September 7, 2024
DULUTH, Ga. – The incoming director of Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief describes the volunteers who serve in storm zones across the U.S. and beyond as modern-day heroes.
“There’s no doubt about that,” said Dwain Carter, a longtime pastor who will begin his new role on April 1. “To drop everything you’re doing on the spur of the moment and rush off to a disaster zone to help hurting people, that makes you a hero. To leave a comfortable home and a soft bed to go stay in a gymnasium and sleep on a cot so you can assist people in some of the worst moments of their lives, that makes you a hero.”
Carter, a Missouri native, spent 21 years as a pastor before becoming disaster relief director in the Missouri Baptist Convention and later for Texas Baptist Men. In those roles, he has responded to tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and other disasters around the world.
“We’re all about bringing help, hope and healing,” Carter said. “When the storm hits, we bring help, which provides hope and allows God to bring the healing.”
Carter replaces Stuart Lang who left two years ago to become pastor at First Baptist Church in Hartwell.
Georgia Baptist Mission Board Executive Director W. Thomas Hammond Jr. said Carter will be a huge asset to the state’s crisis ministry.
“Not only does Dwain have the experience and expertise to lead our disaster relief volunteers well, he has the commitment and calling to excel in this role,” Hammond said. “He has proven his mettle in Missouri and Texas, and I know he will do the same here in Georgia.”
Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers have been busy in the past 12 months, helping people in a variety of calamities, including tornadoes in their home state, a major hurricane in Louisiana, and wildfires that destroyed homes in Colorado.
Georgia has about 7,000 trained disaster relief volunteers who serve in chainsaw brigades to clear fallen trees from homes and property after tornadoes and hurricanes, who man mobile kitchens in disaster areas, who spend long days shoveling mud and carrying soggy furnishing from flooded homes, who set up mobile showers and laundromats for survivors and volunteers in hard-hit areas.
Describing himself as hands-on in his approach to disaster relief work, Carter, 59, is known to keep a chainsaw in his truck so that he’s ready to help whenever and wherever he’s needed. Educated at Missouri’s Hannibal-LaGrange University and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Carter said he’s most comfortable when he’s helping people in need.
“I’m one of those people who keeps a TV tuned to the Weather Channel in my office,” he said. “I’m calling people before the storm even hits to see how we can help. I’m calling that state disaster relief director and letting him know we’re ready to roll.”
Even when he was a pastor, Carter always encouraged his church members to volunteer alongside him and his wife, Leslie, in disaster areas.
“Our Christian faith can’t be lived out in the pews only,” he said. “We have to get outside the four walls of the church.”
