October 7, 2024
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — A simple phone conversation between Jonathan Chapman, collegiate ministry specialist at East Tennessee State University, and Troy Rust, director of missions for Holston Baptist Association, led to one of the largest-ever disaster relief training events in Tennessee.
What’s more, the event at the ETSU Baptist Collegiate Ministry center on Thursday, Oct. 3, was planned, promoted and executed in three days.
Four hundred-plus participants registered for the training led by Wes Jones, disaster relief specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. It was the largest single training event he has led during his nine years with TBMB, he affirmed.
Events are normally planned weeks or months in advance but with the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene in northeast Tennessee, Rust contacted Jones on Monday, Sept. 30, to see if he could lead an event three days later.
Jones didn’t hesitate and agreed to lead an Introduction to Disaster Relief and Flood Recovery classes. “I was expecting about 200 participants but we doubled that. I was blown away,” he said.
Chapman was more optimistic. He said the BCM set up for 300 participants but when it became apparent the attendance was going to be larger, they borrowed chairs from local churches. They seated 250 people upstairs and the remainder were downstairs in an “overflow” area, watching a live feed of the sessions, he said.
Rust said he expected about 275 to attend. “We had to delay the start of the training by about 45 minutes in order to get people registered,” he added.
When he first talked to Rust, Chapman simply asked if there was anything the BCM could do and Rust asked if they could host the meeting. There was no hesitation from Chapman. “I was led to Christ at age 19 by a state disaster relief director (Cliff Sattererwhite in South Carolina) and I’ve been doing disaster relief ever since,” he said.
In addition, many of the BCM students at ETSU were personally affected by the destruction and wanted to serve, Chapman said. “We have students from every area that was hardest hit and about 10 students from western North Carolina. It was personal to them.
“They really want to help people in their communities,” Chapman said. “They love the Lord and want to serve.”
Rust agreed. Volunteering “takes on a whole new reality when it (the disaster) happens in your backyard.”
As a comparison, the association held a DR training event about two years ago with 20 or so in attendance, Rust shared.
To plan and set up the event on such short notice was not easy, Chapman affirmed, but he credited his BCM students for making it happen. Not only did they host the meeting, they provided pizza to attendees. When it became apparent they did not have enough food, Mount Zion Baptist Church in Jonesborough provided additional food.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Chapman said. “The Lord was really in it. To pull it off was a miracle.”
Rust expressed his appreciation to Chapman and the BCM students. “All the credit goes to the BCM. They have an army of workers,” he said. The association helped with promotion and finances, he added.
Jones said that of the 400-plus who attended, 300 of them were credentialed as Tennessee Baptist disaster relief volunteers. Chapman said the number included about 90 BCM students from ETSU.
Rust observed that not everyone wanted to be credentialed. “We had one church group come because their church in Elizabethton had been flooded and they wanted to learn the proper way to clean it up,” he said.
In addition, Chapman said, the training was transmitted via Facebook Live to the University of Tennessee BCM in Knoxville where three students and two staff members took the training as well.
“Many of our students are from that area and want to serve in their hometowns,” said Samantha Hawes, campus ministry specialist at UTK.
“Students also recognize that they are physically able to do the hard work of mud out and want to be useful to the church and community,” she added. In addition, some students traveled to Johnson City for the training. The BCM already has 26 students trained from previous trips, she added.
Jones said plans are to do additional training as requested. Holston Association is considering a class for chain saws in the next few weeks, Rust said.
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This story first appeared in the Baptist and Reflector.
