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At a Wyoming truck stop 1,600 miles from his family or any support system, Louisiana truck driver Charles Worcester had to be rushed to a local hospital, and within hours underwent surgery for colon cancer, beginning a three-month, long-distance ordeal for Worcester and his wife, Charlene.
When Worcester nearly died because of complications, he was relocated to Salt Lake City. This lengthy crisis could have been very lonely for Worcester, and very worrisome for Charlene. But Christians in Wyoming and Utah were called to aid the Worcesters with practical physical and spiritual support, thanks to the networking of Bob Hataway’s TransAlive ministry.
Hataway is a chaplain for the North American Mission Board, and a member of First Baptist Church in Fort Worth with a lifelong passion for the trucking industry. Since he started TransAlive in 1984, he has been the hub for ministry to about 200 distressed truckers per year.
His call to this ministry began one day in 1975 when he stopped at the scene of a traffic accident on Interstate 35 in Hillsboro. He went to the hospital to check on the Indianapolis truck driver injured in that accident. Hataway and his wife, Carol, ministered to the driver and his wife for more than eight weeks, helping them cope with the trauma and manage the life change they would undergo because of the accident.
Hataway began to be burdened by the plight of truckers, who, by the nature of their work, are isolated from their support system. Who comes to their aid if they become seriously ill or injured while in transit? Who cares for a family in the tragic event of the driver’s death while away from home?
“I was moved by what had been done for that [Indianapolis] truck driver,” Hataway said. “Many people became involved with that man. I began to visualize the needs of drivers like him who needed help across the country. I was not some superhero for that driver, but I knew that people have an innate desire to help their fellow man. In many cases the only reason people do not help is that they are not aware of the problem in the first place. Setting up a plan to notify the right people became my goal in the industry.”
Through the partnerships he has made with many major trucking companies, Bob is one of the first individuals notified when a trucker has passed away, or experiences serious illness or injury while on a run. Services provided to drivers and their families through TransAlive are free to the drivers.
Hataway said, “We need only to hear that a driver and/or family members are in distress anywhere in the continental United States and we move quickly to remove the uncertainty and replace it with warm, caring friends willing to assist whatever the task.”
The 43,000 Southern Baptist Churches nationwide are his first resource to find the “warm, caring friends” to whom Hataway refers. Using the SBC Church Search on www.SBC.net, Hataway immediately seeks out a Southern Baptist minister to be “God’s representative” to that trucker or his family.
But his ministry isn’t merely networking with churches to meet truckers’ needs in their communities. In addition to writing articles on trucking safety for various websites, the Hataways often hit the roads themselves. Driving TransAlive’s AmCoach, a bus equipped with a special adjustable bed, couches, bathroom facilities and a kitchenette, they drive across the states to carry recovering truck drivers back to their homes.
“The AmCoach provides an alternative to air charter for drivers who cannot travel in a sitting up position. Neither commercial flights nor standard buses will allow the driver to lay down in all cases during transit,” Hataway said.
Charles Worcester was one of about 20 drivers each year that Hataway tranports because the costs of chartering special transportation were unaffordable. The Hataways drove from Texas through a snow storm in Utah to carry Charles back home to Louisiana in the AmCoach.
Charlene Worcester recounted: “Charles had not been with the company long enough to be covered by insurance, and the VA hospital did not have a resource for transporting him home.The ride home could not have been more comfortable for Charles. I cannot say too much about the AmCoach or the Hataways in what they did in helping us get home.They were truly a Godsend for us.”
The time the Hataways spend with the drivers on the AmCoach gives them an opportunity to meet needs and share Christ. Hataway said,
“On the coach itself, three have come to Christ,” Hataway said. “We have shared with many on the coach who have said that it was the first time they’ve seen Christianity with a new understanding?they become less critical. We share Christ with a cup of cold water in their time of thirst.”
Hataway explained the dilemma of the group of truckers to whom he most often ministers: the owner/operators.
He said: “They own their own truck and lease to a company for the purposes of moving their freight. That affects the driver benefits. For example, right now we are dealing with a case of an owner/operator driver who passed away in Seattle, Washington, and the company that contracted him won’t do anything to transport the body back to his home.
“There are insurances available to owner/operators that are a supplement, like workers’ comp for employees, but it doesn’t cover everything as it should. And many cannot afford adequate coverage?they live paycheck to paycheck.”
J.B. Hunt Trucking Company has called on Bob since 1987 and is one of several trucking companies supporting TransAlive financially. One of the largest companies in the industry, Hunt employs about 16,000 drivers, many of whom are owner/operators.
Mark Whitehead, Hunt’s vice president of claims and litigation management, said that after making certain a sick or injured driver receives proper medical attention, the next call they make is to Hataway. To his knowledge, TransAlive is a one-of-a-kind ministry.
Whitehead explained: “What we use Bob for more than anything else is to notify families of catastrophic injuries or occasionally the death of a family member. He has a network of pastoral people that can be called on who will make the notification to the family and wait with them until they have the support they need in the initial crisis. We feel it’s better for Bob to do the contact rather than a police officer who will go and then leave.”<
