Chaplaincy Deployment
Jacksonville, NC
Recently we completed a 7-day deployment to Jacksonville, NC, with the BGEA RRT as chaplains in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. It was an amazing experience! We were housed by Port City Community Church who were outstanding hosts! Our team consisted of 5 other chaplains from as far away as Tulsa, OK. All of us had previous experience in the mission, pastoral and/or chaplaincy areas. Our days were filled with prayer, listening, caring and bringing the love and hope of Jesus to broken and traumatized lives. It is a profound experience to step into another’s trauma and loss. Each set of chaplains was assigned 2-3 Samaritan’s Purse work teams made up of 10-12 volunteers to follow throughout the day to the homes that needed help. There was lots of black mold that had to be remediated, furniture and belongings hauled to the curb, drywall removed, roofs tarped and yard debris removed, including huge trees. The SP teams were tireless and many of the local residents came to help their neighbors. We also had the privlege of praying with some of the SP team members, especially those in our sleeping areas. The men slept on the third floor, the women on the second. The best part was the opportunity to lead a few people to a renewal of or first time commitment to faith.
We met some whose joy in the Lord and His assurance was tangible and spilled over on all of us. Some were struggling with their faith and with personal problems that the storm only made worse. One young woman we met was married to an ex-marine with a severe case of PTSD which affected the family greatly. She was also diagnosed with PTSD because of the severity of his. We spent about 1 1/2 hours with her - encouraging her to go back to church and get involved so that she could have a praying "family" around her. Another woman we met had a tiny house with no insulation in the roof which had to be completely covered with tarp. She was taking care of her 90 year old mother who has dementia. The fruit of being able to sit and talk with her and some others resulted in salvations or rededication of their faith. We even had neighbors coming out and requesting prayer and were able to pray for people in restaurants and cars! It was one of the most incredible weeks we've experienced and can't wait to be deployed again - even if we did have to sleep on air mattresses on the floor!