For South Carolina Baptists, serving in a disaster area is all about being ready whenever the call for help comes.
Cliff Satterwhite, director of South Carolina Disaster Relief, speaks during the Saturday morning session.That’s why more than 900 men and women attended the Disaster Relief Training Conference held March 5-6 at Anderson University. According to Cliff Satterwhite, conference organizer and director of South Carolina Disaster Relief, recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile dramatically increased attendance and interest in this year’s conference.
“We’ve had two major incidents internationally over the past couple of months,” Satterwhite said. “We will be going to Haiti for a long time to come.”
The majority of the conference attendees took part in the “Preparing for Haiti and Chile Response” session on Saturday morning. Satterwhite told the group that South Carolina Baptists are already on the ground in Haiti and Chile and have a unique opportunity to be a part of the long-term healing.
“We will be working with Baptist Global Response, the world hunger and human needs arm of the International Mission Board, to send teams into areas that have not been touched yet by relief efforts,” he said. Teams will focus on providing medical relief, crisis intervention, and building assessment. Most importantly, they will be there to help hurting people in the name of Jesus, he said.
Similar efforts are taking place in Chile following the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck on Feb. 27.
In order to serve in any disaster area, Satterwhite said relief volunteers must have proper training and credentials. Conference attendees had the opportunity to be trained in 16 disciplines, including chainsaw/recovery, mass feeding, chaplaincy, child care, and laundry. At the end of the conference, each participant received a photo ID badge and indicated their interest in serving on future teams overseas or locally in South Carolina.
Art and Dottie Dennis were among the first groups of South Carolina Baptists on the ground in Haiti following the Jan. 12 earthquake. They immediately went to work as crisis interveners, along with Brian Hope and Dwight Herring, assessing the safety of structures that were left standing. South Carolina Disaster Relief medical teams have completed four rotations in Haiti.
Speaking during the special Haiti session, Art Dennis said that he was amazed by the hundreds of people who gathered for services outside their destroyed church buildings. “Reports state that church congregations in the hardest hit areas have doubled or tripled in size since the earthquake,” he said.
Anderson University sent about 60 students to be trained at the conference. According to Bob Cline, vice president of Christian life at Anderson University, the school hopes to send student teams to both Haiti and Chile by the end of 2010.
Two of the students are Barrett Isbell of Anderson and Amanda Spires of Lexington. Both are 21-year-old juniors at Anderson University and hope to go to Haiti to serve this year. “I want to get down and dirty with the mud-out unit,” Isbell said. The mud-out team works to remove debris such as flooring, carpet and drywall to help dry and sanitize a home after a flood. Spires hopes to serve children through the C.O.P.E. (Christian Outreach to People Evacuated) team.
Jane Alexander (far right) of Elljean Baptist Church in Pickens and Ginger Hutcheson of First Calvary Baptist Church in Gilbert examine the washing machines housed in the laundry and shower trailer built by Shady Grove Baptist Church of Belton.The South Carolina Baptist disaster relief efforts began in 1989 following Hurricane Hugo. Since then, more than 7,000 volunteers have been trained and have served across South Carolina, the U.S. and the world. SCDR has 131 relief units ready to be deployed.
For Dalton Shull, seeing the effects of the Haiti earthquake has made him want to use his medical training to serve in disaster areas wherever he is needed. “If the call is there, I will go,” Shull said. He is a paramedic with the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department and a member of Westside Baptist Church in West Columbia.
David and Cindy Price, members of Northside Baptist Church in Laurens, attended the training conference so they will be ready to serve the next time disaster strikes. “We had a disaster in our area with straight-line winds last year, and you needed credentials to be able to help in certain areas,” David Price explained. Neither had the proper credentials at the time. Now both of them will be able to serve when their community needs them.
The next Disaster Relief Training Conference is scheduled for Oct. 8-9 at White Oak Conference Center in Winnsboro. – SCBC