July 12, 2025
ALPHARETTA, Ga. — As the 2025 hurricane season begins, Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief (GBDR) is preparing to respond, not only with chainsaws and cleanup crews but with the gospel. So far this year, GBDR volunteers have performed 1,842 days of work and shared the gospel 201 times, resulting in 13 professions of faith.
Dwain Carter, director of Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief, says now is the time for those interested in serving to sign up for training.
“As GBDR heads into the fall, we have four Disaster Relief training sessions scheduled yet to come,” Carter said. “Training is vital to this ministry because it prepares you for what to expect when responding to a disaster event.”
Carter described the training events, saying, “All of the trainings will consist of two sessions. Friday evening is the Introduction to Southern Baptist Disaster Relief and on Saturday morning you get to choose which of the 10 ministry areas you would like to serve with. These are vitally important for overall volunteer success and ministry outcomes.”
Among those ministry areas are chaplaincy, incident management, cleanup and recovery, feeding, family care, and more.
Volunteers with GBDR deploy across the state and the nation to bring help, hope, and healing to those affected by natural disasters. One group of Georgia volunteers just completed a deployment to Missouri.
“GBDR is in partnership with every Southern Baptist State Convention disaster relief ministry across the nation, and Send Relief,” Carter explained. “In the trainings you will come to understand that you will be part of the second largest volunteer disaster relief group in the world.”
Carter said he hopes Georgia Baptists will prayerfully consider becoming volunteers and joining the relief efforts.
To register for an upcoming training event, click on this link. To learn more about Disaster Relief in general, or to donate in support of future responses, please visit this link.
