Not many South Carolinians ever met or even knew Archie King, who died May 12 at the age of 86 at his home in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Thousands in the Palmetto State have felt the impact of his ministry, however.
Don KirklandKing was a key leader in the early development of Southern Baptist disaster relief and the first disaster relief director for the Tennessee Baptist Convention. And in that role, he figured prominently in the launch of a disaster relief ministry in South Carolina.
“He was always a mentor to all of us,” said Cliff Satterwhite, who has directed disaster relief efforts for the South Carolina Baptist Convention from its beginnings nearly 20 years ago. “He was small in stature, but a giant in Baptist men’s work. He was simply a prince of a man, a true leader.”
South Carolina first received before it was able to give disaster relief in 1984 as tornadoes raked the central portion of the state, leaving more than 100 homes flattened in their wakes. A feeding unit and other volunteers from Alabama rushed to South Carolina’s side as a balm to hurting victims of the storms.
Afterward, South Carolina began to explore the possibility of giving as well as receiving relief in times of disaster. Talks were unfruitful, however, until a monster of a hurricane named Hugo pounded the state in 1989. Thirteen units from 11 states came to South Carolina, staying for months, feeding our people and repairing damage.
Interest in disaster relief in South Carolina was renewed and energized. For two years, the ministry began to take shape with training sessions for volunteers. In 1991, the first disaster relief unit — from Providence Baptist Church in the Macedonia community, Screven Baptist Association — was organized.
This initial unit came into being with help from Tennessee, where King had already built the framework for a highly successful disaster relief ministry there. “That got us started,” said Satterwhite.
The pastor at Providence at that time was Mickey Caison, who later joined the North American Mission Board to continue that valuable ministry.
In 1992, the small but growing band of units in a fledgling disaster relief program in South Carolina responded to Hurricane Andrew in Florida. In following years, they offered help to victims of floods in Mississippi and Georgia, along with hurricane relief in North Carolina and Florida.
By the late 1990s and early 2000s, South Carolina disaster relief had gone international, with efforts in Haiti, Honduras, Kosovo, Israel, Jordan and El Salvador.
Crisis intervention was added to the disaster relief mix at the time of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City. South Carolina was one of the first to assign crisis interventionists to that stricken city, and continued sending teams to clean apartments for nearly nine months.
The tsunami in south Asia prompted the placement of teams in Sri Lanka and south India, and Hurricane Katrina drew teams to the Gulf Coast and swelled the size of training sessions to more than 1,500 in 2005. Since 1989, more than 6,600 disaster relief volunteers have been trained.
Currently, South Carolina’s disaster relief ministry has grown to some 126 teams covering 15 areas of relief work. There have been five deployments already this year, including the recent fires in Myrtle Beach.
The disaster relief ministry of the South Carolina Baptist Convention will celebrate its 20th anniversary as part of its fall training session Oct. 9-10 at Ashley River Baptist Church in Charleston. It will be an occasion for gratitude to God for the impact of this vital ministry which has alleviated much suffering and for the influence of Archie King, who helped show us the way.