CCM Disaster Response to Southeast Texas Flood in Livingston, Texas

CCM Disaster Response to Southeast Texas Flood in Livingston, Texas

The following is a summary of events for the week of 5/19/2024 through 5/26/2024.

I was deployed to the area surrounding Livingston, Texas as a Chaplain with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team serving alongside Samaritan’s Purse to minister to homeowners who had been impacted by historic flooding.

I had originally been scheduled to go to South Carolina for a Samaritan’s Purse deployment from 5/17 through 5/22; but when this announcement came up for Chaplains to Texas, I felt a strong compulsion from the Lord to tell them I could serve. Then once I was told I was going, I got a call from Samaritan’s Purse telling me that the response to South Carolina had ended early, so there was no longer a need. It is interesting that The Holy Spirit gave me that strong prompting, knowing that the South Carolina response was indeed ending (but I didn’t know that). And this theme of the Holy Spirit directing was so very strong throughout this deployment, more so than maybe many of the other deployments I have been on. There was just one strategic event after another that all lined out during my time there in Southeast Texas; and not just in my case, but in the case of the Chaplain Coordinators, the Samaritan’s Purse Teams, and the Samaritan’s Purse Site Leadership Team. And on all the  deployments I have been on in the last 11 years the Holy Spirit has always done this, but in this case it was unmistakably strong.

This area of Southeast Texas (Polk County and the surrounding ones) was impacted by extremely heavy rains associated with a storm system that traveled through here on it’s way to spawning several tornados in Oklahoma and Iowa. In this particular area, I had heard differing statistics like 10 inches of rain in 24 hours, or possibly 12 inches. And what was particularly distressing to all those impacted by this storm was the fact that another storm almost as strong hit just 4 days after this one…..so when people were just beginning to see some progress in coming out of that disaster, they were hit again. Some of their stories will be summarized shortly, but first I wanted to give some more background information.

The primary impact area was an area known as “The Bottoms”. It is an area south of the city of Livingston, below the dam on Lake Livingston. Lake Livingston is a very large reservoir formed by three rivers flowing into it. The rain was so substantial on that first storm that the reservoir had to open all 8 of their floodgates to relieve the stress on the reservoir. In doing this, the river rose to such a level as to flood the majority of the low lying area below the dam as they had no choice in the matter. We drove by this outlet from the reservoir on a daily basis and they consistently had 6 of those 8 gates still wide open.

One of those 8 gates also caused some major erosion in the dam itself and they were having to shore it up with excavators putting in large rock….so this dam was in danger of failing at the height of that second storm system. In the words of the Samaritan’s Purse summary on their volunteer website, it was described as “flood waters after days of torrential rain fall which created historic flash flooding, along with massive damage to the infrastructure and hundreds of homes.” The damage is widespread enough that Samaritan’s Purse is scheduling out to July 6^th, which is a longer than average time span for these types of responses.

We spent almost all of our time in this area known as “the bottoms”. It is an area that consists of very modest homes, many times very old manufactured homes, RV’s, or Travel Trailers. Many of the people living here are on very modest incomes, and many are just flat out poor. So, this makes it very difficult for them to repair their homes and/or replace them. Many are not insured, or if they are, they have extremely high deductibles on their policies so as to make repairs from their own resources almost impossible. FEMA did declare the area as an officially designated Federal Disaster, so that opened up resources to help from that agency. The process with FEMA is a complex one, with many twists and turns, and often by the time all is said and done, the aid is not really enough to meet the need. They do provide immediate help in the form of housing vouchers issued through Red Cross that give people a place to stay, but those typically are only valid for 14 days….and that will not be enough time for most folks to get their homes in habitable condition again.

So let me recount a few of the meetings we had as Chaplains with the homeowners.

First, I am reminded of a man we will call “Brock”. He, his wife, and their adult son moved to this area just before the storm hit. They came from another area of Texas, and had saved their money up so that they could buy a lot in this area of “The Bottoms” and purchase a very modest Prefabricated 2 bedroom, 1 bath home. They brought the home in, had it placed upon a pillar foundation 6 feet high as per the standard in the area, and had just purchased their appliances. They moved their appliances in, and were picking out furniture for the inside of the home when the flood hit the first time. Even though their home was more than 6 feet off the ground, it was filled with at least 4 feet of water. Brock and his family are strong believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it was very apparent in their attitude. He looked me in the eye and said that he believes that “everything happens for a reason”….and that he and his family had moved to this area by the Holy Spirit’s direction to evangelize the area. And even at the time of this visit, he was helping one of his neighbors out. He believes that he and his family will be used mightily by God to lead folks to Christ. This man’s faith exhorted me greatly! He and his wife were completely at peace, even though basically all of their personal belongings were destroyed. He laughed though when he told me that his newly purchased big screen TV which had a couple feet of water on it still worked! He said that this was a blessing from The Lord, and that he was looking for more to come…..

I think of a young lady who had worked hard in order to purchase a large 5^th Wheel Trailer for she and her daughter to live in. They lived just about a half mile from Brock’s family on the next road over (by the way, all the roads were dirt/gravel in various states of navigability). Samaritan’s Purse had tarped her roof on that unit to prevent any further damage from future rain and had helped her remove all her belongings that were ruined. Chaplain Doug and I had some difficulty in connecting with her because the property was not habitable, but we eventually got a meeting set after a couple of postponements and no shows. It seemed that the enemy was really resisting us on getting together with this person. But we ended up meeting with her and her dad. So, in discussion with her and her dad, we found out that neither one of them had ever made profession of faith in Jesus Christ. They had a relative that had been “bugging them” for years, but they had resisted. But chaplain Doug encouraged them to be open to what God wanted, and that is a personal relationship with Him. So, Doug pulled out the Steps to Peace with God Tract that we use on these deployments, giving each of them one to look at, and took them through it. When he got to the end of the tract that has the prayer to receive Christ, he asked each of them individually if they were ready to take that step, and both of them said yes! It was an amazing thing, because early on in the conversation it sounded like they were not going to be open because of that persistent relative…but God overrode all of that history, opened their eyes, and they chose Christ.

The next day, it had been decided that we would purchase popsicles for each of the Samaritan’s Purse teams to refresh them out in that heat. (It was on average in the low 90’s every day, but the humidity was anywhere from a “low” of 65% to a high of 98% !) It was oppressive to say the least!)  So, Doug and I went to Wal Mart with our ice chest ready and picked up a large bag to give out. We had been delayed in getting out of the church because of a meeting, so we felt like we were running behind, and began to feel the self inflicted time pressure upon our day. We felt bad about not having gotten out yet to visit the teams in the field and the homeowners…but God had another plan. While I was putting the popsicles in the ice chest out in front of Wal Mart, a woman came up behind me and very meekly asked “Excuse me; but is there any way you can help me?” Her name was Annie, and she was homeless, living in her car. So, we engaged her in conversation and found out a little of her story. She was living in her car because she had been living in New Orleans taking care of a terminally ill relative at the request of her family. She moved from her home in Wisconsin down to New Orleans for that purpose, giving up her home there and her job. The family paid her for taking care of the sick relative, and she made enough to get by on, but no more than that. But when the sick relative died, her family told her to move out of that house as they were selling it. They made no provision for her with respect to getting her into another place, they just said “you’re on your own now”. This seemed a little harsh, but at that moment, suspecting there might be more to the story, I let that go.

We began to talk about the peace that Jesus can bring into a life, and she was interested. So much so, that she continued to ask questions, which led to me sharing the Steps to Peace with God tract. And at the end of that reading of it together, I asked her if she was ready to make that decision to choose Christ. She said very pointedly “YES!” with tears in her eyes, so we prayed together and she gave her heart to Jesus. Her countenance was completely changed and she immediately had peace in her heart. She had asked us for money, and we told her that we do not give money out as a practice, but we could help her get some food (and she did). After all of this, I looked her in the eye and said “Annie, is there anything else you are struggling with right now?” And in tears, she said yes, I struggle with Alcohol. I suspected there was some kind of impetus behind the family so abruptly putting her out of that house…..and she admitted that she had been drinking heavily for about 3 years. So, I asked her how long she had been sober, and she said two days. I told her that 2 days of sobriety are reason to celebrate, and then spoke on the sovereignty of God in all of this. She just happened to be at that Wal Mart parking lot at the same time as we were; she is from Wisconsin, by way of New Orleans; Doug and I are from California. Also from Divine Design, Chaplain Doug and I have both been delivered by God from Life Dominating Sin…..So God had her come there at just the right time to “run into” us; and we decided to stop in to Wal Mart at that same time. I looked her in the eye and said that God has the power and wants to deliver her from Alcohol Addiction if she will allow Him to; and that the reason she had those two days of sobriety was so that she could be cognizant enough to understand the Gospel and come to faith in Christ. We pointed her to the church we are based out of that is just up the street, and I  spoke with her about Celebrate Recovery, or some other Bible Based recovery program. She said that her case worker had already been at work getting her lined out with a meeting, so I encouraged her in that. She left us joyful and at peace, determined to live for Jesus now and not the Alcohol. So as of this past year, the Billy Graham organization decided to implement what they call a follow up process, wherein the Chaplains that lead a person to Christ are to make a call or visit with the individual two times subsequent to their profession of faith. And all of this is in addition to the base church following up as well. So, I called Annie two days later; she told me that she was still sober; that her joy had not subsided; and she had been very busy reading the new Bible we had given her. We prayed with her again, and she was very grateful for everything.

We also had the privilege of leading another soul to Christ. In this instance, Samaritan’s Purse had three work orders under one name. They came out and tarped the roofs of all three dwellings for this woman. We will call her “Michelle” She is a volunteer firefighter, and the Emergency Response Manager for this area of Polk County. She lives in one of the homes, her mother lives in one, and her aunt lives in the other home, all on the same piece of property. She, her mother, and her aunt all are joint owners, and had been that with her father, who died about 1 year earlier. All 3 were still suffering from grief over his death, as it was unexpected as her father appeared to be in good health and was very active….but suffered a heart attack and a stroke from which he did not recover.

In Disaster Response ministry we call this “the storm before the storm”…..In any event, after talking with Michelle and her mother at length, we found out that Michelle is indeed a Believer, and had made a profession of faith several years earlier; had served in a local church as a leader and youth pastor, but was not in church at the time of our visit. She did not elaborate much just to say that there were certain “improprieties” at that church and at two others she had attended….so as far as she was concerned, she was done with churches. She did not doubt her faith at all and let us know in no uncertain terms that her faith has gotten her through not only this disaster, but all that she deals with in her work, and the grief surrounding her father’s death. So, chaplain Doug asked her if it would be alright if we took her and her mother through the Steps to Peace with God tract, and she agreed, as did the mother. Mom had stated that she was a Christian as well, but when we asked her to describe how that came about she could not point to any specific point in time where she surrendered to Christ. So, as Doug took them both through that tract, at the end, he asked them each if they wanted to pray that prayer, and if they believed what had been discussed within it. Michelle said she knew, and that she was already saved, but Mom said “you know, I think I need to do that!” So she prayed with Doug and I and committed her life to Jesus….and the daughter was overjoyed and weeping along with all of us. Doug and I were convinced that the daughter had been praying for her mom for years to come to faith in Christ, and this was her day!

One other note about God’s sovereign involvement in this whole deployment (And I could go on for several pages). When the Chaplain Coordinator began to search for another location for our Mobile Ministry Center Vehicle to be placed, she thought maybe the local Wal Mart would be a good spot. We typically park it at a FEMA Disaster Response Center or some other Public agency, but our Coordinator felt a prompting from the Holy Spirit to go to Wal Mart and talk with the store manager. Well, you guessed it, the Store Manager was a strong Christian and said she would love to have our vehicle parked on their property as long as we needed to! And that became a part of our daily ministry going forward, each of the chaplain teams taking turns staffing it. We indeed had many conversations and prayer times with people who were coming and going from that Wal Mart, and if space allowed, I could speak more about the sovereign design behind all of it and some of the conversations that came about with Chaplain Doug and myself engaging with those who stopped by.

Our 6 member Chaplain team had many other instances of folks coming to faith in Christ, as did the Samaritan’s Purse teams/Leaders but I will limit this discussion to what I have included here.

Please be in prayer  for the community of Livingston, Texas as well as the Chaplains, the Samaritan’s Purse Volunteers, and the host church, First Methodist Church of Livingston.

And, by the way……this Disaster Site will remain open for at least another 5 weeks, so if you feel led, follow God’s promptings, you will not regret it! I am in prayer now considering if we might gather a team to serve with Samaritan’s Purse here sometime near the end of June…..so stay tuned!