When Hurricane Michael made landfall on the Florida Panhandle Oct. 10, the Rev. Jeremy Colloms, who became pastor at Ooltewah Baptist Church in May, immediately thought of a church dear to his heart that he knew he had to help. Colloms previously served as an associate pastor at St. Andrew Baptist Church in Panama City, Fla., where he and his wife, Mary-Margaret, were married, and which is located just up the road from Bay Medical Center, where their son, Luke, was born.
When the Category 4 storm hit, with winds as high as 155 mph, Colloms called Dennis Culbreth, Hamilton County Baptist Association's director of missions, and discovered that the association's disaster relief team was still in North Carolina providing aid in the wake of Hurricane Florence, which tore through the East Coast in September. He then called his friend Phil Taylor, director of missions for CrossNet Baptist Network in Cleveland, and asked if he had a team available.
Taylor said there were 10 guys ready to go, and within four days, the CrossNet team - an official team of the Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief network, the third-largest disaster relief network in the nation - were on their way to Florida, joined by a group of 10 volunteers from Ooltewah Baptist.
Since arriving in Florida last week, the team from Ooltewah has been distributing relief supplies at St. Andrews Baptist Church, and helping put tarps on the roofs of homes in the area. The CrossNet Baptist Network team has the equipment, training and expertise to remove large trees from roofs and provide homeowners access to their homes, said Colloms. They also counsel and pray with the people they are serving, he said.
"This group is a simply amazing group of men who have a servant's heart and have worked very hard," he said of the two local teams.
The destruction they've seen in the Panhandle in Michael's aftermath is unimaginable, said Colloms, but among the catastrophic damage, they've also witnessed the amazing resilience of people's spirits.
"The church has reached out to show the love of Jesus to people who need hope and have lost everything," he said. "In the midst of the brokenness that Hurricane Michael has left, our teams have been reminded of the truth that one day Jesus will make all things new. The hope that we shared - along with removing trees and tarping roofs - was the hope that, by faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus, that we can be a part of a restored world where no tears are shed, no hurricanes bring suffering."
Need in the Panama City area of Colloms' former church is still great, and he plans to continue the partnership with St. Andrew as long as that need continues. The local church groups headed back home Oct. 19, but more volunteers will be returning soon. Anyone who wants to help may contact Colloms at Ooltewah Baptist, and he can connect them with teams heading to Florida in the near future. Call the church at 238-4831, or email Colloms at jcolloms@ooltewahbaptist.org.
Email Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com.