ST. CHARLES – Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief (MODR) volunteers helped in several ways at the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) annual meeting here, Oct. 24-25.
MODR volunteers opened doors and greeted messengers and guests. Inside the convention hall, they monitored microphones and served as tellers – collecting ballots for the votes taken during meeting.
Childcare volunteers from DR provided a safe space for families with children to leave their young ones. They cared for 31 children, as of noon on Oct. 25.
The MODR childcare volunteers see this as a time of training for their volunteers, so they’ll be ready to go to set up emergency childcare centers when they’re called out to disasters by MODR.
As in years past, MODR childcare worker Anne Stevenson brought her therapy dog, Steele, for children to pet as they arrived. Steele was an instant attraction at the childcare desk.
At the MODR booth, Gaylon Moss, Aaron Werner and Eric Barb greeted visitors along with several other gold shirt wearing volunteers.
They said there was a sense of family as the volunteers stopped by to say hello to friends and swap stories about recent call-outs.
John Mohler shared about being deployed recently as a “white hat” incident commander in the Venice, Fla., after Hurricane Ian.
He said God is always at work when DR goes out. For example, after being in Venice a few days, Mohler realized they were about out of large contractor-size trash bags. He left the command post to search building supply stores for more bags. He wasn’t confident he would find any because of large demand in the wake of the hurricane.
But as he was heading to his vehicle, a lady drove up in the church parking lot. She said, “I drove in from 800 miles, and I threw in these trash bags just in case we needed them.” She had a large supply of contractor-sized trash bags.
“God provided just what we need,” Mohler said.
There were many other “God stories” like that circulating among the MODR volunteers at the convention.
Gaylon Moss encouraged the guests at the booth to think about becoming trained and to be ready to go the next time a disaster strikes. For more information about MODR, visit www.modr.org.