2021 Book of Reports

Disaster Relief Director, John & Gay Williams HPBC 2021 Annual Meeting Report for November 2020 – November 2021 A Year of Transition This year continues to be a transition for HPBC Disaster Relief leadership. Pastor John Vaughn assumed the leadership of DR when Darrel and Teresa McCain moved to the mainland in November 2019. Pastor John served well until he stepped down due to health concerns. Please keep him in your prayers. We (John and Gay Williams) took over as co-directors for HPBC Disaster Relief in February 2021.

By way of introduction, we moved to Oahu in January 2019 from Colorado, where together we served over ten years with Colorado Disaster Relief. John served as Assistant State Director, and Gay served as Chaplain. We have deployed both nationally and internationally. We are very excited to be serving HPBC and have long felt called to serve the Lord through Disaster Relief.

Shower Trailer The trailer has four shower stalls and three washer/dryer units. Work was completed on the shower trailer, but some minor work still needs to be done to complete the washer/dryer installation. Connections Church used the shower trailer in May when a team came to support their church plant. The shower trailer was parked at Mililani Baptist Church. The shower unit was used for seven days with daily showers by 29 people, with no problems at all. Several volunteers were trained to use the shower unit during this project. We are very thankful for the volunteers who spent many hours finishing the construction, so the trailer is now available for ministry use.

SEND Ministries HPBC DR is partnering with SEND ministries to pre-stage 2,600 ready-to-eat meals. The pallet of food was received in May and is currently stored at the HPBC office. This will enable DR to rapidly get help to those in crisis should the need arise. Partnering with SEND enables DR to have a broader reach and continue our mission of “Bringing Help, Healing, and Hope” to those in need.

VOAD Our partnership with VOAD (Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster) continues. Gay serves with the Emotional Spiritual Care sub-committee, and John serves with the Work Groups sub-committee. Gay led the VOAD response to the flooding on four Hawaiian islands in April 2021. Volunteers from multiple local government and non-profit agencies worked together to render aid to those affected by the flooding. HPBC is a significant partner with VOAD in Hawaii.

SEND Conference, SBC, DR Roundtable In June, we attended the SEND Conference, Southern Baptist Convention, and Disaster Relief Round Table in Nashville, TN. NAMB and the IMB are officially partnering in global crisis response. At the DR Round Table, we participated as directors with DR, NAMB, and IMB leadership in creating memorandums of understanding regarding global response, logistics, and resource sharing. We feel this is especially important for the many churches we serve in our convention. We look forward to seeing how this will expand our DR response.

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