Hurricane Debby is just a memory to most everyone — except to those who suffered loss and to the Disaster Relief volunteers who are helping them.
The Cambodian Southern Baptist Fellowship’s 7-acre Blessing Field ministry center was caught up in the natural disaster Aug. 5–7 when 12 inches of the hurricane’s floodwaters in less than 48 hours breached six dams in Bulloch County, about 50 miles northwest of Savannah, Georgia.
“It was up to my waist,” said Blessing Field’s unofficial caretaker, Mike Jefferson. “I got there yesterday, and all I could do was cry.”
The next day, Aug. 14, Georgia Disaster Relief was onsite. Within a week the cleanup work was done, though not directly by Baptists. The Georgia Disaster Relief team contacted Christian Aid Ministries’ rapid response team, which is made up mostly of Amish and Mennonite church members.
Dedicated to the Lord
A year ago, the Cambodian Fellowship purchased the property with two main buildings as a retreat site, conference center and in time, a Cambodian museum. The fellowship hall is 9,000 square feet, and the worship center is 11,000 square feet. There are also five gazebos, two water fountains and a figure-eight pond that meanders between the two buildings.
“We dedicated it to the Lord because we all knew in our hearts that the Lord gave it to us,” executive director Seang Yiv said at the Cambodian Fellowship’s 2023 annual meeting. “Seeing how magnificent the place was, it was an emotional time for everyone — a mountaintop experience.”
This spring Cambodian volunteers built seven showers and 23 sleeping cubicles, each about 8 feet by 10 feet. Drywall was nailed atop newly erected studs in each of the cubicles, but there wasn’t time to paint before the late June annual meeting. The Cambodians also put in a new air conditioning system.
The air conditioning unit escaped damage, but each of the cubicles and all the walls in both the fellowship hall and worship center became waterlogged.
“The flooring is going to have to come up, Sheetrock removed to above the waterline, and the kitchen cabinets will have to come out,” reported Richie Howard, assessor for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, while he was walking through the fellowship hall. Howard is the minister of local ministries and missions at First Baptist Church Jonesboro. “We get it where it’s safe, clean and ready to rebuild.”
By Aug. 21, the tear-out work at the Blessing Field had been completed by Christian Aid Ministries, an outreach group of Mennonite and other conservative Anabaptist groups and individuals. About 40 “rapid response” team members “cut out Sheetrock 4 feet high, took out waterlogged insulation and cleaned up the waterlogged stuff,” coordinator Wesley Martin told The Baptist Paper. “We cut the carpet into sections and rolled it up.
“Young, energy-charged high school students did that part,” Martin said. “We just put out the word to all the Mennonite churches in Georgia, and they let us know they’re coming.”
Hands-on labor
Southern Baptist Disaster Relief crews have been at work from Florida to New York, ministering both through hands-on labor and a gospel witness to those struck by tragedy.
“We still have response going on for Hurricane Debby with flood cleanup in six states: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New York,” Coy Webb told The Baptist Paper on Aug. 23. Webb is the crisis response director for Send Relief, a collaboration of North American Mission Board and International Mission Board.
Southern Baptist Disaster Relief crews to date have clocked 21,795 volunteer hours toward Hurricane Debby response and have prepared 14,391 meals, assisted 195 families with chainsaw use or flood cleanup and recorded 22 professions of faith, Webb said.
“Send Relief and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief continue to bring practical help and the hope of Christ to those recovering in the aftermath of Hurricane Debby,” Webb said. “The sacrificial ministry of [Disaster Relief] volunteers is bringing God’s compassion to the hurting and reminding those suffering that God cares for the suffering.”
The work at the Blessing Field was different in that the only people around were Southern Baptist leaders. With Christian Aid Ministries doing the cleanup, Baptist crews were able to focus on families elsewhere who would benefit as much from a spiritual conversation as they would from someone cleaning up flood damage for them.
When Jefferson arrived Aug. 13 for his first look at the property, refrigerators and freezers were on their sides, bobbing in floodwaters inside the fellowship hall.
“I was overwhelmed by seeing the sight of everything that was damaged when we arrived [Aug. 17],” Yiv told The Baptist Paper. “Looking at the pictures and seeing the real thing was so different, so much worse. We only stayed one and a half hours because within 45 minutes we were getting sick from the mold.”
‘Long way to go’
Sithon Nuon, secretary of Blessing Field and Cambodian Southern Baptist Fellowship, led a group Aug. 17 from Cambodian Baptist Mission in Jacksonville, Florida, and Cambodians from FBC Jonesboro to help with cleanup.
“They cleaned up the fellowship hall,” Yiv said. “They took out two freezers to dry. Two other refrigerators we cannot save. They moved things from the kitchen and storage areas outside to dry in the sun.”
Jefferson had already opened windows to get air moving and had taken about 200 fabric-covered red and gold chairs from the worship center out to dry. The pond, which had swollen from Mill Creek and the breaching of six dams in the county, had retreated to its usual banks.
Yiv said the flooring in the two buildings will probably be replaced with tile in case of another floor-wrecking storm.
“It will be another mountaintop experience — even more than when we got the property — when we get everything back in order,” Yiv said. “I know God will bless us far beyond what we imagine.
“But I don’t know how,” the Cambodian leader acknowledged. “We’ve got a long way to go to replace everything and to bring everything up to current inspection codes, even the wiring.”
Thinking back on how the Cambodians acquired the property is a good reminder to him of how God provides, Yiv said.
He and his wife Vijilla bought some property for their retirement home but later gave it to the Cambodian Fellowship. They sold that property for nearly four times the amount they paid for it. They found property in Statesboro that a bank had foreclosed on because the previous owner had put $3.5 million into a wedding venue that opened just when the COVID-19 pandemic closed down all public gatherings.
Six others wanted the foreclosed property, but none could get the financing. The Cambodian Fellowship had cash for all but $10,000, and someone made an anonymous interest-free loan for that amount. The bank accepted the $475,000 cash offer.
“God has something in mind for the Blessing Field,” Yiv said. “We just have to be ready for it.”
For more information about the Cambodian Fellowship, Blessing Field and what the needs are see cambodianblessingfield.org.
