Samaritan's Purse

I know I dropped off the blog planet but with tax season, Africa coming up and a tornado just a few miles down the street, well, I've been busy!

 

This past Sunday I was blessed to be able to serve with Franklin Graham's minstry, Samaritan's Purse. I was by some friends to provide them with feedback on my experience serving with them and am sharing that on here, as well....

 

Here is my detailed recap of serving with Samaritan's Purse on 5-1-11. I tried to pay close attention to all the details because I know many of you support this ministry or are considering serving with them so I want to make sure I cover everything. In a nutshell...they are amazing to work with!

 

When we arrived at the headquarters location we completed paperwork and were given Samaritan's Purse tee shirts that had to be worn or we would not have been let into Pleasant Grove. We had a briefing session going over OSHA guidelines, etc and then were split up into teams. My friend Lisa has served with them the day before so she already had a team that I joined. Our team leader was an experienced volunteer from North Carolina.

 

Samaritan's Purse helps people that request their help. My team of about 30 or so went to Benny and Renee Jackson's home. We had to drive our own cars or carpool to get to their house. Benny was at work. He works at the BJCC. We had to show military our ID's to get into the Pleasant Grove community. Mrs. Jackson shared her story with us when we arrived and we prayed for her. A team of ladies went in her home and packed up stuff from her kitchen, living room and a bedroom that was salvageable. Another group cleaned up debris from her yard, swept her porch, etc, and the men with machinery experience cut trees and put tarp on her roof. She did not want us to pick up the any of the roofing, debris, broken glass, etc in her home because she wanted insurance to see the mess. The smell inside her home reminded me of the Guatemala city dump.

Many of the homes around her were completed leveled. Her home appears to be salvageable, though. Mrs. Jackson plays the piano at her church. She had never heard of Samaritan's Purse but she was greatly appreciative of us and called us her angels. We spent a lot of time talking with her while on site and she and I are now Facebook friends. Our team leader allowed a few of us to walk around the neighborhood for a few minutes to pray with people, as well. On Saturday Kaitlyn, Madison, Jett, Zeke and Elly helped me make packets of supplies (fruit cups, water, soap, wash rag, snacks, etc) on Saturday afternoon and Lisa's 5^th grade Sunday school class made prayer cards for the packets. So we gave the people we met one after we prayed with them. So great that the body of Christ worked together to get these packets ready for delivery!

 

We approached a site and a lady was standing on the pile of what once was a home. We asked if it was her home and she said, "No, it used to be my mothers. She died along with my aunt." We spent a few minutes talking with her. Her father and uncle were at the home and were alive. Her mother was a Christian, but she isn't sure if her aunt ever trusted Christ. We prayed with her. Her name is "Aunt Kay."

 

After we walked around we met back at Mrs. Jackson's house and everyone on the team signed a leather Bible and we presented it to her and prayed with her before we left. We went to one other site for about 30 minutes where we picked up yard debris from a man's home. I did not get to interact with him much because we weren't there for long and were in a hurry because we had to finish at 5.

Serving with Samaritan's Purse was truly an amazing experience. I knew that I wanted to serve individuals victimized by the storm but wanted to make it personal. Serving with this organization certainly allowed for that. I canceled my annual Steeplechase trip to Nashville for next weekend so I can serve again. I'm even considering working just a ½ day on Friday so I can join a team Friday afternoon.

 

Teams meet up at 7:00AM and 1:00PM. For more information visit www.samaritanspurse.com. You can make a financial donation or sign up to volunteer on their site, as well. If anyone from out of town would like to come and serve next weekend you are welcome to stay at my house. Items I think are most needed include: rakes, brooms, trash bags, baby food and supplies, clothing, tarp, medicine etc. I think they most organizations have plenty of water, Gatorade and snacks.

 

Please pray for all the victims, including the Jacksons, and for wisdom and strength for those that are helping.