May 16, 2024
VALDOSTA, Ga. — Lt. Col. Scott Smith’s regular job is flying F-15s for the U.S. Air Force, but during the long Labor Day weekend he was manning a chainsaw for one of the Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief crews helping Valdosta residents clean up in the wake of Hurricane Idalia.
“I don’t know that I have a whole lot of the spiritual gifts the Bible talks about, but God has given me a strong back,” said Smith, a member of Central Baptist Church in Warner Robins. “I feel like manual labor is one way I can serve.”
People from all walks of life have joined forces through the Disaster Relief ministry to help hurricane survivors in the Valdosta area, where thousands of trees were toppled by Idalia’s winds.
“We have a medical doctor here, a command sergeant major for the Army, an auto mechanic, a college professor, farmers and construction workers,” said Dwain Carter, director of Georgia Baptist Disaster relief. ”We have a retired meteorologist, logging company employees, a retired Delta Airlines pilot, people who worked in a nuclear power plant, a restaurant owner, preachers, retired missionaries, pretty much you name it.”
Georgia’s Disaster Relief teams are routinely deployed across the state and nation to assist victims of earthquakes, floods, wildfires, tornadoes, and hurricanes. They went to Poland last year to assist refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.
The goal, said Chris Fuller, a longtime Disaster Relief volunteer and a retired campus minister for Baptist Collegiate Ministries, is “to bring hope, healing and help” to those who need it most. That, he said, is the motivation of every volunteer in the state’s hurricane zone.
Smith and his wife Rachel, a special education teacher at Houston County High School in Warner Robins, got involved in the ministry in March. Their church was serving as one of several regional locations for Disaster Relief training.
“I didn’t even know there was a Disaster Relief program run by Southern Baptists until I heard about the training,” Smith said.
The fighter pilot said what appeals to him about the Disaster Relief ministry is that it allows congregations to go out into the communities and serve in meaningful ways.
“My wife and I are always looking for ways to do that,” he said.
Smith said he has been impressed by his co-laborers in Disaster Relief who are passionate about helping their fellow man.
“It’s definitely a welcome change of pace to be around people like that,” he said.
Rachel Smith, who served on a chainsaw crew alongside her husband on Saturday, said helping victims of disasters is always the right thing to do.
“We knew it was going to be hard work, and we knew it was going to be uncomfortable,” she said. “But we also knew it was going to be rewarding.”
