Compassionate Volunteers – The Backbone of Ohio Disaster Relief

It’s been a long day. You get home from work, grab some dinner and sit in your chair to watch the national news.

For the last few weeks, all you’ve seen are pictures of the devastating fires burning in California. The losses are overwhelming. After a while, it seems to be too much but your heart goes out to the victims.

For the believer, the images of so much suffering spark feelings of compassion that compel you to do something.  

Jesus modeled compassion for us.
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Matthew 9:36-38 ESV

It’s this compassion that drives us to volunteer to serve those affected by disaster.
In response to devastating disasters, Ohio Southern Baptists have responded by training as Disaster Relief volunteers in record numbers over the last three years.

Since 2022, 287 people have completed the process to credential as Ohio Disaster Relief volunteers. In 2024,117 new people trained in Disaster Relief.

The volunteer response has been amazing, but statistically only 35% of volunteers in Ohio will deploy annually into the harvest fields.

The challenging seasons of life that fill our schedules are the primary reason for lower deployment numbers. Issues such as caring for an aging spouse or relative, having medical issues, and becoming too elderly to serve keep people from being able to deploy.

Last year 46 OHDR volunteer teams served nearly 7,500 hours cutting up trees, clearing flood damage, feeding volunteers and the community, and offering showers. Our chaplains also provide emotional and spiritual care to people affected by disasters.

Everyone in OHDR is asked to share the gospel every chance they get, but it’s the chaplains who are charged with providing care to their teams and the community. To meet the need for more chaplains, 16 new chaplains were trained in January 2025.

These chaplains will deploy as a member of a recovery team, as a team goes into an affected community or they will serve in the local incident command center.

In California, chaplains are providing emotional and spiritual care to firefighters, residents, and people they meet in the fire zones.

Ohio Disaster Relief has seen a clear difference in professions of faith for teams with a chaplain compared to teams without a chaplain. Recovery team members are focused on the work to help residents, but the chaplains can focus on the residents themselves.
Last year OHDR teams saw five people come to faith in Christ. The teams also encountered many people who were already believers and were struggling to cope with the disaster.
Team chaplains offer what we call “the ministry of presence,” spending time with people, listening to their stories, providing care and praying with them. Sometimes the chaplains sit and help homeowners sort through the items left in the wreckage of their homes. That’s a hard process.  

Our goal is to deploy a chaplain with every team from Ohio. These teams are better equipped to meet whatever needs they encounter.

You never know the long-term impact of serving people affected by disaster. The people you serve are impacted and you are impacted as a volunteer.

The mission is ultimately to follow the directives of Jesus to go out into the harvest fields whether those fields are behind your church, across the country or around the world.
The mission of OHDR is to bring help, hope and healing. Let us do the work and let God bring the harvest.