pm.”
Keegan Nelms, a senior accounting major, said at first the students were walking around, helping any who needed it. But as the relief response became more organized, Williams and Will McKee, the college pastor at Northside, made it known that the church was being used as a staging area. Nelms said it was clear that “the best way for us to help was to work with the crews already doing the work.”
Nelms and his fellow students helped the meal teams unload huge quantities of food from trucks, staged loaded meal containers for distribution, and joined recovery teams.
Nelms said working in community alongside fellow believers eager to serve those in need was inspiring, and the students were able to form relationships with their fellow workers.
Alessio Williams, a senior in business management, said from the beginning he felt a closeness with the disaster relief volunteers. “They made me feel welcome,” he said. “We were a community, not just working together.”
Daphne Youngblood, a volunteer campus missionary at the Armstrong Campus of Georgia Southern University in Savannah, said students there also pitched in to help. Despite the fact they too were affected by the storm and the closing of the campus, students gathered to worship and pray, and collected more than $500 worth of supplies for storm survivors.
“The students prayed over each baby bottle, diaper/wipes, battery pack, flashlights and bottle of Gatorade,” Youngblood said, “asking the Lord to protect, strengthen and provide hope and a witness of God’s love to those impacted.” Those supplies were sent to support the relief efforts in Valdosta and Hazlehurst, as well as some being directed to North Carolina.
While Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton was not hit as severely as other places, classes were canceled though students were able to stay in the dorms as the campus was not evacuated. Ree Reinhardt, campus minister, said this gave students the opportunity to serve their community. “Though there was no official disaster relief site set up in Tifton,” she said, “we had willing students with time on their hands.” More than 30 students helped in various ways, she reported.
By Saturday morning after the storm, she says, students were working in nearby residential areas to clear trees and debris. Students were not allowed to go on roofs, and because of downed power lines could not work at homes that had not been cleared by power company personnel. But, Reinhardt said, many ABAC students come from a farming background and some even had their own equipment such as chainsaws to help clear limbs from properties.
The ABAC BCM has a food ministry, which it fired up to provide hot meals for storm survivors. “We were able to send meals out to the community to provide immediate help,” Reinhardt said. The students also baked cookies which they gave to a foreman to distribute to Georgia Power linemen working long hours to restore electricity to the area.
Many of the students come from neighboring counties that were impacted. During the day, Reinhardt explained, students would go home and take other students with them to help. In the evening, they would return to the ABAC campus, which had power and water.
By the fourth day after the storm, students were collaborating in efforts by Northside Baptist Church in Tifton, and they continue cleanup and feeding efforts now that classes have resumed. Reinhardt said, “It has been a grassroots effort. We were staring a need in the face and knew we had to do something.”
For Nelms, the experience has been life changing. He and several other students have signed up to attend Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief training sessions in Milledgeville in December in order to get certified. And, once he graduates, he hopes to be able to work remotely in order to be able to respond when people need help.
Nelms said loving and helping others is an extension of God’s love for us. “Once you are saved,” he said, “you are filled with selflessness because of God’s love.”
