by Holly Smith
 
FRESNO - Once again, California Southern Baptists quickly responded to aid victims of Southern California firestorms in late October.

Volunteers still are serving in San Diego County, helping clean out debris left from homes destroyed by the nearly two dozen wildfires that stretched from Santa Barbara to San Diego. More than 2,000 homes were consumed and more than 600,000 acres burned; eight people died as a result of the fires.

The American Red Cross and Salvation Army rely on Southern Baptists when disasters strike, and a call was issued Oct. 22 for CSBC's kitchen and shower units as well as for volunteers.

Workers utilizing the Convention's four Disaster Relief kitchens prepared thousands of meals for evacuees forced from their homes in the early days of the fires, as well as for emergency relief workers and later for those who were unable to return to their homes. Two units were stationed at PETCO Park - home of the San Diego Padres - and one at First Baptist Church in Ramona. Another unit initially set up at First Baptist Church in Newhall later was relocated to the San Bernardino Fairgrounds.

Volunteers prepare the food which is sent out to shelters in Red Cross emergency relief vehicles. CSBC's two shower units, with six private showers that can accommodate as many as 600 people daily, also were activated.

Workers from as far away as Oklahoma, Utah, Idaho and Texas joined California Southern Baptists, along with volunteers from Arizona, Nevada and the Pacific Northwest.

The four kitchens were shut down Nov. 9 after volunteers had helped prepare some 200,000 meals.

Because the City of San Diego did not allow non-governmental organizations to help with cleanup, California Southern Baptists were given the option by San Diego County to clean homes on Indian Reservations in the area.

Don Hargis, CSBC Disaster Relief coordinator, noted the cleanup effort entails "partnering with a lot of people" to help victims of the wildfires, and that such a ministry could only be a "brainchild of God." Along with the out-of-state volunteers, workers from the aid organization Samaritan's Purse joined the Southern Baptist effort.

Tad Agoglia of Disaster Relief Cleanup Solutions in Long Island, NY brought several pieces of "special equipment" for the cleanup work, Hargis noted, including "a huge crane that's big enough to lift a house." He said Agoglia also brought some of his employees to join Southern Baptist efforts Nov. 3.

As of Nov. 17, volunteers had cleaned an average of five homes per day on La Jolla and Rincon Reservations, as well as a Catholic church in the area - all of which were "hit hard" by the fires, Hargis said. Crews started at La Jolla, one of the poorest Reservations in the area because it doesn't sponsor gambling, he added, noting most aid organizations only clean about two homes per day. Hargis said Nov. 19 workers "hope to move to the Ramona area" next.

Most importantly, though, Hargis stressed: five have made professions of faith in Christ as a result of the ministry.

He said he expected volunteers to clean as many as 100 homes; target date for completing the cleanup effort is Dec. 15.

"We just don't go in and pick up the ashes," Hargis explained. "It's much more complicated than that. We leave what the homeowner wants to be left, and that's usually just a concrete slab.

"We have to collect and cut up all the home's metal and put it in dumpsters. We have to double-bag hazardous materials like asbestos."

Hargis said crews go in first and sift ashes to find any family jewelry or other valuables that may have survived the fire.

Some 500-750 Southern Baptist workers participated in the effort, Hargis estimated, contributing 2,200 volunteer days of work during nearly two months of ministry.

Evacuated but ministering
Tammy Cookson, who with her husband Dan and three teenage children evacuated their home in San Diego when the fires first escalated, said they stayed at the Vision San Diego office of the North American Mission Board's Strategic Focus City initiative. The Cooksons serve as CSBC/NAMB missionaries, and she said they wanted to help even though they were among those affected by the crisis.

"We felt like even though we had been evacuated, there are certainly people that are more in need than we are," Cookson said from PETCO Park. "It has been great to be out here. I think the kids really felt like they're contributing to the efforts."

She and her children were involved in cleaning cambros, which hold hot meals for the disaster relief kitchen units.

"Even though everything was so random and wild, we really felt everyone's prayers, and God has given us a sense of peace that no matter what happens, we're here to be a blessing to others," Cookson said.

Another area missionary, Dwight Simpson, director of missions for San Diego Southern Baptist Association, said he commended Southern Baptists for the disaster relief network that was in place before the first fire began.

"They're well-represented here in the middle of all this disaster," Simpson said. "The unsaved and unchurched community will take note of who was here and who was prepared, and I think they will once again notice that Southern Baptists were right in the thick of all the action."

Helping those who help
Martin Davis, a member of Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, said he witnessed firsthand the kindness of homeowners toward the firefighters who saved their houses.

Davis said he was talking with some firefighters at around 9 p.m. after they had been battling blazes since 5:00 that morning. A man who lived in a subdivision that was spared came down to ask if the men needed anything, Davis recounted, and one firefighter said they'd like to have some coffee.

"The man went to Starbucks and got all these firemen coffee. It was just amazing," Davis said. "Another neighbor came down and brought them all little bags of food with sandwiches and chips. The residents were expressing their heartfelt thanks because right across the street were houses that were burned."

Davis noted that Hargis resembled an orchestra conductor at PETCO Park as he gave orders and workers scurried to respond.

"There were people who had done (disaster relief) so much that they were in a groove and it was working," Davis said. "The Red Cross people were falling in line, doing the things they were instructed to do, and the food just started going out from the place. I was extremely impressed by that and what God is doing through that."

It's all about Christ
Hargis said he hopes the efforts point people to Jesus.

"From a spiritual standpoint, we hope we're able to make such an impact in peoples' lives that they will see God getting the glory," Hargis said. "Just like it says in James 2, what good is it if all you do is say, 'God bless you,' and move on when people have a real physical need?

"After we meet their physical needs, that opens the doors to share the hope in Jesus Christ," Hargis said. "You know, anyone can give help. Christians can give hope."

Loren "Stretch" Krege, a disaster relief veteran from Cornerstone Church in Bakersfield, said the San Bernardino feeding site is the first time he has seen Southern Baptists, the Red Cross and the Salvation Army working together in one place.

The Red Cross and Southern Baptists were cooking the meals, Krege said, and the Salvation Army served the meals under a tent for the evacuees. "It's exciting," he affirmed.

"I just love doing this because the main thing is we serve God and we're serving the people and watching the ministry grow. When a disaster happens, people come together to help each other," Krege said.

Alberto Ballasteros, pastor of Iglesia Bautista de El Cajon, reported he and others in his congregation went to the areas ravaged by fire to help people who were directly affected. For several days, he opened his home to a family whose house was partially damaged by fire, until they could return home. The church collected a special offering to be used for food and clothing for people affected by the fires.

Several other California Southern Baptists also helped house evacuees in an effort "to be Christ in the crisis."

Hargis said donations for disaster relief efforts still "are desperately needed." Cleanup efforts from the San Diego fires of 2003 cost California Southern Baptists some $80,000 to clean 600 homes.

Online donations may be made at online here or send checks payable to CSBC Disaster Relief to 678 E. Shaw Avenue, Fresno CA 93710. Hargis noted 100 percent of the funds received will be used for the disaster.