Baptist News Global
Sections
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Curated
  • Storytelling
    • Faith & Justice >
      • Charleston: Metanoia with Bill Stanfield
      • Charlotte: QC Family Tree with Greg and Helms Jarrell
      • Little Rock: Judge Wendell Griffen
      • North Carolina: Conetoe
    • Welcoming the Stranger >
      • Lost Boys of Sudan: St. John’s Baptist Charlotte
      • Awakening to Immigrant Justice: Myers Park Baptist Church
      • Hospitality on the corner: Gaston Christian Center
    • Signature Ministries >
      • Jake Hall: Gospel Gothic, Music and Radio
    • Singing Our Faith >
      • Hymns for a Lifetime: Ken Wilson and Knollwood Baptist Church
      • Norfolk Street Choir
    • Resilient Rural America >
      • Alabama: Perry County
      • Texas: Hidalgo County
      • Arkansas Delta
      • Southeast Kentucky
  • More
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donate
    • Associated Baptist Press Foundation
    • Planned Giving
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Advertising
    • Ministry Jobs and More
    • Transitions
    • Subscribe
    • Submissions and Permissions
Donate Subscribe
Search Search this site
Featured
Featured
Paid Promoted Content

‘Activist kind of church’ says disaster response in its DNA

 |  February 9, 2018

Learn more at: Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

By Chris Hughes

HOUSTON – When the news of Hurricane Harvey’s devastation in Texas and Louisiana reached members of Second Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark., they only had one question for Chris Ellis: “When are we going?”

Within a month, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship partner church had sent a team of 18, including 11 adults and seven youth, to aid in CBF’s recovery efforts in Houston. The team included Second Baptist ministers Logan Carpenter and Chris Ellis as well as CBF Arkansas’ Disaster Relief Field Coordinator Roy Peterson and Executive Coordinator Ray Higgins.

The team from Second Baptist included 11 adults and seven youth who were joined by homeowners who worked alongside them as a tangible “thanks.”

Ellis, minister of mission and outreach at Second Baptist, said that this kind of immediate response when natural disasters strike is embedded in the DNA of the church.

“We are very much an activist kind of church. Our faith is always pushing us out to do things.”

Since Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, Ellis estimates that the church has responded to more than 50 natural disasters.

When Hurricane Harvey hit on August 25, it wrought destruction not seen in the United States for over a decade. The storm grew into a Category 4 hurricane before making landfall near Rockport, Texas. According to reporting by the National Weather Service, Houston was hit from two directions: the storm surge from the Gulf and also torrential rainfall from above, causing massive flooding in the streets. Over the course of two days, more than 30 inches of water inundated the Houston area, making August the wettest month ever recorded in the city.

In the aftermath, CBF mobilized its recovery efforts and asked Butch Green to coordinate the response in Houston. Butch and Nell Green have been serving in Houston since 2011 as field personnel, having served previously with CBF in Miami, Europe, North Africa and South Carolina.

Many in the Rosharon and Fifth Ward communities moved back into their badly damaged and water-logged homes after Harvey struck because it was their only option.

When Ellis reached out to find out what Second Baptist could do, he contacted CBF sister churches in Texas, including Broadway Baptist in Fort Worth and Wilshire Baptist in Dallas. His contacts pointed him to Butch Green.

Team members from Second Baptist Church gutted homes that had been overwhelmed with flood waters, removing drywall and fixtures.

Green had already been meeting with church leaders and assessing the damage in the area, and contacted other church leaders in Houston to get a sense of what the most pressing needs were. As a result, he organized recovery efforts primarily in three areas of Houston: Rosharon, home to a growing community of Cambodian refugees; the Fifth Ward, an African-American community on the northeast side of the city; and South Houston, where many Hispanic residents live. Green said these communities were particularly vulnerable in Harvey’s wake, in large part because they were vulnerable before the storm. They continue to struggle even more in the aftermath since media coverage often overlooks them.

“They weren’t the ones on the TV screens and they don’t have community leaders that can speak out for them,” said Green.

Driven by a desire to make an impact for the most vulnerable, Green found the biggest challenge in these areas was ensuring that homes, churches and community centers were properly cleaned out and safe to re-enter. He found that many, especially in the Cambodian refugee community, had simply cleaned out their homes and then moved right back in, despite the risk for mold.

Teams from Second Baptist cleared homes of pieces where water damage would lead to dangerous mold.

“After a few weeks, the mold would start growing in these homes and they would continue to live in them.”

When Ellis’ team arrived on September 22, they came alongside Green’s work, focusing on the Rosharon and Fifth Ward communities. The group stayed at Baptist Temple, another CBF connection made through Green. For two days their group split into two different teams, one in the Fifth Ward and one in Rosharon. Their primary task was to remove drywall and carpet to prevent mold. In Rosharon, they gutted several homes as well as the First Cambodian Baptist Church that had been completely flooded.

Like many teams who embark on mission endeavors, the group from Second Baptist discovered that they were themselves transformed along with the people they had come to help. Ellis recalled the generous hospitality of the Rosharon community: “When I was at the Cambodian Baptist Church, their folks cooked this huge Cambodian lunch and this huge Cambodian dinner. Even as people are in the midst of their suffering, they hold on to their dignity and their hospitality.”

He found this to be true with all of the people they encountered in Houston, adding, “They were grateful for our coming, but they also worked alongside us, giving us a tangible ‘thank you’ in whatever way they could.”

After cleaning a home, the team from Second Baptist would pray with the family and then present them with a gift card to Lowes or Home Depot to soften the financial blow of home repair costs.

In large and small ways, Second Baptist found ways to lend a hand in Houston beyond sending the mission team.

“We had a bunch of folks from our church donate money to help and I was wondering how we could get it down there to help people out,” Ellis said.

His solution was the purchase of $600 gift cards to places like Lowe’s and Home Depot that could be easily transported to Houston and then used to soften some of the financial blow for these communities.

“A lot of those affected didn’t have flood insurance, so they were doing repairs with the costs coming out of their own pockets,” he noted. After cleaning a home, Ellis and his team would pray with the family and then present them with a gift card.

Some church members went to the extreme according to Ellis. “I had a church member go down who was a certified lifeguard. He took his boat down and was pulling people out of the flood waters.”

That kind of response was unsurprising for him. “These are the types of people we have at Second Baptist—the types who go down at a moment’s notice and pull people out of the floodwaters.”

The team gutted the badly-damaged First Cambodian Baptist Church, as well as homes of those in the community.

CBF Arkansas poured in resources, volunteers and donations as well. With the help of Bill Coad in Helena, Roy Peterson and Herb Moore in Little Rock, and CBF Arkansas, two disaster response shower trailers were delivered to Texas—one to Baptist Temple in Houston and one to Beaumont. The monetary donations through CBF Arkansas for Hurricane Harvey relief efforts totaled nearly $6,000.

The disaster response team from Second Baptist is one example of the ways in which churches and CBF can weave together short-term projects with the long-term ministry efforts of field personnel. The Greens have been nurturing ministry in Houston among these affected communities for some time now. They have the presence and knowledge that is invaluable to churches like Second Baptist who are eager to help as soon as possible.

The Greens will also be there after short-term trips such as these are over, continuing to provide presence, advocacy and support for overlooked and underserved communities in Houston. “It’s not just about the work,” said Green, “It’s about the relationships as well.”

Both Ellis and Green agreed that the recovery efforts must now pivot to a focus on rebuilding, which may require a more skilled volunteer pool. “It’s one thing to rip out all the drywall,” Ellis said. “It’s another thing to come back and fix it.”

“We’ve reached the rebuilding stage. Now it’s about getting the supplies and the volunteers and the resources necessary to do so. That’s going to take a long, long time,” Green added.

Learn more about the disaster response efforts of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Watch the video story below:

CBF Disaster Response and Hurricane Harvey from Cooperative Baptist Fellowship on Vimeo.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
Tags:CBF ArkansasDisaster recoveryTexasSecond Baptist Church Little Rock Ark.Cooperative Baptist FellowshipHurricane HarveyHurricane KatrinaButch and Nell GreenChris Hughesactivistdisaster responsedisaster aidactivismrebuildingDNALouisiana
Read Next:

Nonreligious young adults say they are more open to religion than older adults, but campus ministers say that’s still a delicate opportunity

Analysis

More Articles

  • All
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Curated
  • The truth about police brutality

    OpinionJames Ellis III

  • In Ukraine: ‘We cannot just preach like we did before the war’

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • TikTok trends and three questions you and your church should ask this year about rest

    AnalysisLaura Ellis

  • Two churches ‘under inquiry’ by SBC Credentials Committee for platforming Johnny Hunt

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • Biblical orthodoxy 2023: Sign or get ‘churched’

    OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist

  • Zimbabwean pastors flee ministry to join more lucrative care work in the UK

    NewsRay Mwareya

  • Jesus and Buddha are talking with me about loving and blessing my enemies

    OpinionH. Stephen Shoemaker

  • Biden administration urged to remove Cuba from list of state sponsors of terrorism

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Why most everything you think you know about global migration is probably wrong

    AnalysisMark Wingfield

  • What did Pope Francis say, and what did he mean, in AP interview on homosexuality?

    AnalysisMallory Challis

  • Transitions for the week of 2-3-23

    NewsBarbara Francis

  • Letter to the Editor: Kudos all around for Baptist News Global

    OpinionLetters to the Editor

  • Letter to the Editor: Jesus expects us to follow him; Trump expects us to follow him

    OpinionLetters to the Editor

  • Humor and hope mark the dark journey taken by a creative and brave photojournalist

    OpinionKathy Manis Findley

  • ‘Can you imagine looting the religious artifacts that help strengthen the Christian faith from the Vatican?’

    NewsAnthony Akaeze

  • One year of sobriety

    OpinionGlen Schmucker

  • Panelists discuss how the Hamline University controversy could have been handled better in a diverse culture

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Men’s ministry needs more than, eggs, bacon and football

    OpinionMaina Mwaura

  • Nonreligious young adults say they are more open to religion than older adults, but campus ministers say that’s still a delicate opportunity

    AnalysisMallory Challis

  • Pope Francis arrives in Africa on a two-nation tour seeking peace amid decades of conflict

    NewsAnthony Akaeze

  • The church must show the world a more excellent way of nonviolence

    OpinionRodney Kennedy

  • Museum of the Bible to host Wednesday morning event to pray for God’s judgment on America, and breakfast is not included

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • National Prayer Breakfast gets new sponsorship but still looks like government-sponsored religion, BJC leaders say

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • del Toro’s Pinocchio is a tale of faith that is not wooden

    AnalysisRick Pidcock

  • Ministry jobs and more

    NewsBarbara Francis

  • In Ukraine: ‘We cannot just preach like we did before the war’

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Two churches ‘under inquiry’ by SBC Credentials Committee for platforming Johnny Hunt

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • Zimbabwean pastors flee ministry to join more lucrative care work in the UK

    NewsRay Mwareya

  • Biden administration urged to remove Cuba from list of state sponsors of terrorism

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Transitions for the week of 2-3-23

    NewsBarbara Francis

  • ‘Can you imagine looting the religious artifacts that help strengthen the Christian faith from the Vatican?’

    NewsAnthony Akaeze

  • Panelists discuss how the Hamline University controversy could have been handled better in a diverse culture

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Pope Francis arrives in Africa on a two-nation tour seeking peace amid decades of conflict

    NewsAnthony Akaeze

  • Museum of the Bible to host Wednesday morning event to pray for God’s judgment on America, and breakfast is not included

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • National Prayer Breakfast gets new sponsorship but still looks like government-sponsored religion, BJC leaders say

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Ministry jobs and more

    NewsBarbara Francis

  • Zimbabwe Theological Seminary names new principal

    NewsBNG staff

  • What happens when church and state merge? Look to Nazi Germany for answers

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Southwestern Seminary student arrested for alleged ‘felony sexual assault’

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • Trial date set for Patterson and Southwestern versus Jane Roe

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • Faith groups must fight online hate, Interfaith Alliance urges

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Colorado cake maker back in court, this time for refusing service to a transgender woman

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • For every critic of Jesus and John Wayne there are many more positive responses Du Mez says

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Bob Banks, longtime SBC missions leader, dies at 91

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • Members of Florida church required to sign ‘biblical sexuality’ statement or be removed from membership

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • Eight months later, there’s renewed interest in Adam Hamilton’s video on why he’ll remain a United Methodist

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • 165 religious leaders plead with White House to abandon immigrant travel ban

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Ministry jobs and more

    NewsBarbara Francis

  • Knowing a church’s history on slavery can be a nudge toward redemption, historians say

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Sandra and Andy Stanley: ‘We’re not perfect parents, but we’ve learned some things along the way’

    NewsMaina Mwaura

  • The truth about police brutality

    OpinionJames Ellis III

  • Biblical orthodoxy 2023: Sign or get ‘churched’

    OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist

  • Jesus and Buddha are talking with me about loving and blessing my enemies

    OpinionH. Stephen Shoemaker

  • Letter to the Editor: Kudos all around for Baptist News Global

    OpinionLetters to the Editor

  • Letter to the Editor: Jesus expects us to follow him; Trump expects us to follow him

    OpinionLetters to the Editor

  • Humor and hope mark the dark journey taken by a creative and brave photojournalist

    OpinionKathy Manis Findley

  • One year of sobriety

    OpinionGlen Schmucker

  • Men’s ministry needs more than, eggs, bacon and football

    OpinionMaina Mwaura

  • The church must show the world a more excellent way of nonviolence

    OpinionRodney Kennedy

  • Church historian Richard Hughes reflects on a lifetime of ‘Troublesome Questions’

    OpinionTed Parks

  • What churches could learn from the Pub Choir phenomenon

    OpinionMike Frost

  • Living into lament: A white response to the killing of Tyre Nichols by police

    OpinionRobert P. Jones

  • Of church cemeteries, pulpit committees, crafts and sweet potato casserole

    OpinionChris Ayers

  • Of Margie, mountains and ‘El Shaddai’

    OpinionBert Montgomery

  • What I learned from meeting Martin Luther King in Louisville and Josie in Hopkinsville

    OpinionBill Thurman

  • On the baptism of our firstborn

    OpinionEmily Hull McGee

  • Has virtual worship actually harmed Christianity?

    OpinionSara Robb-Scott

  • ‘What can we forgive?’: An interview with Matthew Ichihashi Potts on Forgiveness

    OpinionGreg Garrett, Senior Columnist

  • My father’s faith

    OpinionBrett Younger

  • The apology that never came at Bubba-Doo’s

    OpinionCharles Qualls

  • Trump and his allegedly disloyal white evangelical supporters

    OpinionRobert P. Jones

  • Doom-scrolling, sourdough starter and three kinds of kin

    OpinionJustin Cox

  • Putin needs to be taken down

    OpinionMark Wingfield

  • How my eyes were opened to America’s broken immigration system

    OpinionChristian Vaughn

  • Meditating with Buddhists and other Asian lessons

    OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist

  • Marvin Olasky Still Wants to Make Journalism Biblically Objective

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Progressive National Baptists to deploy $1 million grant to boost ‘compelling preaching’

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Church of England sheds light on ‘shameful’ slave trade ties

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Chinese Christians remain in Thailand fearing deportation

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Black police officers aren’t colorblind – they’re infected by the same anti-Black bias as American society and police in general

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Ohio is investigating a Nazi homeschooling network that teaches children to love Hitler

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Omar says some Republicans don’t want a Muslim in Congress: ‘These people are OK with Islamophobia’

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Tyre Nichols police beating video prompts faith leaders to react with grief, goals

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • How Egyptian police hunt LGBT people on dating apps

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • N. Carolina church says it lost nearly $800K in email scam

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • On A Mission To Fill Empty Pulpits: A Couple Addressing The Preacher Shortage

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Second gentleman Emhoff visits Auschwitz, part of a push against antisemitism

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • A Buddhist disaster relief organization offers key support after Monterey Park shooting

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • It shouldn’t seem so surprising when the pope says being gay ‘isn’t a crime’ – a Catholic theologian explains

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • USCCB official: The church must admit its role in destroying Native American culture

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • House bill would limit government authority over religious events

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • ‘He Gets Us’ organizers hope to spend $1 billion to promote Jesus. Will anyone care?

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • The Rise of Spirit Warriors on the Christian Right

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Twitter reinstated white nationalist Nick Fuentes. He lasted 24 hours.

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • In Rare Rebuke, Elaine Chao Calls Out Trump’s Anti-Asian Attacks

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • How Southern California helped birth white Christian nationalism

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Extreme Israeli group takes root in US with fundraising bid

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Review: Decolonizing Christianity

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Two Leaders Of The New US House Could Put Baptist Diversity In The News Spotlight

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Making Sweat Feel Spiritual Didn’t Start With SoulCycle

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

Conversations that Matter.

© 2023 Baptist News Global. All rights reserved.

Want to share a story? We hope you will! Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS