Texas Baptist Men deployed disaster relief volunteers on Palm Sunday after an EF-3 tornado destroyed 55 homes in Franklin and two tornadoes ripped through Alto.
TBM sent emergency food-service teams, chainsaw crews, heavy equipment operators, volunteers to staff laundry and shower units and distribute boxes, chaplains, damage assessors and incident management teams to the affected areas.
Within the first 24 hours after arriving, Baptist volunteers already had logged 1,365 volunteer hours, made 135 personal contacts, completed eight chainsaw jobs, prepared more than 300 meals and distributed a dozen Bibles.
Volunteers are being housed at First Baptist Church in Franklin and Hilltop Baptist Church in Alto.
The ministry to tornado survivors during Holy Week followed a disaster relief mission to Tennessee, where TBM disaster relief workers contributed about 6,700 volunteer hours to assist people recovering from floods.
The TBM incident management team coordinated work in the area around Adamsville, Tenn., working in partnership with Baptist disaster relief crews from Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama.
Collectively, TBM and its ministry partners in Tennessee prepared 2,372 meals, tore out damaged drywall and flooring from 57 homes, logged 193 heavy equipment hours, provided access to more than 500 showers, washed 294 loads of laundry and distributed 1,624 boxes for flood survivors to collect and store their reclaimed belongings.
They distributed 70 Bibles, made more than 700 personal contacts and recorded 15 professions of faith in Christ.
To contribute financially, send a check designated “disaster relief” to Texas Baptist Men, 5351 Catron, Dallas, TX 75227, call (214) 275-1116 or click here.
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