Denton, Texas — Coy Webb, Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief director, received the Robert Dixon award at the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief annual conference, in Denton, Texas, Jan. 23-27. This year, SBDR celebrated its 50th anniversary.

Webb was one of two Southern Baptist Disaster Relief leaders to receive the award, named after the founder of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. The award recognizes sacrificial service and lifetime achievement.

In 2016 alone, Webb, who has been with KYDR for the last nine years, was directly involved with the West Virginia floods recovery team, a team in Madagascar to assess the famine that affected 850,000, an assessment team for the famine in Lesotho that affected 1 and a half million people, and training in South Africa to help nationals there form and equip their own DR units.

“I’m just very humbled that my peers would even consider me for that kind of award,” Webb shared. “In many ways, I think it represents my privilege of working with so many great Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers.”

He continued, “Certainly if I was deserving of the award it’s because I have so many great volunteers who make me look very good. I’m very thankful for their work and service and it’s just a privilege to serve with them.”

Webb said that his favorite part of his work with DR is twofold: the volunteers and the opportunity it gives him to fulfill what 1 John instructs. “It gives us an opportunity to share the love of Christ in deed and in truth, to do something not only when people are hurting, but as we do something to share the love of Christ with them,” he noted.

In addition to Webb’s award, Carolyn and Jerry Gray were given the Distinguished Service Award for their service in 2016 on responses to the Mayfield tornadoes, Hurricane Matthew, and the West Virginia and Louisiana floods. The Grays, of Benton, are members of Zion’s Cause Baptist Church.

Representatives from nearly all the state Baptist conventions participated in the “Round Table” event at Camp Copass in Denton, Texas. Portions of the week focused on celebrating five decades of ministry efforts, looking at the present state of disaster relief ministry and discussing ways to involve more Southern Baptists in training events.

“Fifty years represents a significant event for us,” Mickey Caison, the executive director of SBDR at the North American Mission Board, told the group.

“Over those 50 years, we’ve responded to thousands of disasters, both domestically and internationally,” he noted. “As part of that, we’ve seen thousands of people come to Christ out of that environment of damage and destruction. As we move through that process, we’re able to see people come to faith.

“Because there were no Southern Baptist churches in their community, there was an opportunity for our associations and state conventions to start churches,” Caison added.

Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers responded to 16 disasters and were active in serving for 48 out of 52 weeks in 2016. For information on how to get involved in Kentucky Baptists’ disaster relief ministry, contact Webb at coy.webb@kybaptist.org. (WR)