We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Randy Johnson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Randy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
In 1999 when I prayed for God to use me, I never could have imagined the plan He had for the next 25 years – not just the plan for my life, but the ministry He would create through God’s Pit Crew. From the very beginning, God’s Pit Crew has been about serving people while fully leaning on God’s guidance. It was the suffering, displaced people of the deadly tornado in Oklahoma that first led our crew to respond and help, and now 25 years later, it’s people that keep driving our mission forward.
We meet a lot of people in the darkest times of their lives after a tornado has torn away everything they own, or a hurricane has unleashed torrential rain saturating their belongings beyond recognition… but we meet a lot of people stepping out in faith to lend a helping hand in the most devastating of times, too.
What started 25 years ago with a prayer, a group of friends, and borrowed trucks and trailers has grown into a leading disaster response organization sharing the Lord’s grace and love with millions of people. We will forever be grateful for each and every person that sows into the ministry, and we look forward to the next 25 years of God’s Pit Crew.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
25 years ago, Randy and Terri Johnson stepped out in faith to answer the calling upon their lives to help the people of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who had been tragically affected by one of the largest tornadoes in recorded history. With no prior experience in disaster relief, the couple did the only thing they knew to do, picked up the phone and began calling their local Virginia friends to collect bottled water, food, and other necessities.
Randy had an extensive background of motorsports involvement when this first trip was formed, so the original convoy response to Oklahoma included race car trailers and borrowed trucks to get the collected product halfway across the nation.
Randy and Terri returned home feeling accomplished, not knowing that this was only the beginning of something much greater. Only weeks later, hurricanes barreled into the Carolina coastline, and the crew gathered to respond yet again with donated relief product – but this time, they would rebuild a home for an elderly man who had lost everything to the storms.
Piece-by-piece throughout the years, God’s Pit Crew has grown into the leading disaster response organization it is today.
It began with the Immediate Disaster Response Team that rallies together to provide needed resources to disaster-stricken areas and begins the cleanup process. This team may have originated with borrowed gear, but today the God’s Pit Crew fleet consists of over 80 pieces of equipment. From tractor-trailers to excavators and everything in between, this team shows up ready to help!
Then with the addition of the Rebuild Team – which originally rebuilt Brother Bess’ home in Greenville, North Carolina, after Hurricane Floyd did its best to destroy everything – this branch has now provided 85 homes, schools, and other structures to people recovering from disaster.
Another important arm of God’s Pit Crew is certainly found within the Blessing Bucket department which has grown immensely since its beginning! What started as a neighboring church’s initiative to efficiently help others in need, quickly grew into a way to provide critical supplies to millions of people tragically affected by disaster. Blessing Buckets were originally packed in a church basement, and today hundreds of volunteers join to fill them at God’s Pit Crew ministry headquarters in Danville, Virginia, and also in states across the nation using our mobile assembly tractor-trailer.
In addition to our disaster relief efforts, God’s Pit Crew also has a Regional Distribution Team that serves our neighboring communities throughout Southside Virginia and Piedmont North Carolina on a bi-weekly basis. This team has grown within the ministry, too, now fueling other local nonprofit partners to serve more than 32,000 community residents per month (providing food, water, hygiene items, diapers, and much more).
Take a closer look at the expansion of God’s Pit Crew over the past 25 years, and how the ministry is continuing to provide hope, healing, and restoration in times of disaster – all thanks to the many supporters, volunteers, and prayers that drive us forward into the next quarter-century.
Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?
At God’s Pit Crew, we maintain strong, ongoing relationships with a wide network of community officials and ministry partners both across the nation and around the world. These connections have been built through decades of consistent networking and collaboration.
Once a new connection is made, we keep the conversations going – working together to grow, improve, and ensure we are ready to respond at a moment’s notice when help is needed. This network of partners not only helps us serve more communities but also amplifies the God’s Pit Crew brand, spreading the word that we are here to help, whenever and wherever needed.
This approach has fostered brand loyalty by showing that we are not just a one-time resource, but a reliable partner in times of disaster and crisis.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
God’s Pit Crew Founders, Randy and Terri Johnson, made the decision to sell their personal business they had built and lived on to go full time with God’s Pit Crew after only five years of sowing into the nonprofit they had created. When they made this decision, some of their best friends cautioned them that they might be making a big financial mistake. “You sir, have just made the most foolish decision of your life,” said their longtime personal friend and legal advisor. Indeed, selling – and practically giving away – a business they spent more than a decade building made absolutely no sense to most people.
The days following the closing of the sale of the business turned into a series of life-changing whirlwinds literally and figuratively! The ink had hardly dried on the contract when Hurricane Katrina struck the United States Gulf Coast in all her devastating fury. Almost 200-square-miles were affected by Katrina, inflicting tragedy either directly or indirectly on no less than 15-million people.
As the God’s Pit Crew ministry was transitioning to full-time status, Randy had maintained one 20-foot trailer they had from the beginning and had managed to secure a tractor-trailer rig and a pickup truck. These would provide the starting point for God’s Pit Crew to respond to Hurricane Katrina. Situated on a highly visible K-Mart parking lot in Virginia, Randy gathered volunteers and put the word out that supplies were needed. Within a day, every inch of space was filled and vehicles were still backed up down the highway, ready to donate water, snacks, or cleaning supplies. It was nothing short of a miracle!
One of the biggest whirlwinds of that day, though, came when Randy was trying to navigate everything quickly happening in that parking lot. The phone never stopped ringing. People were lined up. Trucks and trailers were being filled. But into this whirlwind walked the city’s Emergency Services Director, Doug Young. An experience leader, trained in emergency management, Doug knew just what needed to be done.
Taking Randy by the arm, Doug insisted, “Randy, you are coming with me!”
Speechless and confused, Randy and Doug left in Doug’s car, later arriving at a nearby hotel where an already prepared room with large white erasable marker boards and several telephones awaited.
“Randy,” said Doug, “I want you to sit down right here. From now on, all you’re going to do is make the decisions. The volunteers out there will do the rest.”
So for hours on end, Randy directed the operation from that command post as families, businesses, churches, and corporations brought to them far more products than they could have ever imagined.
The “most foolish decision” of Randy Johnson’s life – leaving his business and going full-time with God’s Pit Crew – has led him to over 25 years of incredible leadership and service with the ministry. And, by the way, the legal advisor who once suggested Randy’s ministerial naivete has since apologized in light of the ministry’s success.
Contact Info:
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Image Credits
God’s Pit Crew