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Georgia volunteers feed thousands at BeachReach
Disaster relief team lends hand during Panama City Beach spring break
“I still remember those kids who came down,” he said. “I love hearing from those kids who’ve come to BeachReach in past years that I’ve gotten to know.”
Wood is a “blue hat,” or team coordinator, for disaster relief teams associated with Baptist state conventions and associations. Wood, a member of Zion Baptist Church, Covington, Ga., is this week’s leader of Stone Mountain Baptist Association’s feeding unit. Three weeks ago the first team arrived to set up the unit and serve meals to staffers and college students who’ve come to Panama City Beach through BeachReach, a ministry of LifeWay Christian Resources, to minister to spring break partiers.
The unit also sets up shop Mondays through Thursdays in a local bowling alley and serves pancakes from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. More than 50,000 pancakes were served to more 5,000 students over the three week period. Volunteers have been coming here since 1995.
“I honestly don’t know what we’d do without their help,” said Angel Ellis, BeachReach coordinator for LifeWay Christian Resources. “They are a huge help and nobody does what they do better. I personally appreciate their partnership and the hard work they do, but I especially appreciate the way they interact with the students. They’re awesome!”
Wood sees it as just being part of a day’s work.
“We see it as a way to serve,” he said. “We believe LifeWay has a really good ministry going here and we see the difference it makes in the lives of the kids who come. We consider this fun. It is a chance to be a part of something special.”
Most of those who come with the unit are retired and often feel as if they are ministering to their grandkids. Wood said serving has its rewards. “Seeing the students spiritually grow in such a short period of time is something I never get tired of seeing,” he said. “You see them on Monday and they are timid and unsure of what lies ahead, especially the first-timers. But just in the course of a few days you see them becoming more confident and more bold in sharing their faith. They learn it here and take it back with them to their campuses.
“We’ve got people in our churches who haven’t led anyone to Christ in 50 years, but when a kid comes down here and wins somebody to Christ it impacts them for the rest of their lives.”
The Stone Mountain Baptist Association’s feeding unit is one of seven in Georgia, and one of the largest. It served more than 800,000 meals in New Orleans between August and December immediately following Hurricane Katrina. Wood tells the story of a despondent woman who brought her three small kids to eat.
“I walked over to her and said, ‘You look like you need a hug,’” he said. “She just let go. Sometimes people just need to know somebody cares.”
And that is why Wood enjoys the e-mail. They probably came from a student he hugged. He said he gets a few hugs from students at the beginning of the week, but “by the end of the week if I stand out there where they come in I get ‘em from everybody.
“I have several who have told me that they want to do what we are doing when they retire. Hopefully we are a good example to them of serving Christ and that they’ll do it the rest of their lives.”
And, Wood hopes, they’ll send an e-mail to let him know how they are doing.
