Disaster Relief work in Metairie, La., leads to 4 professions of faith

Ever since Hurricane Ida struck Louisiana on Aug. 29 as a Category 4 storm, Metairie Baptist Church outside of New Orleans has hosted an average of four disaster relief teams a day, according to Sonny Davis.

Davis serves as the “white hat” for the command center that works out of Metairie Baptist, meaning he’s the person in charge of all the teams coming and going out of that location. It’s his job to know where everybody is and what they’re doing.

The “blue hats,” who serve as team leaders, keep their focus on what’s going to happen in that particular day.

“I’m concerned about what’s ahead,” said Davis, who works to keep everything flowing as efficiently as possible, which includes a computerized tracking system for teams, the priority levels of incoming jobs and data. There are currently 70 volunteers working out of this command center.

“I do a lot of work in the off season to try and make the process run as smoothly as possible,” he said.

And while he has a lot of data to keep track of, the most exciting number he watches is how many professions of faith volunteers get to be a part of.

“In the two weeks we’ve been here, we’ve had four professions of faith,” he said.

Davis and his wife, Terry, will be serving at this location for the foreseeable future.

“We’ll stay going as long as we have teams coming. … Several other states are having a lot of other storm damage, so that [stretches resources],” he said.

The couple are members of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida.

By Maggie Evans | The Baptist Paper | September 14, 2021