Back in April, the people of Fulton found themselves in the middle of a lot of water and a lot of heartbreak.
“We had quite a bit of flooding,” said Keith Johnson, pastor of First Baptist Church, Fulton, in Clarke Baptist Association.
And they needed quite a bit of help.
Fortunately for the community, disaster relief teams from Baldwin and Bethel Baptist associations descended on Fulton for two days, doing mudout work and other relief. While they worked, area churches rallied to prepare meals for flood victims and disaster relief volunteers.
Surprising move
The Baldwin and Bethel teams “did fantastic work,” Johnson said. “The result of that was that our congregation wanted to contribute some money to disaster relief.”
But what Mark Wakefield, state disaster relief director, did with that money surprised them.
He hitched up an empty trailer that the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions had decided to sell — the perfect size for a disaster relief team to use — and brought it down to the Clarke Association executive committee meeting.
“They voted that night to buy the trailer and start funding and recruiting a team,” Wakefield said.
And he applied the money they had donated toward that effort.
‘That left an impression’
“I’m excited for them,” Wakefield said. The flooding, he said, made disaster relief “personal enough to encourage them that this is something they could do and make a difference.”
Johnson agreed. “When we needed those folks, they appeared, did the work and then they were gone. That left an impression on the people,” he said. “Other folks will be hurting in the future, and we can pay it forward.” (Grace Thornton)
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