Longtime Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers Murray and Marjorie Johnson have brought the hope and love of Jesus Christ to countless victims of tragedy since they first learned of the ministry nearly 30 years ago.
They have seen the tears of joy and heard the testimonies about how what they were doing as volunteers impacted the lives of others.
Now, they can relate to it as a couple who have been ministered to by Tennessee Baptist volunteers.
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The Johnsons were among hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans affected by Winter Storm Fern which swept through Tennessee Jan 25-27, bringing historic amounts of ice to the state. They were without electricity for eight days.
The couple, members of First Baptist Church Hendersonville, had 26 trees on their property. Twenty of them had damage and three trees had to be cut down, Johnson said.
Ice caused one large tree limb to fall on their house but it did not cause damage, he added.
Johnson said he and his wife never thought they would need DR assistance one day. “We’ve always been able to go and help other people. We never thought that one day we’d have to call Wes (Wes Jones, TBDR director) and say we need help.”
He acknowledged his request received a quick response, but he stressed that people in critical need be given priority. “I told him we’d be here when everybody else gets taken care of.”
A Disaster Relief team from East Tennessee came to their house and removed the limb off their roof and cleared the brush and debris from their property in one day, Johnson said. In addition, they helped three of their neighbors on the same day.
“With all they have done in disaster relief, the servers became the served after the ice storm,” Jones said.
Reflections on their ministry
Johnson, 84, and Marjorie, 83, first learned about Disaster Relief in 1998 when a tornado swept through Nashville causing major damage. They were members of Two Rivers Baptist Church at that time and when they arrived at church one Sunday, they saw volunteers cooking meals for people who needed food.
Recently retired, they began attending training events across the state and became involved in mass feeding and chainsaw recovery. They went out on their first callout in 2004 following Hurricane Ivan which caused extensive damage in Florida and Alabama. They served on the feeding unit in Atmore, Alabama.
Marjorie vividly remembers an encounter with a local resident on that first callout. She noted a woman came up to her and said, “We are glad you are here, but why are you here?” Marjorie replied, “We are here because this is what God calls us to do. We’re supposed to take care of each other. That is why we’re here.
“There’s no other purpose,” she said.
Over the years, they estimated they have responded to between 10–15 disasters. Their last onsite response was during the Gatlinburg fires in 2016. Johnson laughed that age has been a factor. “I could go and probably be good for one day and then somebody would have to come and get me,” he laughed.
Yet, the couple continue to be involved in disaster relief. In 2006 they began to serve weekly in the Disaster Relief office (now at the Missions Mobilization Center in Mount Juliet) to put volunteers into our system, run backgrounds, make ID badges and do mailouts.
Twenty years later, they are still doing it. In addition, they assist Elizabeth Holmes (Disaster Relief ministry assistant) with registration at training events and Johnson still teaches a mass feeding class.
“It’s something we can do and we still enjoy doing it. We see our friends in disaster relief and meet new volunteers,” he added.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Lonnie Wilkey and originally published by the Baptist and Reflector.
