Congratulations to Bill and Sue Hoops, long-time disaster relief volunteers from Winfield (Pa.) Baptist Church, who received the Joel W. Phillips Outstanding Achievement award, which recognizes outstanding volunteer ministry, at the annual Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) roundtable Jan. 24-26 at North Jacksonville Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida.
The Hoops were among around 200 leaders and volunteers who took part in disaster relief leadership training and information sessions. Participants were honored at an awards banquet, where several awards were given for distinguished service, including the Robert E. Dixon Lifetime Service award and the Joel W. Phillips Outstanding Achievement award.
The latter award is named after Joel W. Phillips, one of Southern Baptist’s national disaster relief coordinators who authored several SBDR training manuals and is credited with modernizing NAMB’s Disaster Operations center with state-of-the-art technology.
Bill Hoops, PA/SJ chaplaincy coordinator and communications coordinator, has served several years as a disaster relief chaplain and has assisted the Baptist Resource Network in caring for its pastors. Sue has been a strong administrative support.
“Bill and Sue continue to just offer and give, and offer and give, and serve and, do it again, and they never asked for any recognition,” said Kenton Hunt, PA/NJ Director of Disaster Relief. “Most of the people in PA/SJ know them here, but he has offered his knowledge and skill across the nation.”
Hunt said Bill is credited with revitalizing the ham radio ministry of SBDR and has helped with trainings in other states, including New England, Maryland/Delaware, and West Virginia.
“Bill and Sue are an inseparable pair; they are utility players (play any needed role, like incident management, shower/laundry), which makes them very valuable to me,” Hunt said. “They are a gift to us!”
Bill said he loves disaster relief because it is such a visible ministry to those affected by disasters.
“They see people feeding people. They see people pulling trees off of houses. They see people cleaning up mold from basements,” he said. “For that reason, there are more salvations arising out disaster relief than most ministries.”
