Ames said Cooperative Program funds help provide volunteers with supplies and equipment they use during deployments. Then those provisions make it possible for ordinary Southern Baptists, such as Bob and Lillian Johansen, to be a part of national DR efforts.
Bob and Lillian, both in their early sixties, received their basic DR training at an in-person training event an SBCV church a couple years ago and were re-certified last year using the state’s online video training resource.
While recertifying, the couple invited more than 10 other people from their church to take the training with them so they could accompany them on trips.
About a month after recertifying in September 2021, the couple embarked on a SBCV DR trip to provide flood relief in Hurley, Va., taking some of their fellow church members who had just been trained.
Bob serves as the missions pastor at Maysville Baptist Church in Buckingham, Va.
Since that first DR trip he took to Hurley, he has been on several more in serval locations in Virginia and Kentucky. He has even taken more advanced training through the SBCV to become a blue hat and be able to lead DR trips.
He said getting more involved with DR work simply made sense for them in their stage of life, but they are not the only members of their family to participate.
Three of the couple’s four adult children have also received DR training and have gone on trips with their parents.
“We got involved because we have the time now to go out and focus on ministry,” Bob Johansen said. “We do a lot of family things together so it was just natural for them to come with us. We asked them and they wanted to go and enjoyed it when they went.”
He encourages fellow Southern Baptists to participate in disaster relief, all made possible by Cooperative Program funds.
“I think we have a commandment in the Great Commission and it’s not an option, so it’s important to follow His commands,” Johansen said.
“It’s not hard to go to these trips, and you get so much out of them. When you see that you’re helping somebody that is so distraught, it is just a blessing.”
This article originally appeared on BaptistPress.com.
