No one was surprised that Texas Southern Baptists would come to the aid of Hurricane Katrina victims, but the magnitude of volunteer response amazed even the most optimistic leaders at Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

The Texas Salvation Army (TSA) 53-foot mobile feeding kitchen with a convoy of 20 TSA canteen units and 60 SBTC Disaster Relief volunteers was one of the first units into Baton Rouge, having waited out the storm in Beaumont Aug. 29.

Expecting to offer 25,000 meals per day, the TSA mobile kitchen unit fed 35,000 people the first full day of operation. Led by SBTC Disaster Relief Consultant Bill Davenport, the group soon moved toward New Orleans where holed-up residents of the French Quarter received their first meals after the storm subsided. Others moved into suburbs like Kenner where the staff of two hospitals arrived late Thursday for a meal.

Meanwhile, back in Texas, Southern Baptist churches that had no previous experience in Disaster Relief were pleading for the training that is necessary to serve in Red Cross and Salvation Army units. On Saturday following the storm, the 60 Texans registered for training swelled to 163, packing an SBTC conference room.

Though traditionally many DR volunteers are retired, this early group included an architect, meter reader, well driller, physical therapist, secretaries and many more?most of them under the age of 50. Thirty of that group agreed to head out the next day to Baton Rouge, joining 30 more already assigned from existing SBTC units.

The first groups into Baton Rouge slept on the floor at the local Salvation Army church where they shared one shower. On one occasion a local chef treated them to jambalaya. Nine hours to the west in Houston, a tightly organized operation was set in place to minister to the evacuees headed to the town where a flood devastated much of their area four years earlier. The tens of thousands of sympathetic Houston area volunteers would be processed quickly, many of them in place by Sept. 6, sharing a meal of chicken and rice pilaf before manning the feeding units.

In his role as the newly appointed incident commander in Houston, SBTC Disaster Relief Director Gibbie McMillan began training volunteers offering to help at the Astrodome and downtown convention center. When displaced people were moved from New Orleans’ Superdome to Houston, the Astrodome space quickly filled to capacity. The George R. Brown Convention Center provided overflow space under the direction of a coalition of faith-based groups.

Operation Compassion drew so many people to the training at Second Baptist Church of Houston that every route for a mile away required traffic direction by police. When the huge church lot was filled, volunteers parked at area grocery stores, restaurants and even a liquor store, walking several blocks to the training site. Although only Southern Baptists can join SBTC Disaster Relief units and wear their official yellow shirts, a shrouded Muslim woman with a Middle Eastern accent found her way to the meeting. She joined hundreds of other Muslims training to serve with their faith group.

Training held on Saturday of the Labor Day weekend attracted 1,000 volunteers, growing tenfold on Sunday and to 20,000 on Monday. Crowds were so large that overflow seating was utilized at the Houston mega church and the large number turned away remained for an improptu session added afterward. Operation Compassion scheduled four more trai

Southern Baptists of Texas Convention volunteers move into New Orleans region

NEW ORLEANS ? The efforts of Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Disaster Relief crews in Louisiana could expand significantly this week as cooperative efforts with the Salvation Army move into New Orleans. DR crews made their first of many ventures downtown Sept. 4, distributing sandwiches and water to government, military and civilians working and stranded in the French Quarter.

Bill Davenport, SBTC’s state director of disaster relief, said the usually thriving and bustling Quarter was “very eerie” as the convoy of four Salvation Army canteen vans pulled into the deserted and boarded up neighborhood. Dirt, mud, and debris littered the ground and the stench of rotting food from abandoned restaurants joined with trash left by receding flood waters to fill the air.

Vans parked outside the Sheraton Hotel as crews prepared to serve the National Guardsmen, police and other emergency responders, Homeland Security personnel, and any remaining residents who needed food and water. One of the volunteers went into the empty hotel and “requisitioned” a brass luggage rack and proceeded to load it with ice chests filled with bottled water and boxes of sandwiches.

Davenport and five others from Harmony Hill Baptist Church in Lufkin, Texas, made their way through the streets of the French Quarter like an odd parade ? wearing their bright yellow SBC Disaster Relief T-shirts, pushing a bellhop’s cart, and handing out meals. National Guardsmen, unable to leave their posts to get to the canteen, were thankful for the simple meal of a bologna sandwich and water. One Guardsman said the sandwich was the first non-MRE he had eaten in five days.

As the “white cap” leader assigned by the North American Mission Board to that area, Davenport said there was a smattering of residents who had not abandoned their French Quarter homes. He told of one resident who initially ran from the strange band of volunteers, but was eventually convinced they were friendly strangers. Another couple they fed refused to leave their home because they did not want abandon their pet snakes. They offered food and water to a woman whom Davenport suspected had already been living on the street before the storm. She was not fully aware of what was going on around her, he added.

That feeding process could expand exponentially by mid-week if plans between SBTC and The Salvation Army (TSA) are finalized. TSA’s 53-foot mobile kitchen unit from which SBTC volunteers prepare meals is stationed in Baton Route. Davenport is hopeful TSA can bring in another large rig and set both units in downtown New Orleans. Four or five churches creating “bologna brigades” ? an assembly line of volunteers making thousands of sandwiches for distribution ? could link up with the kitchens to serve as many as 200,000 meals a day, Davenport said.

Plans also include creating “spokes” formed off of the hub of mobile kitchens. Davenport said TSA has 20 canteens in the area with five more on the way. Those units would be stationed at strategic points out from the hub, surrounding the city. The canteens would remain in place and food brought to them for distribution in order to save money on gas.

The Salvation Army and Red Cross have the money and equipment to help those in disaster areas while Southern Baptists provide the manpower, said Davenport. A TSA official told him the organization often uses whoever shows up to help and has been properly trained, but they would “love to have a faith-based organization serving meals.”

If the kitchens are established, the volunteer force will need to double so that 100 to 120 people can be rotated into Baton Rouge. All volunteers must be trained disaster relief workers. The SBTC website, www.sbtexas.com/katrina is regularly updated with training opportunities and news of the expanding ministry.

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NAMB sharpens Mission Service Corps, anticipates surge in number of volunteers

The North American Mission Board has retooled Mission Service Corps (MSC), sharpening the focus of the 28-year old volunteer program to better serve all North American mission initiatives.

NAMB trustee David Fannin of Nassau Bay, Texas, predicted the number of MSC volunteers will increase significantly to between 7,500 and 10,000 by the year 2010 as a result of changes implemented in recent months.

In light of an ongoing need to find creative ways to expand missionary endeavors in North America while working within budgetary constraints, the changes to MSC could supply “a significant strategic component” in NAMB’s “continental strategy to more effectively reach North America for Christ,” according to a NAMB document.

“It’s actually putting the emphasis on the “m” of MSC,” explained Fannin, “fulfilling mission activities in the context of a church or association while falling in line with the mission strategy of NAMB and state conventions.”

Begun in 1977, Southern Baptists responded to the challenge put forth by then President Jimmy Carter to form a new volunteer effort among youth and retired persons. SBC leaders embraced a strategy that would dramatically increase missionary manpower in North America without the usual personnel costs. Over 8,100 volunteers have served in MSC since its inception, accounting for one-third of NAMB mission personnel.

“From the inception, MSC was established to focus on reaching the mission objectives of Southern Baptists, by providing a way where personnel could serve in voluntary missionary positions where salary and benefits funding were not available,” NAMB’s MSC director, Mike Riggins, stated in a paper reviewing the changes. In many states, the Southern Baptist church, association or state convention assists with housing or other costs so that MSC volunteers can work full-time. In some cases, MSC missionaries are covered by NAMB’s group health insurance when individual volunteers pay the premiums.

“Since it was originated to help accomplish Southern Baptist mission initiatives, the focus of Mission Service Corps efforts and resources must be to support and resource both NAMB’s Continental Strategy as measured by the six major mission objectives and stated mission strategies of our Canadian and state convention partners for the purpose of Kingdom growth,” explained Riggins in a letter to MSC missionaries, coordinators and state convention leaders.

Over the past year NAMB’s MSC staff met with those Southern Baptist partners in regional meetings to discuss various options for aligning the volunteer program with Southern Baptist mission goals. As a result, “The bar has been raised to move beyond general volunteerism to a missionary mobilization strategy aligned with NAMB and state convention objectives,” stated SBTC Missions Director Robby Partain.

Fannin considers it a no-brainer for MSC volunteers to line up with those priorities that include sharing Christ, starting churches, sending missionaries, volunteering in missions, impacting the culture and equipping leaders. Since these are the things Southern Baptists have sought to emphasize through NAMB, Fannin said the job descriptions of MSC volunteers should fulfill those strategies.

“One of our MSC’ers taught English as a second language in the associational office,” he said, “and that would fulfill one of the stated objectives of NAMB and Southern Baptists of Texas Convention by trying to impact the culture” as non-English speakers are equipped for ministry.

“If you want to be MSC, but act as a lone ranger out there doing your own thing that has nothing to do with the state convention’s mission strategy,” Fannin said he has to question why a person would volunteer for MSC. Instead, NAMB-commissioned MSC missionaries will fulfill the strategies of the SBC missions entity as well as the state convention partners.

There is no change in the criteria that those in MSC serve at least 20 hours each week, Riggins added, although the designation as a “career” missionary is available to those serving full-time. They will be asked to commit to serve at least 35 hours per week in an ongoing career-oriented capacity with annual supervisory review.

SBTC MSC director Janice Brooks of Kemah, Texas, wor