Mark Wakefield said when he called Becky Noland with the request, her response was, “You’re joking, aren’t you?”

But he wasn’t. Mark, who serves as Alabama Baptists’ state disaster relief strategist, had just gotten a call from Mississippi Baptists asking for a favor. It was a Friday evening, and they asked if Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief (ABDR) could have a team in place on Sunday to start preparing 3,200 meals a day in the community of Rolling Fork, which had been hit by a large and deadly tornado.

“It was going to take a lot of volunteers on short notice,” Mark said. “Becky leads our feeding crews on a volunteer basis, and I told her to start calling people and I would get my counterparts to pray for God to provide the people.”

And God did — 17 ABDR volunteers were in place in Rolling Fork the next day. Mark said he was grateful for their willingness to go — and also grateful that it was possible because of the volunteer network that’s trained, safety screened and ready to go, thanks to the Myers-Mallory State Missions Offering.

“Having an infrastructure in place, having resources already around and having trained volunteers makes all the difference,” he said.