In panel discussion, past and present MODR directors remember four decades of bringing ‘help, hope, healing’
JEFFERSON CITY (MODR) – Each year, around the middle of July, Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief (MODR) holds its Blue Hat Roundtable, at which time blue hats (DR team leaders) hear reports and updates from ministry coordinators and from MODR leadership. Of course, the weekend always includes training for new blue hats on the previous day.
However, this year, MODR also celebrated a 40th anniversary of the organization. While the day included cake and many memories, the highlight was having six of the previous MODR directors in attendance. They included Jim Albers, who was director from 1993 to 2000; Gary Morrow, director from 2000 to 2006; Rick Seaton, director from 2008 to 2012; Dwain Carter, director from 2012 to 2017; and Gayon Moss, who has been the current director since 2018. The only previous directors who could not attend were Jerry Kersey (deceased), who served from 1986 to 1993, and Danny Decker, who served as director in 2006 and 2007.
Perhaps the most honored guest, though, was Paul Harvey, who worked for the Missouri Baptist Convention at the time and was instrumental in starting Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief in 1986 with the help of Jerry Kersey, who became the first director. In recognition of his efforts, Harvey was presented with the very first Paul Harvey Legacy award, which will be presented in the future to those who have made a lasting contribution to MODR.
“There had been a bad tornado in Missouri, and after seeing the damage, we had decided that we really needed to do something as a ministry to help,” said Paul Harvey explaining the origin of MODR. “Soon after that, the Texas people came up and explained how they were doing things. That’s when I turned to Jerry Kersey and told him I had a new assignment for him. I explained what I had in mind and told him to take the ball and run with it, and I’m so grateful he did.”
As might be expected, though, all the former directors had lots of memories from the past 40 years. Garry Morrow, for example, said that he and his wife spent five years in New Orleans following hurricane Katrina.
“During that time, Missouri’s kitchen served a little over one million meals,” he says. “We were situated near downtown and ours was the last kitchen to fold up.”
Of course, Rick Seaton will never forget the tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri, in 2011. It was the worst he and others had ever seen.
“I’ve been overwhelmed before, but I never felt as overwhelmed as I did at that time,” he said. “But I felt the Lord’s presence and felt that he would provide the people we needed and that we would get the job done, and that’s the way it happened… every time.”
“I think we were all being honest, we would have to say there were times we didn’t know what we were doing,” said Jim Albers. “In fact, mine was a baptism by water, because we had the ‘93 flood during my time. I have to thank Paul Harvey, though, for being such a wonderful mentor during those early years.”
Dwain Carter, meanwhile, said one of his greatest memories, in addition to the many out-of-state deployments, was the development of the collegiate intern program, which continues to this day.
As might be expected, however, a great many things have changed physically in four decades. As an example, there was no such thing as a cell phone in Paul Harvey’s day. Even by the time Jim Albers took over, they were almost too expensive to use on a regular basis. As a result, communication in the early days often took place via ham radio or even fax machine.
The ability to fix hundreds of meals for disaster victims has changed as well. In the early days meals were often fixed in turkey fryers with whatever was on hand, whether it was beans and rice, or biscuits and gravy. One of the previous directors said they felt lucky to make 300 meals a day. Now, thanks to the use of the mobile kitchen, MODR teams can easily fix 5,000 meals a day.
Another change that has occurred in recent years has been the concept of rapid deployment. Of course, that has come about, thanks in part, to associations having their own equipment and trailers. Instead of everything being centralized, many Baptist regional associations have their own chainsaw trailer or flood recovery trailer that can move as soon as the team is called. The state also has separate shower and laundry units, feeding units and so on, which can deploy in a matter of hours.
Lastly, in the early years, the Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief director often served more than one role within the Missouri Baptist Convention. Today, disaster relief is the only focus of the director and receives all of his attention. Thanks to the focused attention, the hundreds of volunteers and a much larger budget, MODR has been able to respond to disasters throughout the United States and even some foreign countries.
One thing that hasn’t changed though is the need for volunteers that God has called to serve. “This is not a humanitarian aid ministry, even though we do humanitarian aid,” Dwain Carter insisted. “It is a gospel ministry doing humanitarian work. So, Jesus always has to come first in everything we do. It’s what sets us apart from other humanitarian aid organizations.
If you would like to join God in his work by giving to support the work of Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief, please go to modr.org/give or make a check out to MODR and mail to MODR, 400 East High Street, Jefferson City, MO 65101. To learn more about training to be a volunteer, go to modr.org/training.
