November 2025 | 9
Blue Sky Times in Disaster Relief By John Heading, Ohio Disaster Relief director
Sixteen Ohio DR volunteers worked together to clean and reorganize the DR storage garage at First Baptist Church, Groveport.
Ohio Disaster Relief exists to bring help, hope, and heal- ing to people in crisis. “To bring” means we deploy to fulfill our mission during “Dark Sky” periods, when disasters happen, and we stand up to help. You read about people receiving Christ and volunteers doing hard things for the sake of the gos- pel during Dark Sky events. But what happens in DR when there aren’t any disasters that require deployment? These are known as “Blue Sky” times. You might think we are sitting around waiting for a disaster to happen. Instead, we are busy doing the be- hind-the-scenes work that keeps DR ready to help. During Blue Skies, we get requests to assist churches and other organizations. Churches request to use a shower unit for a mission team coming to town. You might think that’s an easy one. However, deploying the shower unit requires the unit to be ready to go. Volunteers must fill the propane tanks, make sure the unit is clean and complete any needed maintenance on the unit. The shower trailer has to be dropped off, hooked up, and then picked up and cleaned again. The DR shower unit has been deployed six times in 2025 to help Ohio churches. During Blue Skies, we get requests from Ohio emergen- cy managers and other government agencies to support an exercise. One request this fall was from the Hamilton County Emergency Manager asking us to feed volunteers for an event on October 21. We agreed, and Carl Brown, Dayton Avenue Baptist Church, Xenia, led this effort.
This kind of deployment requires Carl to recruit a team, plan a menu, go shopping, and get the mobile kitchen ready to go. The unit requires propane and water to cook. It also requires all the same things you have in your kitch- en to cook for a large group of people. The mobile kitchen, like every DR unit, requires mainte- nance. Recently, it suffered significant damage that de - stroyed the exhaust vent outside on top of the unit. The fan assembly alone cost $1600, and we installed it our- selves. Does your garage ever get so full that you can’t walk through it? The DR garage at First Baptist, Groveport, was reaching that point, so we scheduled a day, recruit- ed many volunteers to clean it up, threw the junk in a dumpster, and fed the volunteers as well. Blue Sky times also involve training in all phases of di- saster relief. We also have to maintain every piece of equipment. Ohio Disaster Relief has four heavy-duty, diesel pickup trucks. To have the oil and both fuel filters changed costs around $500 each. Managing our Blue Sky times is necessary to be ready to deploy when disaster strikes. It takes faithful volun- teers and the financial resources to meet expenses, both planned and unplanned. Thank you so much for supporting Ohio Disaster Relief with volunteers from your churches, and for giving to the Cooperative Program and the Ray Roberts State Mis - sions Offering.
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