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HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. (KT) - Allan Daigle has been a chaplain for Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief since 2012. He calls it the best thing he ever did.
Daigle was one of six chaplains who served during a 36-man deployment to a neighborhood in Hopkinsville that needed help with recovery from two windstorms in March. What the DR teams found were open doors and open hearts as chainsaw teams sawed through downed trees and took limbs off houses.
Brush was cleared from this truck from KYDR volunteers.
Some of the statistics going into Friday's last day of work included two salvations, 18 gospel conversations, 20 Bibles handed out and 190 Jesus DVDs given out. Prayers were abundant too as chaplains canvassed neighborhoods.
"Everything we talked to was glad we were there and appreciated what we were doing," Daigle said. "We worked in a lower-income area where people couldn't afford to do the work themselves. Everybody was so impressive."
Daigle signed up to be a chaplain with KYDR almost a dozen years ago. The experience it has given him to share the gospel and help heal breaking hearts has been breathtaking.
"Some of it was door to door and some people just met us on the street," he said. "One of the things that continues to make these trips eventful is when you start talking to people and ask them how things are going, they really open up. They are free to share what is truly going on in their lives. This trip we had several who had children die or had recently lost a parent. They were willing to have us pray for them."
Even as their yellow-shirted partners were buzzing the chainsaws to cut up limbs into stackable forms, the gospel was being proclaimed on the streets. And that's exactly where Daigle likes to be. Introducing people to Jesus gives him that deep down good feeling. Everybody is part of that experience when it is shared in the evening meetings.
The team of three dozen spent the week in Concord Baptist Church. They slept on cots and ate breakfast and dinner provided by the best cooks in Kentucky. KYDR's kitchen crew sent them off with a big breakfast (think biscuits and gravy) and then a filling dinner (think barbecues and baked beans). Nobody goes hungry on these deployments.
Daigle, a member of Cold Springs Baptist Church, said they also shared a bond with fellow KYDR volunteers.
A before and after of the work volunteers with Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief did this week in Hopkinsville.
"What happened from beginning we came here with about nine to 10 jobs to do," he said. "Before it was over, we ended up with 30 and completed all of them. We'd do work on one house and somebody a couple of houses down would say the same thing happened to me, can you come by my house?"
The KYDR teams came at the request of Kentucky Emergency Management, which linked them in with the local emergency management teams who welcomed them coming.
Daigle said anyone who wants to be involved in a Christ-centered worthy membership needs to give Disaster Relief an opportunity. "We had a few non-certified people work with us some on this deployment. One lady who came said she was going to get certified. This is the best-kept secret in Kentucky."
