Author: Jayson Larson

REACH TEXAS 2022: ‘Then God’s people just showed up’

Editor’s note: The Reach Texas Week of Prayer is Sept. 18-25. This week, the Texan will highlight brief stories of how God is using the Reach Texas offering to impact the kingdom across Texas.

As the storm approached, he and his family and many church members sought shelter about 200 miles away in Eunice, La. They evacuated on a Sunday and returned three days later.

“I got back and couldn’t believe my eyes. Everything was changed. I didn’t know when we could even start doing recovery,” the pastor said.

The storm devastated the community. The church did not escape as its brick veneer back wall collapsed into the sanctuary, destroying the baptistry area and ruining the three-week-old roof that had finally replaced the one damaged by Hurricane Laura the year before. The church gym was spared and became a massive distribution center for food, clothing, water, and supplies for Golden Meadow and nearby Galliano.

About three weeks after the hurricane, when the waters had receded enough to make recovery efforts feasible, Chouest received a call from SBTC Disaster Relief asking if his church and community were interested in help with mud-out and recovery efforts.

“We were distraught,” Chouest said. “Then God’s people just showed up. SBTC DR were the first ones to show up.”

SBTC DR and other Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers stayed in the area for 60 days, working with resources that were generously given through the Reach Texas offering. Among many projects, they helped make the parsonage livable by removing soggy sheetrock, spraying anti-mold treatment, replacing the roof, and even pulling up, drying, and reinstalling the vinyl flooring.

The work on his home enabled Chouest, who had been staying in the “dry half of the house,” to continue ministering to the community he loves and providing hope—the same kind of hope DR volunteers had provided to him.

Father, son share special moments on SBTC Israel trip

In July, 128 pastors and their wives traveled to Israel with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. The trip was planned to encourage SBTC pastors, strengthen their preaching by helping them experience the places where Jesus focused His ministry, and provide a venue for them to worship and fellowship together.

Among this group of pastors was a father and son: Kyle Clayton, senior pastor of The Church at Quail Creek in Amarillo, and his father, Rex—a retired pastor.

“When I found out about the SBTC’s trip to Israel, I jumped on it,” Kyle said. “Giving me the opportunity to bring my wife (April) to Israel made the trip more exciting, and the fact that later on mom and dad were able to also come, as well, made it even better.”

Rex said he had planned to go to Israel with a church, but that trip filled up so quick he was not able to sign up. When the SBTC announced its trip, he said he quickly signed up to go.

“I am blessed to have walked where Jesus walked with my only son, Kyle,” Rex said. “Being in Israel makes the Bible so much more real, and being able to talk to Kyle about it was a wonderful experience.”

Rex has been married to his wife, Karen, for 49 years and they also have a daughter, Kandra, who is five years older that Kyle. He served during the war as a chaplain assistant, then earned an accountant degree from The University of Texas and began serving his local church. “I started to teach Sunday school at my church with no members,” he said with a smile, “and then we went out and decided to go and get them.

“God blessed our efforts, and by teaching this class, God confirmed to us that we should be in full-time ministry. We answered the call and went to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary where I got a Master of Divinity.” He was an associate pastor at First Baptist Church of Burleson and also pastored in Alvarado while going to seminary.

After his graduation, Rex pastored First Baptist Church of Sundown near Odessa, where Kyle met his bride, April.

At the age of 69, Rex retired from Calvary Baptist Church in Tishomingo, Okla., after serving there for 17 years. “I have been blessed by Rex pastoring all of these years, and I told him, when you retire, I want to go and hear Kyle preach at Quail Creek. We went many times to visit him, and we fell in love and felt loved by the church immediately. Rex is a great pastor and preacher, and I also think that Kyle is, too,” Karen said.

Kyle calls himself a “Jesus follower, husband, dad, and preacher man.” He has been married to April for 20 years and they have two children: Mackenzie, 16, and Nolan, 15. He has a master’s degree from Slidell Baptist Seminary in Louisiana. He has been serving Quail Creek for 13 years.

April, Kyle’s wife, said she was also blessed to be in Israel. She was able to experience some of the way women are required to travel around the cities and the oppression in which women without Jesus as Lord have to endure in certain sectors of society. In some areas, she noticed women were not able to show their elbows, show their knees, or speak.

She was also able to appreciate all the ancient pieces of art, sculptures, and designs around her. April is an art teacher at San Jacinto Christian Academy, a Christian school that was started by Quail Creek in 1982.

“It’s a blessing to work at a school our church founded,” she said. “I not only work full-time, but I serve our church in the women’s ministry and as a small group leader in our student ministry.”

As a group of travelers, all the pastors, wives, and SBTC leaders shared a time of worship at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem and participated in the Lord’s Supper.

“My favorite thing to do for our church is make the Lord’s Supper bread,” April said. “I pray over it as I make it, as well as each member who takes it. I don’t take making it lightly. It’s an honor to do it for our church in remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice. I started this tradition when my mother-in-law, Karen, passed the tradition down to me. During COVID, we were able to share the recipe with our congregation so we could all participate in the Lord’s Supper together in our own homes for Easter.”

The whole family celebrated the occasion of traveling to Israel together by having a symbolic baptism in the Jordan River performed by Bruno Molina, SBTC language and interfaith evangelism associate.

REACH TEXAS 2022: Houston church sees God moving as it reaches out

Editor’s note: The Reach Texas Week of Prayer is Sept. 18-25. This week, the Texan will highlight brief stories of how God is using the Reach Texas offering to impact the kingdom across Texas.

God is blessing those efforts. Cross Community, a church plant sent out of Northeast Houston Baptist Church, has baptized 16 people since its first service on Sept. 12, 2021, according to its pastor, Del Traffanstedt. Seventy-five percent of those baptisms are directly related to the church’s door-to-door outreach.

Shortly after opening its doors, Cross Community executed a six-week push to reach every home within a three-mile radius of its church campus. Through that effort, someone at each of those homes received a gospel tract or had a face-to-face gospel conversation. Traffanstedt said money given through
Reach Texas is used to buy tracts and other materials used in Cross Community’s outreach efforts such as these.

“It is a vital component of our funding,” Traffanstedt said. “Without the faithful giving of SBTC churches, it would be much harder to do what we do. We are thankful for those who pray, give, and go.”

In addition to door-to-door outreach, Cross Community has worked to cultivate partnerships within the community to build a bridge to the gospel. The church provides needed school supplies through a partnership with a local elementary school and recently began an English as a Second Language program to minister to one of the most diverse areas in the U.S.

“It is crazy to think that God took me from Odessa to Houston in seven short months to plant Cross Community Church,” Traffanstedt said. “God’s hand has been on every part of the process from the call to plant, to confirmation, to assessment, to gathering a core team, to launch, to the baptisms and growth we have seen. We are excited to see what God is going to do next.”

Lifeway study reveals Americans’ theological beliefs continue to shift post-pandemic

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Americans experienced seismic changes over the past two years, including, for many, how they attend church. The shift in behavior coincides with a shift in theology.

The biennial State of Theology study conducted by Lifeway Research found relative stability in some of the religious and cultural beliefs U.S. adults hold. After months of quarantines and social distancing, however, Americans increasingly believe worshiping apart from a church is as good as attending church services.

In March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic was just beginning in the United States, 58% of Americans said worshipping alone or with one’s family was a valid replacement for regularly attending church, with 26% strongly agreeing. In 2022, 66% believe worshiping apart from a local congregation is as valid as worshiping with one, with 35% strongly agreeing.

Additionally, most Americans (56%) don’t believe every Christian has an obligation to join a local church. Fewer than 2 in 5 (36%) say this is something all Christians should do.

Tracking surveys from Lifeway Research throughout the pandemic found U.S. Protestant churches were open at pre-pandemic levels by summer of 2021 and into 2022, but early this year few churches had reached pre-pandemic attendance levels.

“Religious identity, beliefs and behavior are interrelated,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “When in-person church attendance behaviors were interrupted and habits were broken, it affected some Americans’ beliefs about the need to gather with other believers to worship.”

With many theological beliefs remaining stable, those that did shift point to areas where a changing U.S. culture may be impacting Americans’ religious perspectives.

The 2022 State of Theology study, sponsored by Ligonier Ministries, surveyed more than 3,000 Americans and follows previous versions in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020.

God-sized confusion

Most Americans believe in God, but they’re a little confused about who the divine is.

While 66% of U.S. adults say God is a perfect being and cannot make mistakes, half (51%) say God learns and adapts to different circumstances.

Almost 7 in 10 Americans (67%) say God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Islam. A similar percentage (71%) say there is one true God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Despite a majority of Americans affirming a trinitarian God with three divine persons, most still aren’t sure about how that applies to Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Slightly more than half (55%) believe Jesus is the first and greatest created being. Another 53% say He was a great teacher but not God. Close to 3 in 5 (59%) believe the Holy Spirit is a force but not a personal being.

When thinking about these theological convictions, most Americans classify them as opinions, not facts. For 60% of U.S. adults, religious belief is a matter of personal opinion; it’s not objective truth.

“Many Americans think about God as if He had only revealed himself in a vague, nondescript way. They seem to fill in the gaps with whatever they want to believe,” said McConnell. “This creates sharp contrasts between what Americans believe about God and how He revealed Himself in great detail in the Bible.”

Social issues and sin

Hot button cultural issues often intersect with theological beliefs, and Americans often aren’t sure how to balance the two. A growing number says Christians should stay out of the discussion.

While 3 in 4 Americans (78%) say God created male and female, they’re more split on whether gender identity depends on personal preference. More than 2 in 5 (42%) say gender identity is a matter of choice, the highest in the history of the State of Theology. Half (51%) disagree. The American public is more divided than American pastors. A 2020 study of U.S. Protestant pastors found 72% believe it is morally wrong for an individual to identify with a gender different than the sex they were born.

Half of U.S. adults (53%) say sex outside of traditional marriage is a sin, while 42% disagree. Those who view non-marital sex as sinful has increased slightly but steadily since 49% said the same in 2016.

Americans are also split on whether the Bible’s condemnation of homosexual behavior is still applicable. Slightly less than half (46%) say it doesn’t apply today, and 42% disagree.

Additionally, Americans are closely divided over the issue of abortion. While 53% say abortion is a sin, 39% disagree. Still, a previous Lifeway Research study specifically on abortion found 12% of U.S. adults say abortion shouldn’t be legal in any situation. When asked specifically what time period they believe abortion should be a legal option assuming there are no health issues for the woman or the fetus, half of Americans say no later than 12 weeks.

Three in 10 Americans (30%) say Christians should stay silent on political issues, an increase from 24% in 2020 and the highest percentage recorded in any previous State of Theology study. Around 3 in 5 Americans (61%) disagree.

“Discussions of sin are inherently theological, because they explore whether God set standards and what behaviors miss this mark,” said McConnell. “So, those who acknowledge certain behaviors as sin are acknowledging a deity’s standards. This is a different discussion than whether society agrees on an ethical standard of conduct that we determine.”

Eternal destinations

Americans believe God cares about what we do each day, most people are generally good, but hell is a real place where some people will spend eternity in punishment.

While 58% of U.S. adults disagree, a growing number believe God is unconcerned with their day-to-day decisions. Around a third of Americans (32%) say God isn’t concerned with what they do on a daily basis, up from 25% in 2020 and the highest since the State of Theology first asked the question in 2014.

As people consider their actions and their nature, most believe they’re naturally good and start off innocent before God. Two in 3 Americans (66%) say everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature. Seven in 10 (71%) say everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God.

Still, 3 in 5 Americans (59%) say hell is a real place where certain people will be punished forever, up from 56% in 2020 and 54% in 2018. A quarter (25%) also believe even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation, consistent with the 26% from 2020 after climbing up in each State of Theology study starting at 18% in 2014.

“An interesting paradox exists regarding Americans’ views of sin and punishment,” said McConnell. “More than two-thirds of Americans believe everyone is inherently good, yet almost as many believe divine judgement will occur in the future.”

Biblical balance

Americans tend to trust the Bible, especially what it teaches about Jesus, but may have some doubts in other areas.

Two in 3 U.S. adults (66%) say biblical accounts of the physical or bodily resurrection of Jesus are completely accurate. They believe the event actually occurred.

And Americans do not believe the Holy Spirit will contradict Scripture. More than 3 in 5 (62%) don’t believe the Holy Spirit can tell them to do something that is forbidden in the Bible.

In many ways, Americans are split on the trustworthiness of the Bible. Around half say the Bible is 100% accurate in all that it teaches (51%) and the Bible has the authority to tell us what to do (52%); however, 53% of Americans say the Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is not literally true. And 40% say modern science disproves the Bible.

“As a society, views on the Bible probably best summarize how split Americans are when it comes to theology,” said McConnell. “Half see Scripture as dependable and authoritative while half see it as fiction. Higher numbers acknowledge the story it tells, but more than half also give weight to their personal opinions.”

REACH TEXAS 2022: Church spreading gospel through continuous community connections

Editor’s note: The Reach Texas Week of Prayer is Sept. 18-25. This week, the Texan will highlight brief stories of how God is using the Reach Texas offering to impact the kingdom across Texas.

WEST COLUMBIA—When Colby Wallace was sent by First Baptist Church of West Columbia to plant West Oaks Church, he knew he had a mandate to mobilize the new congregation to actively reach out to the community.

West Oaks officially launched and began meeting in a high school at the beginning of 2020 with a mission of reaching “the unchurched, the de-churched, and the skeptic.” Seven families were sent out from FBC West Columbia with Wallace and his family.

Only five services into their new launch, COVID struck and, as Wallace says, “the whole world shut down.” The church’s first Easter was celebrated remotely. By July, the church began to gather once again and resume its mission of connecting with people in the community. On one occasion, church members went to a local laundromat and handed out quarters and washing pods. Another time, they went into town and washed the windows of local businesses as a way of saying “thank you” for their service to the community.

All this happened while Wallace continually urged his congregation to connect with the people in their neighborhoods and workplaces.

“We didn’t really do anything spectacular,” he said. “We really just were involved in our community and became a part of the every day lives of the people around us.”

The fruit of the church’s labor was apparent this past Easter, when around 400 adults and 100 children were in attendance. Even more exciting, Wallace said, is the fact many of those new faces made it back in the weeks that followed after hearing the life-changing message of the gospel.

“It’s because of Reach Texas and the Cooperative Program that our church is here,” Wallace said. “It’s because of [cooperative giving] … that churches like ours are having an eternal impact, not just in building a church, but in building the kingdom of God. We’re grateful.”

Galveston church mourns teen killed in crash near high school

GALVESTON—Aaron Sanders, pastor of Coastal Community Church in Galveston, intended to kick off a new sermon series on Acts on Sunday, Sept. 4. Those plans were put on hold after Galveston ISD student Mason Nelson was killed in a crash the Friday before.

Nelson, a 14-year-old freshman at Galveston Ball High School, was traveling in a Jeep that was struck by a speeding SUV. Three other students survived the Sept. 2 crash, which occurred directly across the street from the high school, according to news outlets, including KHOU-11.

Nelson had just left baseball practice at the school.

The 28-year-old male driver of the SUV was arrested. He had been released from prison—where he had served a sentence for his third DUI conviction—only a few hours before the crash.

Nelson was described by friends as funny, with a love of baseball and a deep faith. A Sept. 6 candlelight vigil for students and the community was organized by Ball’s student council.

Coastal Community, where Nelson’s family attends, also held a prayer vigil at the church on the afternoon of Sept. 3. “Our hearts are broken. Come and pray for teenagers and families involved in yesterday’s crash,” the church announced on its Facebook page.

Sanders told KHOU-11 that Nelson’s family started attending the church three years ago, and that he had met the young man five years before that while coaching Little League.

Sanders rushed to the crash scene when he heard the news. He was there with Nelson’s father, whom he described as the boy’s best friend. Sanders said Mr. Nelson was overwhelmed by the messages from his son’s friends about the difference Mason had made in their lives.

At church on Sept. 4, in the wake of the tragedy, Sanders instead preached on the topic, “How Do We Mourn with Those Who Mourn?”

“This world is broken,” Sanders said. “People have the ability to choose sin, to make sinful choices, and sometimes those sinful choices that other people make affect us.”

The pastor continued with a reminder of hope: “But it’s also true that God is good, that His very nature is goodness. It’s holiness. It’s righteousness … it’s love.”

Cautioning against speculation, the pastor noted that many might ask, “Why did God allow this to happen?”

“I don’t know why this happened. But I do trust that He is good,” Sanders said, reminding his flock that “Even in the darkest valleys, God shows up.”

This also features reporting from KHOU-11.

Pastor and wife lead Colombian couple to Christ on SBTC trip to Israel

JERUSALEM—Travel to Israel had long been a desire of Juan Munoz, longtime pastor of Arlington’s Iglesia Bautista Cristo es el Camino, and his wife of 44 years, Nina.

Calling the opportunity to go on the SBTC-sponsored Holy Land trip for pastors and wives in July a “privilege,” Munoz said, “It was a dream that my wife and I had. It finally came true.” The couple cried and prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, among many moving experiences.

Little did they know that the Lord had also prepared gospel encounters for them in the land of Jesus. For example, outside a Byzantine church in Bethlehem visited by the SBTC group, a Palestinian man approached Munoz, asking the pastor to pray for him after striking up a conversation.

Munoz also had the chance to share the gospel directly in an unexpected place: the lobby of the Lady Stern hotel, where the group stayed in Jerusalem.

A divine appointment

Relaxing with his laptop in the hotel’s plush sitting area on Saturday, July 16, after dinner, the Munozes were joined in the lobby by Jesse Rodriguez, of Murphy Church. Rodriguez planned to help Pastor Munoz with a computer issue.

As he sat, Munoz noticed a younger Latina sitting nearby and offered a friendly, “Hola.”

“Hola,” she replied with a smile. The Munozes learned the woman’s name was Paola, that she was from Colombia, and was visiting Israel with her husband, Fernando, who soon joined the group.

Paola and Fernando said that they had come to know the land of Jesus Christ, Munoz said.

“It’s great that you came to know Jesus’ land,” Munoz said in response, “but can I talk to you a little bit about Jesus?”

The couple listened eagerly as Munoz explained about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“Jesus did all of this for us because He loves us. He loves you so much,” he continued.

When he asked the couple if they would like to trust Christ as their Savior, they both said yes and prayed to receive Him.

“Let me tell you the great news,” Pastor Munoz said. “You came to know even more about the land of Jesus Christ. But now you not only know the land of Jesus, you know him as your Savior,” assuring the couple that they now had eternal life.

“They were excited and wanted to know more,” Munoz said. The two couples exchanged contact information.

A last chance

Then Munoz asked the couple how he could pray for their needs.

Paola admitted to loneliness and fear of abandonment.

“God will never abandon you,” Munoz counseled. “He will live with you all the time. You are not going to feel lonely.” Paola started to cry, and Nina hugged her. Soon tears filled everyone’s eyes.

Fernando spoke next. The couple had also come to Israel in a “last chance” effort to save their faltering 14-year marriage.

“We decided to come to Israel to see if God could do something for us,” he admitted.

“Now you have Jesus with you. This world is an infernal world. It is bad. The only way that we are going to be able to survive these attacks of the enemy … Satan … is by getting close to God. This is what you guys did today,” Munoz said, referencing Ephesians 6 as a guide for believers.

“Now you have someone to defend you. You have Jesus on your side. Trust Him and never give up,” the pastor continued, advising, “Don’t even mention divorce. Don’t even mention each other’s faults. Focus on the good things.”

He prayed for the couple and asked God to heal and bless their marriage. He suggested that they ask each other for forgiveness, which they did, amid more tears.

A saved marriage

“Hola, mis amigos,” Paola exclaimed when Juan and Nina came down for breakfast the next morning. Fernando rose from the table and gave them a hug.

“How’s everything? How do you feel?” Munoz asked the smiling couple, who thanked him again for what he had told them the night before.

Soon the two Colombians left with their tour guide for Jordan while the Munozes joined the SBTC group for the day’s activities. An apparently “chance” encounter had reaped eternal benefits.

But the story doesn’t end there.

Pastor Munoz has been in contact with the couple, who have assured him that they are doing well and even intend to visit Texas one day soon. He has sent them encouraging messages and texts.

“I just praise God for the opportunity,” Munoz said. “We did enter their lives and they had a tremendous need. It was orchestrated by God.”

Weather is a reminder of God’s sovereignty

It’s hot!

Of course it is. In fact, if you read this any time before October, you’re rolling your eyes at the tired observation. Here’s another: pretty soon it will be cold, and you will be shuffling to your car wishing you’d brought a heavier jacket. Weather folks will search intently for some way in which this day is extraordinary for a blustery October day, just as they did for 30 August days in a row; it’s a job and it is remarkably interesting to nearly all of us. When I talk to my mom or dad, we invariably talk about recent rainfall or temperature trends, and cluck our tongues about how the weather has disappointed us in some way. It’s cliched; it’s nearly unavoidable; and it’s a form of street theology.

I had this thought as my Sunday School class went through Elijah’s drought in 1 Kings a few weeks back. Why do you suppose God chose a drought to discipline the nation instead of the Syrians or some other tool? I think maybe it’s the same reason that I look at the Weather Channel app on my phone nearly the first thing every day—the weather affects a lot that happens every day. In an arid place like Israel, the land is always pretty close to being too dry to farm. How many months passed in Israel until the idle chatter about rain turned to panic and despair when the sky closed up? The conversations almost certainly became, “Why is this happening?” within a short time. By the time a year or two had passed with no harvest, people were starving.

If God meant to direct the attention of an evil king to Himself, it worked. We know Ahab was beating the scorched bushes looking for Elijah. Ahab believed the drought was sent by God and he believed that Elijah was God’s prophet. But Ahab didn’t fear God. That combination of belief and disregard only increased the judgment on the faithless king, but God was revealed as holy and just in judgment.

I’ve never seen a three-year span with no rain at all, but I’ve seen long droughts. These multi-year dry spells that put farmers and ranchers out of business put a strong feeling of unease on even city dwellers. Each morning, we’d look at the weather and then glance at the sky in hopes our app was mistaken. A recent drought had churches across the Southwest praying fervently for rain.

"But God reminds us that our lives are in his hand every time we look at the weather forecast. We see it when the forecast is wrong, and we see it when the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike."

Gary Ledbetter Tweet

That’s what I mean by street theology—an everyday way that we think about God and even understand Him a little better. What God’s expressed judgment of Israel in 1 Kings had in common with our own hot 2022 summer is that God is completely sovereign over the sun and the wind and the rain. Absolutely, and even in our sophisticated day 3,000 years after Elijah. Sometimes it grates on us to be powerless because we are proud. At other times it humbles us as we come to the end of ourselves. The former is judgment, and the latter is repentance.

A casual reading of the Elijah story makes me wonder how the people remained “limping between two opinions” three years into a deadly drought. Their disdain for Elijah was in a sense a repudiation of Baal, the “storm god” who couldn’t make it rain (because he didn’t exist). But still, they wouldn’t repent.

We’re that way about so many things. The relentless parade of drug advertising that chokes my television implies that we can altogether avoid the effects of age and bad habits—as though to live forever. I read a statement from a prominent scientist in which he proposed to extend his physical life until our technology reached the point that his consciousness could be uploaded to a digital storage device and live there until we found a way to keep a cyber-physical body alive forever. Until! You might find that rich, but it is only a bit down the road from our apparent hope that we can escape the sting of sin, death.

But God reminds us that our lives are in his hand every time we look at the weather forecast. We see it when the forecast is wrong, and we see it when the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike.

I’ve always believed that two professions should be especially humble before our Creator—farmers and physicians. These folks share the almost daily experience of being flummoxed or delighted by something beyond their understanding. In my short life, I’ve heard doctors say more than once, “I’m not sure,” or “I’ve not seen this before.” We can map the human gene, and we can alter the genetic characteristics of a grain of corn, but life and rain are beyond our control.

I thank God for those who puzzle over the mysteries of life. They have blessed the world a thousand times a year. But that’s the point; we should thank God, realizing that all wisdom and weather flow from His hand.

There’s joy in that—for those who fear God.

SBTC DR volunteers encourage, assist Tarrant County flood survivors

FORT WORTH—For East Fort Worth homeowner Olivia and her neighbors, that city went from experiencing one of its driest Augusts ever to suffering one of its wettest.

Severe storms on August 21-22 pummeled Tarrant County, dropping 8.41 inches in Fort Worth and 7.72 inches in Arlington, the second highest total amount of rainfall yet recorded in North Texas over a 24-hour period, the National Weather Service reported.

Olivia, a retired correctional officer and preschool teacher, was among those who were ministered to the week of Labor Day by some 15 Southern Baptists of Texas Disaster Relief volunteers. They arrived in the area over the holiday weekend with an SBTC DR recovery unit housed at First Baptist Pflugerville, a shower/laundry unit from the Bi-Stone association in Mexia, and a feeding unit from First Baptist Flint. Feeding and laundry personnel served volunteers, who are staying at the International Baptist Church in Arlington. Chaplains and assessors also accompanied the teams.

Kelsey Melvin, SBTC DR assistant and a volunteer herself, facilitated the use of International, her home church, to house teams. “It’s so good to be a part of it and have my church host,” she said, adding that Tarrant County marked her first weeklong DR deployment in a few years.

While the work is hard, the days long, the heat and humidity challenging, and the post-flood scent of mold lingering, DR volunteers seek opportunities to make spiritual connections with survivors. Divine appointments are part of the mission.

A countenance turns

The storm had left the normally optimistic Olivia downcast when crews arrived to mud out her flood-damaged den. As they removed damaged sheetrock and sprayed anti-mold treatment, volunteers engaged in friendly conversation with Olivia, Melvin said.

“She was stressed out and morose at first, but by the end, we were laughing and talking like old friends. She walked with us and talked to us the whole time,” Melvin added, noting that the team prayed with Olivia and that volunteer Jean Ducharme of Del Rio gave her a Bible.

Olivia, who described herself as a churchgoer, assured volunteers she would be staying in touch and checking on them.

Challenging times

For another homeowner, a flooded home came on top of several life-changing events. Among these, the young man, co-owner of a townhome in the West Seventh area with his brother, had recently become engaged.

Teams tore out drywall and helped clear the men’s sodden garage. Toward day’s end, Melvin chatted with the newly engaged man, inquiring about his faith background and explaining, “We are here as Christians.”

The homeowner replied that he had grown up in a Christian school but now wanted to “see for himself” about matters of faith. He admitted he was searching.

Melvin gently affirmed his quest, mentioning that, “We never know when we are going to die,” and reminding him of the parable of the prodigal son, who returned home to his father’s welcome and embrace.

“That’s what God would feel for you if you came back to Him,” Melvin said.

“I do need to get it figured out,” the young man agreed. “I do want to find what the truth is. Whatever that is.”

After their tasks were completed, teams prayed with the brothers. Volunteer Jon Sheppard of Houston described a similar search for spiritual truth he had undergone during college, recommended resources from evangelist Josh McDowell, and gave the homeowner his contact information in case he has further questions.

“I hope that’s a step in his journey back to the Lord,” Melvin said. “Those transitional times are often when we are more open to hearing from God.”

Among other jobs, teams also worked on tarping the roof of the recently acquired worship center of Empowerment Life Cathedral, which suffered storm damage to its facilities. The job illustrates another goal of SBTC DR: to assist local churches in recovery so they can minister to their communities.

Incident leader David Dean of Pflugerville confirmed that teams will work in the area through Sept. 9.

This article also contains reporting from the Fort Worth Report.