By Tim Bullard
Correspondent

   CONWAY, S.C. -- Shortly after the Athens-based Sarepta Baptist Association celebrated its 200th anniversary, some of its members were working to help this town northwest of Myrtle Beach to recover from flooding caused by Hurricane Floyd.
   On Wednesday morning, a van full of Baptists from Athens, all affiliated with the Sarepta Baptist Association -- a group of 72 Baptist churches in Northeast Georgia who team up for various mission projects -- arrived in Conway as flood relief volunteers.
   The association celebrated its 200th anniversary Sunday at the Classic Center in downtown Athens, its members jamming the 2,100-seat theater.
   In Conway, the Sarepta volunteers are working as part of the Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief Team in conjunction with the Waccamaw Baptist Association, a Conway group.
   The first volunteers to arrive in Conway began their work by assessing damage, deciding what needed to be done, and what they could do.
   ''We're just an assessment team,'' explained Larry Mayfield, a member of Edwards Chapel Baptist Church in Athens. ''We have a full team coming in.''
   The Sarepta team remained in Conway on Friday, and it was not clear how long they would remain in the city.
   The team's presence was welcomed enthusiastically Wednesday by 76-year-old Lucille Allen, a resident of the neighborhood to which the Sarepta volunteers had been assigned.
   Other Baptists, from churches in North Augusta, S.C., were also working in Allen's neighborhood.
   Allen, leaning on a broom as she stood in a garage filled with home furnishings and her other worldly belongings, marveled at the people helping to repair her flood-damaged home.
   ''It's churches from all over,'' said Allen. ''They're doing it for free, and it can't be beat. Oh, Lord, I just think it's a godsend miracle. You just don't have the money. Somebody would charge me $25,000 to do this. I just don't have the money. I'm on a fixed income.''
   Members of North Augusta Baptist Church were working inside Allen's home and in the yard, cleaning up debris and using a pressure washer to spray the floor.
   ''When my husband died, I had a home in the country, and I sold it,'' said Allen. ''So I bought this house and moved into it.'' Allen has been spending alternate nights with her son and grandson since the flood.
   Joe Houseman, a member of Edwards Chapel Baptist Church, talked briefly as he worked about the spiritual dimension of the relief effort.
   ''It's a ministry to reach people in the name of Christ,'' he said.
   Bart Smith of Comer Baptist Church in Madison County described his disaster relief work as a calling.
   ''They (Sarepta representatives) told me about it (and) I left (my home) at 5 o'clock in the morning. God told me to. This is a calling for me. I love to come and help people,'' he said.
   Relief workers are staying at North Conway Baptist Church while working are in Conway.
   Tammy Yarbrough, secretary at North Conway Baptist, is impressed by the volunteers' dedication.
   ''I think it's wonderful,'' she said. ''They're helping people through it emotionally and physically.''
   The volunteers sleep in cots in the church's fellowship hall and take showers in a mobile unit brought in by the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.
   The Rev. Clyde N. Kerley of Conway Baptist Church is grateful for the assistance being offered to flood victims by the various Baptist groups.
   ''I think it's a marvelous thing for them to help. Lucille has been hit very, very hard, and she has lost a lot of things. She was hit as hard as anyone in the community. A lot of good will come out of our being able to help them. It makes you feel good to be able to help them.''