10 | May 2026
Called to Serve: Bringing Hope and Healing When Disaster Strikes The photo album on John Heading’s smartphone is filled with prized pictures—every one of them worth exponen- tially more than just a thousand words. By NAMB Staff Writers
“Any kind of disaster really knocks down the walls that people put up, and so many times, because we’re often wearing a vest that says, ‘Chaplain,’ all it takes to make a gospel conversation happen is just walking down the street.” April 2025 Flooding in Cincinnati, Ohio “Michael got saved on a Monday.” When he first met him 24 hours earlier, John would’ve never expected that to be the opening line in his story about the 2025 Cincinnati flood. After all, his first en - counter with Michael was relatively business-like. “When SBDR first shows up at someone’s house, it’s just to assess the damage and see what can be done,” he says, “so I met Michael on Sunday when I went with an SBDR team to assess his house. Michael had cancer, he was doing chemo, he could barely walk, and he was really struggling. But that day, our conversation didn’t really go into spiritual things. It was really just, ‘Tell us what you need, how can we help?’” The next day, when an SBDR team and two more chap- lains returned to Michael’s house, they discovered the previous day’s conversation was actually more spiritual than John realized. “Those chaplains started talking to Michael and realized God had been working on him overnight,” John says, “so they began to tell him how this flood—you may nev - er get over it, but there is a way through it, and that’s through a relationship with Jesus. They explained to him how Christ is the one who will give you hope and heal your heart and soul.” “Michael made a profession of faith that day, and when I saw him on Tuesday, he was a changed person. His ex- wife was there, and he was telling her about the gospel. One of our chaplains ended up leading her to Christ as well.” “We saw transformation right in front of us, and that’s the
“I’ve got pictures like nobody’s business,” he says. “Pic- tures of people we’ve worked with and prayed with, pic- tures of people who’ve made professions of faith, pic- tures of people I will never forget—and there’s something beautiful and unforgettable behind every single one.” In his work as a disaster relief chaplain and Disaster Relief Director for the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio, John has amassed not just an extensive collection of personally priceless pictures, but a mental library of beautifully unforgettable redemption stories.
An Ohio DR team deploys to Spain after massive flooding in Valencia.
October 2024 Flooding in Valencia, Spain “Not long ago, we were sent to Spain to work with a disaster relief team who’d been asked to help clean up after a terrible flood,” he says. “More than 200 people had been killed, and one day a man came to me and said he’d just walked into a building and saw a little girl with a backpack on who’d drowned. I asked him how he was doing, and all he could say was, ‘I’m fine, I guess.’” “What do you say to that? That’s the challenge that comes with being a disaster relief chaplain.” A flood in Spain, a hurricane in Jamaica, a mass shoot - ing in Texas—almost anytime, anywhere there’s a natural or manmade disaster, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) teams are there, ready and willing to point peo- ple towards help, hope, and healing. But the chaplains who travel with many of those teams are often the ones who get the most opportunities to explicitly share the gospel. “Even though all SBDR volunteers are trained in evan- gelism, most of them need to focus more or less on the chainsaw job, cooking food, or mudding out,” John says. “But the disaster relief chaplain is trained in trauma care and can just meet people, talk with them, and hear their stories.”
Michael accepted Jesus Christ during a DR deployment to flooding in Cincinnati.
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