LAKE CHARLES, La. – Ever since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast over Labor Day weekend, Brent Trueworthy has been running on hurricane time – unpredictable, unscheduled, full of false starts and unexplained stops. Still, as part of an international faith-based disaster relief group, the 58-year-old Brewer resident has done a lot for the suffering residents of coastal Louisiana and Mississippi.

Earlier this week, Trueworthy and his partners – 43-year-old Chris Brown, his 21-year-old son Roy Brown, and his 31-year-old brother-in-law Tim Collins, all of Poland, Maine – were highballing south from Maine to the Gulf Coast in a couple of semis, hauling pallets full of donated food, water, clothing, toiletries and other necessities of daily life to the stricken area. This was the group’s second trip to the region since the beginning of the month.

“There are just so many things other agencies aren’t doing,” Trueworthy said Wednesday during an interview in his 1996 Freightliner on the road between Baton Rouge and Lake Charles. “We do procurement, transportation, distribution and on-site ministry. We try to help people get their lives focused and back together.”

In addition to transporting supplies gathered in Bangor, Belfast and Auburn, the truckers stopped in Unity to pick up a self-contained 8-person housing trailer owned by the National Emergency Response Team, and in Burlington, N.J., to pick up several pallets of diapers. The pastor of the Burlington First Christian Assembly, former Old Town native Ronald Marr, graduated from the Faith School of Theology in Charleston with Brent Trueworthy.

Trueworthy, pastor of the Newburgh Full Gospel Church, is also the operations director and only staff member of the northeast regional office of New Beginnings National Disaster Relief. A second office is located in Jacksonville, Fla., and headed by former Bangor resident Phil Robinson. Now retired and living with his wife in Jacksonville, Robinson is the former owner of the Red Barn R.V. Park in Holden.

New Beginnings is just one of dozens of faith-based groups in the United States that support disaster relief efforts around the world coordinated by the Missouri-based organization Convoy of Hope. As Hurricane Rita lashed the coast of Southeast Louisiana on Saturday morning, Convoy of Hope trailers were converging on a shopping center parking lot in Lake Charles, along with trucks full of supplies from all over the country and busloads of volunteers from Wisconsin, Texas and Alabama. By Sunday morning, they were open for business – the first relief program on the ground.

Even people from other relief efforts that were just getting up and running, including the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and the National Guard, were driving through the Convoy of Hope site to replenish their supplies of ice, drinking water, toiletries and other needs.

With daytime temperatures in the 90s on Wednesday, Convoy of Hope volunteers loaded up an unending line of vehicles, taking every opportunity to make eye contact with weary residents and ask, “How are you getting along? Do you have someone to help you out? Where’s your family?” Volunteers offered information on insurance, shelter, medical care and more, and if appropriate, a 30-second prayer.

“When people are in a situation like this, they need someone to reach out to,” Trueworthy explained. “Some people need to know there’s someone else who cares; I promote Jesus.”

The generosity of Maine people was well represented Tuesday afternoon as Trueworthy’s trucks got unloaded. But volunteers stacking and receiving the supplies also were critical of some of the contents that came from the Good Shepherd food bank in Auburn. Box after box contained a high percentage of sugary snacks, tubs of frosting and bags of candy, including chocolate bars that were melted by the relentless sun by the time the pallets hit the ground. There were also cleaning supplies that seemed ludicrous in the ruinous circumstances, including quantities of furniture polish and Scotchguard upholstery protector.

“People are well-intended, but I wish they’d think before they donate stuff,” said one tired worker from Texas as he sorted through the materials. “The people here need real food, not junk food and candy. They don’t care about polishing their furniture; they’re wondering where they’ll sleep tonight.” The best donation, he said, is always cash.

Though his partners from Poland left for Maine Wednesday morning, Brent Trueworthy stayed in Lake Charles, waiting patiently to drive a batch of supplies across the state line into Texas, where Convoy of Hope was setting up a new relief site. He strode through the busy site like a pro, answering questions, finding needed information, tracking down specific requests. Clearly in his element, he had a friendly smile and a bit of chitchat for everyone, his clipped Maine inflection a breath of cool, fresh air in a humid pool of more languorous southern accents.