Rapid Response Team Louisville Update

Heart Stories From the Field

August 28, 2009 - Billy Graham Rapid Response Team (RRT) chaplains, along with Samaritan's Purse, continue to minister to those within the flood-ravaged area of Louisville, Kentucky. Below are two of many stories that show what God is doing through this deployment.

Church at the Track
RRT chaplains were invited to attend a service at Church Hill Downs by Chaplain Ken, who has been serving the track employees. The horse track was flooded and the staff was demoralized.

Since every Sunday is such a busy day they are working and do not attend church, Chaplain Ken holds Monday night combined services with both Spanish and English speaking people. After the worship, the congregation separated and went into two different locations for a service in their own language. The RRT chaplains began to offer books and Bibles to those present in the services.

As it turned out, several had lost their homes in the flood and another family had just buried their son who committed suicide. One man asked for prayer as he just found out he had stage four cancer. The RRT chaplains walked around afterwards and ministered to the workers by sharing God's love through encouragement and the hope of Christ.

The Calming Effects of the Holy Spirit
Jennifer's tremendous needs were brought to the attention of Samaritan’s Purse and the RRT last week. With a drug and alcohol history, Jennifer’s abusive husband had been jailed for 60 days. She was nine months pregnant and was flooded out of her apartment. She was also dealing with an angry, verbally abusive landlord.

A new woman's shelter was located for Jennifer, her apartment was cleaned out by Samaritan’s Purse, and her belongings were moved to a location where a storage unit was rented for her for two months at no cost. Through her conversations with the chaplains, she received Jesus as her Savior and is committed to raising the child herself (her seven other children were all raised by others due to her addiction).

The priority for this morning during her move out of her apartment was to keep two violent personalities apart – Jennifer and her landlord. Jennifer was with one RRT chaplain in the car while another RRT chaplain was with the landlord Joyce in her house.

God worked in a miraculous way in each situation to calm the women and diffuse the situation. While the chaplain was with Joyce she rededicated her life to Jesus and a sense of calmness and forgiveness replaced the tremendous anger that had occurred between them.

When the Samaritan's Purse team was finished moving Jennifer's belongings, they commented on how different the situation was and the calmness that God had brought about in a very difficult situation.