Samaritan’s Purse Deployment to St. Louis, Missouri (Ferguson, Missouri) 9/12 to 9/17/2022
This was our 2nd trip to this flood relief deployment. As I mentioned last time, these folks feel like they’ve been forgotten in this area because of all the national media attention directed at Kentucky’s recent disasters.
We were able to serve 5 different homeowners during the time we were there and 4 of those 5 were single mothers or widows with no other means of assistance.
All these individuals were very thankful for our help and you could see their countenance change when we showed up..They had been experiencing hopelessness and helplessness in the face of how their basement looked full of water and mold. All of these individuals that we served were physically unable to do the work due to various disabilities.
One lady in particular comes to mind. Over the last several years she has had 7 strokes and 7 heart attacks and her legs were extremely swollen. We were able to clear out her basement and get it ready for reconstruction and to present her with a Bible and pray with her. She was very appreciative in her own way; She is one of those people that has a very hard time receiving help and she was constantly joking with the group in a good way. I reminded her that she must still be alive because God must have an amazing plan for her life. She agreed, but was not sure what His plan might be. We were able to pray with her and give her a Billy Graham training center Bible which she was very blessed to receive.
Another woman we ministered to comes to mind as well. She was a retired University professor whose husband of 35 plus years had just recently left her for a college student. She is a woman of great resilience and she established a foundation in the name of her 5 year old daughter who was killed by a drunk driver several years ago. She has used that foundation as a source of hope for people to get help concerning addiction and trauma in their lives. And she again is another person who is used to helping everyone else but has a hard time receiving help from anyone herself. She is a strong believer in Jesus Christ and shares The Gospel regularly with her neighbors and those whom she helps through that foundation. She also has severe health issues that prevent her from doing the work that we were able to do in her basement and I have attached Before & After photos of Her basement. She was absolutely overjoyed with the Billy Graham training center Bible that was presented to her and told us she was going be a “social media star” promoting the work that samaritan’s purse is doing. She also gave a brief testimony concerning how God has been working in her life. She was absolutely devastated after the flooding while looking at her basement in despair because all of her adult children have basically abandoned her and she didn’t know how she was ever going to be able to clean all that stuff up. On a previous morning to our arrival she was in desperate prayer crying out to God asking him For help. In the middle of that prayer the phone rang and it was Samaritan’s Purse calling from the church locally asking if she needed help with her house. She was absolutely overwhelmed and had to take a moment before she could even talk to the person on the phone but but was able to arrange for our visit. So she told us we were an answer to her prayers and we told her that it was our greatest honor to be an answer to her prayers….. So we all wept a little bit but it was with joy.
There are many more examples of how God did things of this nature but space here precludes mentioning them all. Suffice it to say God is at work in Saint Louis and Ferguson in the darkest place shining his light through Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains. We indeed were able to see or hear about Some of these homeowners we ministered to coming to faith in Jesus Christ. And we also heard of those who rededicated their life to Christ when Samaritan’s Purse was at their house…. And we count all of this an incredible privilege.
Thank you for all of your prayers! God most certainly heard them and acted upon them!