By Zoë Watkins
MADISONVILLE — Even long after Hurricane Helene’s devastating winds subsided, Tennessee Baptist volunteers can still be found restoring hope in East Tennessee.
Westside Baptist Church in Madisonville is one of those churches serving as a beacon of sustained commitment.
“When the hurricane hit up there, I called off services that Sunday night and we went to our mission building — which we built two years ago — just to start boxing up what we had, food, clothes, whatever we had to take up there,” pastor Dwight Torbett explained.
As a congregation of around 100 people, the church has placed 45 campers with families — many of whom are still living in tents — as well as delivered 33 trailer loads of supplies (like food, clothes, and hygiene products).
Located about halfway between Knoxville and Chattanooga, Westside’s reach has been felt hundreds of miles away. Torbett said they’ve logged over 60,000 driving miles over four months.
“We’ve been probably in every area that’s been affected in East Tennessee and North Carolina,” said Torbett. “The bigger cities like Erwin, Newport, Jonesborough, you can see the improvement there. But the rural areas are still devastated.”
Westside has had people from the community bring campers and drop them off and simply hand Torbett the title. They’ve received two vehicles that were in turn donated to families that lost vehicles.
According to Torbettt, they’ve allotted donations of vehicles and other financial resources from as far away as Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida.
“If God sends it, we spend it,” Torbett said with a smile. But he emphasizes, “It’s a God thing. It’s not a Westside thing.”
Torbett said the church has had previous involvement in relief efforts for floods in Kentucky and tornado victims in Deer Lodge, indicating a history of disaster response.
With this desire to aid in disaster relief, they plan to build a new warehouse facility, called the S.W.O.R.D., “Savior’s Warehouse of Relief Donations,” to support their ongoing efforts. It’s work that never stops.
“I’ve got ladies that have been in our mission building six days a week for the last four months, working, packing supplies, sorting clothes, washing and drying clothes, packing boxes, packing trailers,” said Torbett.
“I’ve got other church members that are over there cleaning, fixing campers, making sure they’re livable and ready to go. Hauling them, delivering them.”
The church’s ongoing relief efforts and plans to expand their facilities suggest the potential for the church to continue playing a significant role in supporting affected communities in the long term.
Between the congregation’s and community’s responses, Torbett said, “it’s amazing.”
“We’re meeting the physical need to sow a spiritual seed,” said Torbett. “When you pull up with a camper and you set it up and you hand the family the keys and tell them, here’s your new home — that look says it all.”
Churches respond quickly, enthusiastically
Baptist and Reflector
SPARTA — Frank Derrick, associational missions strategist for Union Baptist Association, has seen generosity flowing freely in recent weeks.
Shortly after the Union Association executive board approved an association-wide love offering — called “Love Your Neighbor” — to give to the TBMB’s Arise and Build project, things almost immediately began to take off.
In a matter of days, several churches from the association began generously giving to the project, and an anonymous donation also came in. Soon, the gifts had exceeded the $70,000 mark, which is the estimated amount needed to construct two new homes.
And Derrick believes this is just the start.
“Before all is said and done, we could easily reach the three-home mark,” he said. “All glory to God! I’m so thankful to be among so many big-hearted folks called Tennessee Baptists!”
Derrick said he can hardly wait to see what’s in store next. “We’ve now set our sights on the next $35,000,” he said. “Praise the Lord!”
Taking disaster relief ‘by the reins’
By Zoë Watkins
ROAN MOUNTAIN — Ooltewah Baptist Church has raised over $27,000 in the last five weeks to help the Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief in conjunction with the Appalachia Service Project build a home for a family in Roan Mountain.
As a church of about 225 active members, some of Ooltewah Baptist’s members are from that area in East Tennessee. At their January quarterly conference, the church unanimously affirmed to ask the congregation to raise $25,000 for Arise and Build and “adopt” a family.
The congregation rose up and responded.
“We started to see that number rise. It absolutely blew my mind,” said pastor Jeremy Colloms. “It was a sign to me that our congregation wanted to join God in mission up there.”
They needed the $25,000 to partner with TBDR and ASP to rebuild a home.
Additionally, they have an eight-member mission team headed to Elizabethton to work on the ground with Kaye Thomas’ disaster relief team at Grace Baptist Church.
“We wanted to go beyond simply donating money to charitable causes — though we do believe in supporting missions financially,” said Colloms. “Instead, we aimed to be more intentional by committing to an approach that builds meaningful relationships with the family,” said Colloms.
Colloms said Ooltewah is a healthy church albeit small.
He admitted he had a “ye of little faith” moment and thought about partnering with another church to raise the $25,000.
“So, as a pastor, I am really humbled that they have loved in that way, and also that they followed the burden of my heart to do that,” he said.
While the church maintains international missions, Colloms noted a remarkable shift since November — they’ve transformed from having no one trained in Tennessee Baptist disaster relief to having all eight mission trip members fully prepared and certified.
“To me, that’s them signing in the commitment and investing the time,” said Colloms. “I think this has kind of awakened our church to aiding in local disaster relief.
“That’s when I know God is affirming a certain path — when people in our congregation rise up and say, ‘This is on my heart and I want to lead this.’ I’m starting to see that happening with disaster relief,” he said
“It’s been a joy to witness these conversations as people take the reins and lead.” B&R