Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief (DR) volunteers continue to respond with clean-up efforts in towns that were affected by wildfires last month. According to Jason Yarbrough, director of Oklahoma Baptist DR, they have received work requests from Stillwater, Guthrie, Wellston, Luther, Mannford, Cleveland, Terlton and other communities.
“Our teams are working in these areas as homeowners get clearance from their insurance company and/or are able to get dumpsters on site for proper disposal of the ash and debris,” said Yarbrough.
Volunteer teams will work through Thursday, April 17, then will break for Easter weekend. This will allow for churches that are hosting the volunteers to have their weekend services without DR volunteers being in the way. Clean-up response will then start back up on Monday, April 21.
In their first week of serving, Oklahoma DR has received 152 work requests and have completed 26 of those. There have been about 70 volunteers each day from Oklahoma and Texas On Mission. DR’s work has resulted in 145 ministry contacts, 4 gospel conversations resulting in one profession of faith and a total of 14 Bibles distributed.
Oklahoma DR’s response to the wildfires began the week after they devastated numerous Oklahoma communities. DR first began their response by providing over 6,500 meals for victims of the wildfires and first responders.
DR volunteers were unable to immediately begin clean-up efforts due to the unique nature of wildfire disasters. Unlike other disasters, wildfire responses often take more time to cool down and to ensure volunteers are not in danger of being in “hot spot” areas.
“Our trained volunteers are eager to help our neighbors in need, who have faced some of the most distressing and difficult situations,” said Ryan Deatherage, associate director of Oklahoma DR. “We want to offer the hope, help and healing, and to show the love of Jesus with people as we serve.”
Ash-out teams began to remove ash for homeowners on March 24. They worked out of Stillwater, Countryside to provide relief to wildfire victims within a 30-to-50-mile radius around Stillwater. They also operated out of Mannford, First to provide relief in the area surrounding Mannford.
Teams from Texas helped in the Stillwater area and other DR teams from surrounding states also offered to come help in the relief effort.
“It’s a partnership,” said Yarbrough. “The whole nature of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief is that we can’t do it alone and we’re better together.”
Oklahoma Baptist DR has served in countless disaster responses throughout the years. To request assistance from Oklahoma Baptist DR, to make a tax-deductible donation to relief efforts or for more information, visit www.okdisasterhelp.org.