Greenville church receives ‘work of grace’ from disaster relief volunteers

Disaster relief volunteers from across the state gathered recently to help an Upstate church in need. Grove Road Baptist Church in Greenville had not experienced a typical disaster, but it welcomed the help of generous responders trained in mud-out skills.

Tommy Cooper has been a member of Grove Road Church for 17 years. He said his church’s water-related problems began before he started attending the church. For years, heavy rains have washed down a nearby hill and up against the church building, often causing flooding inside a basement area and leaving as much as two inches of standing water behind. Church members worked to deal with immediate water damage, but, over time, the previously unseen damage also revealed itself in the form of mold, mildew and rotting wood in the building.

For Cooper, being connected with disaster relief volunteers trained in mud-out skills was an answer to his congregation’s prayers. “We are a small church, and a lot of us are older. We are not able to do the kind of work that needs to be done. God sent these volunteers to us, and we are so thankful to have people like this in the association,” he said.

“When Tommy told us that the church had been praying for a while that God would send someone to help them, it felt good to know that we were in God’s will to be there helping to meet a need,” said Jeff Heath, a disaster relief unit leader and member of Edwards Road Baptist Church in Greenville.

The Greenville Baptist Association has an extensive disaster relief volunteer base, including a mud-out unit trained in the skills needed to assist victims of major flooding. The GBA mud-out unit was actually founded because of the disaster relief ministry response to Greenville that occurred following a devastating flood there in 2004.

The GBA mud-out unit made its first local response to a church in need in 2014, when Dunean Baptist Church in Greenville had a water-related problem under its sanctuary. That assistance spurred Grove Road Church members to reach out to the unit for help through Bill Hightower, a retired disaster relief task force member and former unit leader trainer, who heard of the church’s need while at a men’s ministry meeting. Hightower realized the church was a part of GBA and contacted disaster-relief coordinator Jim Whitworth.

“I knew the association had people trained in mud-out and had the equipment needed to kill mold. I was glad I could point them in the right direction and that Grove Road could see that our convention and association have organizations in place to help churches,” said Hightower, a member of Lee Road Baptist Church in Greenville.

GBA missions strategist Joel Thrasher praised the cooperation among disaster relief units and volunteers and their collective impacts. “By the very nature of disaster relief, there is positive impact on the individual or family receiving help, the local community (including local churches where the disaster occurs), the disaster relief volunteers, as well as the sending church or association,” he said.

Whitworth was able to assemble a team of 10 disaster relief mud-out volunteers who responded from across the association and state to help at Grove Road Church in late May. The volunteers worked free of charge, and the church provided the supplies and materials. “Serving and supporting churches in the association is an important and vital part of mission work in the Greenville Baptist Association,” said Whitworth, a member of Origins Church in Greenville.

DR-Grove-Road-2In one day, the volunteers removed carpeting, floor covering, paneling, and a partition wall in a lower basement area of the church. They also discovered rotting wood under some insulation on an outside wall and thoroughly cleaned the damaged material to treat for mold that was present.

The church is working with outside sources to address the drainage issue. Once that is resolved, disaster relief volunteers will return to provide additional assistance in the repair process to the building.

According to Randy Creamer, director of South Carolina Baptist Disaster Relief, one-day projects like the one at Grove Road Church help keep the focus on local opportunities to serve instead of always looking to the “big” events. “Short-term, local projects often provide the opportunity for volunteers from several churches, under the organization of their local association, to join together to do what might be near impossible for a smaller group to do alone. It is a cooperative work,” Creamer said.

Whitworth points out that one-day disaster relief projects like the Grove Road Church repair are opportunities for volunteers to gain experience and remain active, and they work well for those with limited time to serve. “There are some volunteers who have a heart for disaster relief ministry but have family and work responsibilities that prohibit them from leaving for a three- to seven-day response. Providing the opportunity for others to serve our Lord through this ministry is more important than any of my own personal, hands-on activities,” he said.

For Grove Road Church pastor Danny Bridges, the assistance his church is receiving from disaster relief volunteers is helping it to move forward and be able to continue its ministry. “There is no way we could do this without the help of the association and disaster relief,” he said. “It’s a work of grace for us. Our people are thrilled and recognize that God is working through these people to help us.”