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This philosophy grew from standing in places where homes were gone, churches were filled with sleeping bags, and exhaustion arrived long before answers did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2005, Haney joined a disaster response effort in Gulfport, Mississippi, following Hurricane Katrina\u2019s devastation of the Gulf Coast. Katrina tore across South Florida before battering Mississippi and Louisiana, leaving entire communities unrecognizable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe were sleeping in a church building, in a Sunday school room,\u201d Haney said. \u201cThat first night, we just lay there overwhelmed by everything we had seen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What stood out wasn\u2019t only the destruction, but the realization that help didn\u2019t have to be grand to matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That same truth resurfaced years later, much closer to home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In April 2014, a tornado struck Lincoln County, destroying homes, churches, and familiar landmarks. Haney and his family were among those directly affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy home got hit. My son\u2019s house was destroyed. The church building was destroyed,\u201d he said. \u201cIt took us 11 months to get back home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That experience reframed how they approached disaster relief locally. It\u2019s one thing to arrive after the fact; it\u2019s another to understand what it means to lose everything and wait months for normal to return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hurricane Helene tested their readiness again after it struck North Carolina. Local churches and volunteers quickly organized supply drives, sending teams to serve on the ground while others stayed behind to collect, sort, and pack essentials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As word spread, more people asked how they could help. The more they worked, the more people wanted to get involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Helene also exposed a weakness: They weren\u2019t prepared enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt caught us completely off guard,\u201d Haney said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since then, preparation has become part of the work itself. Simply the Truth Ministries now holds monthly supply drives, storing resources in facilities once used for youth camp ministry. Supplies are distributed through partner churches in the William Carey Baptist Association and other congregations, creating a network that can respond quickly when disasters occur locally or elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That preparation is one reason Samaritan\u2019s Purse selected Lincoln Baptist Church as a host site for a disaster response vehicle. The vehicle adds capacity, but more importantly, it shortens response time, especially when roads are blocked, power is out, and help feels far away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Samaritan\u2019s Purse disaster relief efforts rely heavily on trained volunteers and site leadership teams. Haney and his wife, Tammy, serve in that capacity, helping coordinate teams, host training sessions, and support deployments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Samaritan\u2019s Purse also partners with churches locally through efforts like Operation Christmas Child, which many in the community already recognize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, disaster relief doesn\u2019t require everyone to travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When speaking to Simply the Truth Ministries, the message is consistent: There are three ways to get involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPray. Go. Send,\u201d Haney said. Pray for those affected. Pray for the teams serving. Go if you\u2019re able. Send support if you can\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe nature of what we do can be dangerous,\u201d Haney said. \u201cThe prayers always help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was especially clear during a recent trip to Jamaica, where travel delays turned a simple deployment into a logistical challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Airports cancelled flights due to the government shutdown, forcing the team to reroute through Atlanta and arrive days late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Knowing people back home were praying made the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Training and preparation remain ongoing. As a lighthouse-sending church with Samaritan\u2019s Purse, Lincoln Baptist commits to sending trained disaster relief teams at least once a year. Often, they go more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What keeps people coming back isn\u2019t the work itself \u2014 it\u2019s what happens in the middle of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEvery time we go out, we see God working in the lives of those who serve and those we serve,\u201d Haney said. \u201cThere is something very special about a stranger coming to help you in your time of need and asking for nothing in return.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Disaster relief doesn\u2019t erase loss. It doesn\u2019t rebuild everything overnight. But it shows up, sometimes with a truck, sometimes with supplies, sometimes with hands ready to help. Often, that\u2019s enough to help someone take the next step forward. GN<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DISASTER RELIEF rarely begins with a plan. More often, it starts with a phone call, a half-packed truck, and the question no one ever asks until it\u2019s too late: What do people need right now? In Lincoln County, that question has driven years of preparation, well before a Samaritan\u2019s Purse Disaster Response Vehicle ever pulled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":25283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/fayetteville\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/03\/1-2-1024x683.jpg\")
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