Mobilized in God's Timing

 

Mobilize Training in Moline, IL

 

Imagine a flood hits your hometown.  75% of your congregation’s homes, including yours, are flooded with water, mud, or sewage.  Roads collapse and all the surrounding neighborhoods are affected.  What would you do?  What are you feeling, thinking, and struggling with now?

You may feel there is no hope.  You need help.  Where do you even start?

“We work better together than alone,” stated Kevin Watterson as he laid out this scenario to a volunteer team serving in Staten Island from First Free in Moline, IL as he introduced the Mobilize initiative.  “What we’re trying to build here is a network of churches that can respond in this type of disaster and can be mobilized so we can help those churches get back on their feet again, get back into ministry, do what God has called them to do in their community, and be able to help people who have been affected by this disaster as well.”

When the team returned to Illinois, they incorporated Mobilize slides into their church missions’ presentation.  It fit well into the mission of First Free.  The church budgeted money for Crisis Response involvement.  This cleared the way for people to go quickly when needed.  The next step was their 10 hour training for Mobilize on April 25-26.  Little did anyone know how quickly mock responses in the training would become a reality.  Tornadoes in Alabama motivated a call to First Free for help a few days later. Three men cleared their schedules and responded the following Monday.  Team leader Rick Mills commented, “It was rewarding to be on the front side of things.”  Around 48 downed trees covered the property of the Schrock family from Hope Church.  They had responded three years earlier to help others impacted by tornadoes in their area.  Rick found it different working with a family who understood why they were there to help.

Rick and team member Tony Loete struggled attempting to pull a tree out of the creek using the Schrock’s small tractor.  It was humbling when the tractor got stuck, and they had to find help.  They traveled down the road until they found someone with bigger equipment who came and pulled the tractor free and removed the tree in minutes.  Tony remarked, “In our weakness, God’s strength was revealed.”  Later in the week, the willingness of the Schrock’s to have their tractor and volunteers used to help another homeowner their family did not even know impressed Tony.

God used First Free’s involvement serving on a volunteer team to plant a desire to partner with Mobilize and to train and be available just when they were needed to impact lives in a crisis.  The goal of Mobilize is to have enough churches and people to sustain a response for up to 6 months with volunteers who would be willing to deploy on a rotating basis.  Many types of people are needed such as people to assess needs, an administrator to process paperwork, people to gut houses and clean-up, a construction manager to manage projects, and a volunteer coordinator to contact team members.  Different skills are needed at different times.  Rick pointed out that you do not have to do construction for God to use you.  “Everyone can pick up sticks.” A commitment is requested for 2 weeks each year to come and serve and additional time to meet with their team locally serving in their own community.  For more information on Mobilize, contact crisisresponsenetwork@efca.org.