Storm destruction in Southwest Georgia turns into ministry opportunity

Jan. 08--+1

Storm destruction in Southwest Georgia turns into ministry opportunity

Disaster crews from Samaritan's Purse and Billy Graham Rapid Response Team sit at the former Coca-Cola plant owned by Sherwood Baptist Church on Friday while helping with relief efforts following Monday night's storm. (Staff Photo: Jennifer Parks)

ALBANY -- A woman living in one of the heaviest hit areas of the storm that devastated the area Monday night received some generosity from a group of strangers whose help made it financially feasible for her to better recover from the damage her property sustained.

It came from one of the many groups that saw the situation as a ministry opportunity.

Mary Kinnel, 71, was asleep in her home Monday evening when her son called to make sure she was awake. Shortly afterward, a tree fell in front of her home, blowing out her windows and denting her roof. She once had a gazebo in her yard that has now been lost.

When the storm was over, she had the task of finding a way to get the trees out of her yard. Insurance would not cover it, and she got estimates from two different people in the thousands of dollars.

Not long after, a rapid response team from Christian Aid Ministries -- an organization based out of Berlin, Ohio -- knocked on her door and offered to clear out her yard for free.

"They had me fill out a form, and they came back the next day and in three hours it was completed," she said.

Kinnel said she was convinced that it was the Lord who sent that team to her door at a time the recent holiday season and a death in the family would have otherwise made it even more difficult for her to recover. She saw it as a blessing.

"I had chills," Kinnel said. "I was in tears of joy because it floored me. It was a lifesaver for me. It is a financial savings for me, and it took the stress off."

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Storm destruction in Southwest Georgia turns into ministry opportunity

A tree rests on a power line in the Rawson Drive area. A volunteer crew from Christian Aid Ministries, based in Ohio, was on the street last week helping clear yards at no charge following heavy storms on Monday evening. (Staff Photo: Jennifer Parks)

As of Friday morning, Kinnel's lights were still off and her insurance company had not been out yet. Until an adjuster arrives, she said she was content on using the fireplace in her living room to stay warm while various church groups bring in food and water. As a member of the American Legion Auxiliary, she has had people from the Legion also bring food.

When the Christian Aid Ministries team knocked on her door, they also left her with a kit that included hand sanitizer, toothpaste and first aid supplies.

While the organization is based in Ohio, it has response teams in 21 states, including Georgia. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the Georgia team put boots on the ground with the mission of helping with storm clean-up.

"We feel it is a worthy cause to help clean up," said Christian Aid Ministries Rapid Response Director Kim Eichorn.

Kinnel, a retired Dougherty County School System employee, said she regrets being in the position to pay a lot of money to get her home fixed, but she considers herself a survivor and knows it could have been worse.

"All of this stuff is replaceable," Kinnel said, "Our lives are not."

She has been offered the chance to stay elsewhere but wanted to make sure others experiencing hardship had a place to go.

"There are others worse off than me," she said.

Christian Aid Ministries is an Amish Mennonite organization largely consisting of volunteers who put in 150,000 hours of work each year at its warehouse, field bases, disaster response bases and other locations. It has staff and bases of operation in eight foreign countries and works in more than 100 other countries through a network of churches and contacts.

Albany officials said Saturday that about 500 homes in the city had power restored on Friday, leaving about 3,500 customers still in the dark following the powerful storm system that spawned nine tornadoes in Alabama and Georgia. The storms produced straight-line winds topping 85 mph in Albany and several twisters in the Southwest Georgia area, leaving trees in roadways as well as in and around structures, while knocking down electrical infrastructure.

As the coldest weather of the season hit over the weekend, shelters opened to provide those displaced a warm place to sleep.

Also Friday, Gov. Nathan Deal expanded his emergency declaration for Southwest Georgia to include Worth and Turner counties. The initial declaration issued on Thursday included Dougherty, Mitchell, Baker and Calhoun counties.

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