Randy Johnson shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Hi Randy, thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
Without a doubt – both, almost every single day lately. These recent storms have pushed God’s Pit Crew beyond anything we’ve known in our 26 years of serving. The depth, the scale, the speed of the response, it has all been bigger than ever. And yet, in the middle of all that pressure, I have felt an overwhelming sense of joy and pride.
What makes me laugh are the little moments in between the hard work like watching exhausted volunteers still find the energy to joke around at the end of a 14-hour day, or hearing our small staff say, “We’ve never done it this way before… but let’s figure it out,” and then watching them actually figure it out.
But what truly makes me proud is watching our team rise to the challenge. Our staff is small. Our volunteers come from all walks of life. And when these massive storms hit, everyone just steps up – no hesitation, no complaints. They link arms, adapt on the fly, and give everything they have for people they have never met. To see that kind of heart and grit, over and over again, is humbling.
These storms have stretched us beyond our comfort zone, but they’ve also reminded me exactly why this ministry exists. And yes, even in the middle of devastation, there is still laughter, still joy, and still a whole lot of pride in the people God brings together to do this work.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Randy Johnson, and I am blessed to be the president and founder of God’s Pit Crew – a leading disaster relief nonprofit organization. When I prayed in 1999 and asked God to use me, I never could have imagined the plan He had – not just for my life, but for the ministry that would grow out of that simple prayer. From the very beginning, God’s Pit Crew has been about serving people while fully leaning on God’s guidance every step of the way.
Our very first response was to the suffering and displaced families after a deadly tornado in Oklahoma. That moment marked the start of what would become more than 25 years of disaster response – standing in the hardest places with people who have lost everything. Today, just like then, it is still people who drive our mission forward. We meet families in the darkest days of their lives after tornadoes rip homes apart or hurricanes leave everything they own unrecognizable. At the very same time, we also meet incredible volunteers who step out in faith to serve strangers with compassion, strength, and selflessness in those moments of devastation.
What started with a prayer, a group of friends, and borrowed trucks and trailers has grown into a leading disaster relief organization, sharing the Lord’s grace and love with millions of people across the country and internationally. God’s Pit Crew exists to bring hope, healing, and restoration to those impacted by major natural disasters – and to remind them they are not alone.
I am forever grateful for every volunteer, donor, and partner who sows into this ministry. As we reflect on the last 25 years, we do so with humility and gratitude – and with great anticipation for what God will do through God’s Pit Crew in the next 25-plus years.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
One of the most defining moments of my life happened in 1999 after Hurricanes Dennis and Floyd hit North Carolina. I had gone there with other volunteers simply to deliver supplies and planned to head straight back home. God had something much bigger in mind, though. We met an 82-year-old man named Brother Paul Bess who had lost his home and everything he owned to flooding. Yet every day he returned to that broken house because it was the only place of comfort he had ever known with his late wife.
Before we left after dropping off the relief supplies, Brother Bess asked us to pray with him. Standing in that gutted, mold-covered house, he prayed with gratitude and praise to God – despite having lost everything. In that moment, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and said, “Randy, we can fix this for Brother Bess.” That night, back at home with my family, the weight of that moment overwhelmed me, and I knew God was calling us to do more.
Over the next eight weekends, a small group of God’s Pit Crew volunteers rebuilt Brother Bess’s home so he could spend one more Christmas there – a wish he had repeatedly mentioned to our crew. That experience changed the way I see suffering, faith, and obedience – and it ultimately became the spark that led God’s Pit Crew to rebuild and provide more than 115 homes, churches, schools, and other community buildings since 1999.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Yes, there was a season when I was truly on the brink of walking away. Around 2004, God’s Pit Crew was growing quickly, and I was trying to juggle full-time work in my personally owned small business while pouring 15 to 20 extra hours a week into the ministry. I was exhausted, torn between providing for my family and obeying the calling God had placed on my life. One night, completely worn down, I cried out to God and told Him I was quitting the ministry because I felt I had no other choice.
When I got home, I was preparing to tell my wife (and God’s Pit Crew Co-Founder) Terri my decision, only to hear her tearfully say she felt like quitting her own calling in children’s ministry at the time. In that heavy moment, our four-year-old son Jarrett spoke up while holding a melting cherry Popsicle and said, “That looks like the blood of Jesus. He died for me, didn’t He?” In that instant, God used the innocent faith of a child to remind us what real sacrifice truly looks like.
That night, Terri and I made a vow that we would not quit. Not on God. Not on our callings. A year later, after a serious illness and surgery, God gave me the clarity and courage to step away from my business and go full-time with no guaranteed paycheck – just faith. And for more than two decades, God has faithfully provided for our family and the God’s Pit Crew ministry.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. How do you differentiate between fads and real foundational shifts?
At God’s Pit Crew, we’ve learned that the only way to tell the difference between a passing fad and a true foundational shift is to stay rooted in the real needs of real people. Everything we do flows through the four branches of our ministry – Immediate Response, Blessing Buckets, Distribution, and Building Projects – and we intentionally evaluate all four on a continual basis to make sure we are truly meeting needs in the wake of disaster.
Our team meets often to pray, talk, and assess the work being done, the feedback coming directly from survivors and community leaders, and what is actually helping people move forward. That feedback is what guides our future response efforts – not trends, not what is popular in the nonprofit world, and not what looks good on paper. We want to understand what people truly need in that moment, not what might be considered the latest idea in disaster relief.
That constant evaluation keeps us flexible, grounded, and focused on our calling. It allows us to serve with wisdom instead of impulse, and with purpose instead of pressure. At the end of the day, real foundational shifts are revealed through long-term impact in people’s lives, not through temporary attention.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
For me, the honest answer is both – and that is only because of God’s faithfulness and His direction in my life. I was not born with everything figured out, and I certainly did not always have my life headed in the right direction. It was only through God’s grace and redemption that my heart and my purpose began to change. Those two things came together not through my own planning, but through obedience and trust in His leading.
There were many moments when the path did not make sense on paper, and plenty of times when the safer choice would have been to turn back. But every step forward was confirmed by God’s provision, His timing, and His faithfulness to open the right doors at the right moments. Looking back now, I can see how He shaped both my passion and my purpose long before I ever understood what that calling would look like.
So yes, I believe I am doing exactly what I was born to do – and exactly what God told me to do. And every single day, I am still relying on His direction to take the next step.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://godspitcrew.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/godspitcrew/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gods-pit-crew/
- Twitter: https://x.com/GodsPitCrew
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GodsPitCrew
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@godspitcrew
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@godspitcrew
Image Credits
God’s Pit Crew
