DALLAS (ABP) — Texas Baptist volunteers have been some of the first responders among faith-based disaster-relief workers over the last three decades. But the Texas Baptists who recently returned from Iran were glad an Alabama group had paved the way for them.
The Alabama Baptist disaster-relief team was assigned a lead role among humanitarian organizations operating in Bam, Iran, site of a devastating earthquake Dec. 26 that left three fourths of the ancient city in ruins and one third of the 80,000 residents dead.
In early January, the Alabama volunteers supplied more than 900 meals a day to survivors living in a refugee camp outside the city. The Texas Baptist Men's team followed on their heels, providing 3,000 meals a day to the camp's 1,700 refugees. Disaster-relief volunteers from several other states plan to follow in the weeks to come.
Iranians who saw the name “Alabama Disaster Relief” stenciled on the side of supply crates warmly welcomed the Americans. Since “Ala” sounded like the Iranian word for God, “ba” like “with” and “ma” like “us,” the group became identified locally as “God with us disaster relief.”
Fortunately for the Texans who came behind them, the Alabama group lived up to their lofty name and earned a solid reputation in the region. When the Texas Baptists arrived in Iran, they initially received a cold greeting from a stern governmental worker, according to team leader John LaNoue of Lindale. But when he told the official they were related to the “Ala-ba-ma” group, “it was an open door,” LaNoue said.
A 15-member Texas Baptist Men team, along with three Baptist volunteers from Georgia, worked Jan. 12-20 at the 341-tent refugee camp, cooking meals and providing medical care. The volunteers served under the auspices of a non-governmental agency recognized in Iran.
The Texas Baptist Men cooked more than 3,000 meals and 5,000 cups of hot tea each day for the camp, plus an additional 1,000 meals daily for another camp that was being established nearby. The volunteers worked 14-hour days, cooking rice, lentils and occasional helpings of lamb in massive four-foot-wide pots.
“Our men ate what the people in the camp ate, but they never sat down to eat until all the people had been served. It was a powerful statement to those people,” LaNoue said.
Through interpreters, LaNoue learned that many of the people in the camp were asking: “Why have these old men come to help us? We see them working when we get up in the morning and working when we go to bed at night.”
One image that indelibly branded itself on LaNoue's memory was an old Iranian man in Bam climbing to the top of the rubble where his house once stood, removing one brick at a time. He repeated that process for hours each day. “One brick was all he could carry at one time. He was trying to find his family, who were entombed there.”
While the residents of the refugee camp publicly expressed a growing love and appreciation for the American volunteers, the Texas Baptists remained under close scrutiny by governmental officials. Some crewmembers were interviewed up to three times a day by authorities who wanted to know why they had come to Iran.
“We told them we had not come because of politics, but because our hearts were broken by the tragedy of the people. We told them God loved the Iranian people so much, he had instructed us to come help them,” LaNoue said.
When asked, the Texas Baptists identified themselves as Protestant Christians, but they were careful not to be perceived as proselytizing. “We're Christians. Nobody talked about it much, but everybody knew it,” LaNoue said.
Looking back on the experience, he added, “My prayer for the people of Iran is that they will have the opportunity to recognize the truth, that God will bless them with the knowledge of himself … that their physical needs will be met in such a way that they will come to recognize the Giver of good gifts.”
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