Farmers respond in Christian love after devastating fire

By Rena Smith

After receiving word of a devastating wildfire in Oklahoma, one United Methodist man and his friends responded in Christian love.

Dean Hutto is a member of Providence United Methodist, Holly Hill, and is no stranger to natural disasters. In October 2015, a storm left Hutto’s farm under 18 inches of rain. He lost all of his cotton crop and 80 percent of peanut crop.

“I know how it feels to be effected by disasters, and I wanted to do everything I could to help,” Hutto said.

Hutto teamed up with some friends— Davis Peeler, Jesse Misckelly, Phillip Honea, Ken Jordan, Case Chumlley, Steven Long and Landon Smith, members with him of the South Carolina Farm Bureau—to travel 2,800 miles to help one Oklahoma farmer in desperate need.

Hutto and the men rebuilt the Oklahoma farmer’s 50-mile fence and replaced his hay for livestock.

“I saw the fire on social media and that a young farmer had died, Cody Crockett, and it all snowballed into us helping repair the fencing,” Hutto said.

Wildfires across Oklahoma consumed more than 1 million acres of land. With the help of the farm bureau, Hutto and his friends were also able to donate $1,900 to help the Oklahoma farmer.

The men gathered in prayer and Scripture on the last day, reading 1 Corinthians 15:58: “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”