Spiritual first responders

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LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday August 6th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: when disaster strikes, help comes in many forms.

In Texas hill country, historic floods swept away homes and took more than 100 lives. But for many survivors in other flooded areas in Texas, the most needed help wasn’t physical. It was spiritual. WORLD’s Todd Vician reports.

GRACIELA BRIONES: [Speaking in Spanish, explaining what happened]

TODD VICIAN: BJ Harp is a disaster relief volunteer.

BJ HARP: She said that this street right here gets underwater. And so she just thought that it was just going to be underwater like always.

She’s translating for Graciela Briones, who’s just lost her home.

HARP: And then she got out of bed and put her feet down on the floor, what she thought was the floor, and the water was already up to her knees.

It’s almost three weeks after the deluge, but Briones still vividly remembers the floodwaters that shocked her and the entire community that early morning.

HARP: The water was flowing so hard that even with her son and neighbor, it would knock him down, they’d fall into the water, and then they’d stand up for a few minutes. And then they came and got her with the walker and took her across the street, and they were able to sit down in a chair.

Briones and her husband raised their children in the small, one-story house they’ve lived in for 30 years. She’s calm as she describes to chaplains seated alongside her the rising water, rescue, and even how others responded that day.

For chaplains, disaster ministry is complicated but rewarding. They navigate emotions like fear, sorrow, regret, and guilt as they provide spiritual and emotional care. They get questions but don’t always have the answers. Most of all, they offer hope and healing to those hurting.

MELANIE HOWINGTON: Sharing your story, it's a very important part of the healing process. This is the first time she's been able to share her story and that's huge. As chaplains, that's what we're here to hear your story.

Melanie Howington is the state chaplain coordinator for Texans on Mission. That’s one of the many disaster relief teams on scene here. Howington has volunteered for about 10 years—the last 8 as a chaplain.

HOWINGTON: We call it the ministry of presence, you just be there. You just be there for them, and you sit and you listen, and you listen to the same story 100 times if you listen to the same story 100 times.

Hundreds of volunteer chaplains commit to spending 10 to 14 days in the field after a disaster strikes. Before deploying for the first time, they have to complete a 16-hour training program that helps them minister in different settings.

HOWINGTON: We talk about the people who are impacted, not only those whose homes are impacted, but the people who are working and the people behind the scenes as well. Your first responders, the family members, you know, the family members of those who have had a tragedy.

The training includes role playing during the various stages of grief, how to recognize when a survivor is emotionally drained and talking just might not help, and what to say and what not to say when praying with survivors.

HOWINGTON: You never, never dismiss their feelings, because it's very real and it's very hard and it's very tumultuous. And it's just up and down roller coaster everything, and you never discount that. You know it's not going in with this naive Pollyanna thing, oh, everything's going to be okay. You don't go in like that (right) because it is highly emotional for them.

Chaplains watch and listen for signs of concern in volunteers who sometimes think that showing any distress means they’re less capable than others are to serve.

HOWINGTON: If you know your team, you can pray for your team, you can know what's going on with them, you know, in the midst of all this and and there's these things called triggers that that people have where it reminds them of something, and then they're put they're all of a sudden, they're mentally off kilt you know, it's like things like that.

Bob Hourahan, or “Chaplain Bob” as he likes to be called, arrived in San Angelo after ministering to search teams and survivors in Kerrville. He says questions like, “Why did this happen,” or “Where is God in all this?” are common.

BOB HOURAHAN: Could God have prevented this flood? Yes. Could God have saved any victims? Yes. Why didn't he? I can't answer that. That's usually how it goes for me, and I'm assuming most chaplains as well, because we don't think the way he thinks, and we don't know what he knows. We just trust and follow Him.

Chaplains are good listeners. They’re trained to avoid immediately jumping in with solutions in the midst of recovery.

HOWINGTON: Sometimes they ask questions. They don't want answers. They're just asking questions, and you don't really, you know, they don't want the answer. They're just asking questions. They're venting.

Serving after a disaster can be exhausting. Long days, short nights, and bare-bones accommodations are the norm. Howington preaches self-care to her fellow chaplains.

HOWINGTON: You can't un-feel it. All that impact, those strong emotions, they're just—now they're part of their DNA. Does that make sense? It's part of them now. And you have to learn to just like first responders have to deal with it. Your chaplains have to come to be able to have to deal with that.

And Hourahan, who’s a retired Air Force master sergeant trained to take care of Airmen, keeps an eye on the volunteers in yellow shirts and dust-filled jeans.

HOURAHAN: Volunteers feel their pain. Volunteers are affected. You look around, there's 25 of us today. Some are brand new. This is their first call out. I have to bird-dog, if you will, be sensitive to their needs, their signs, because they may never experience somebody in so much pain or seen so much devastation.

Howington sums up their mission after a morning filled with prayers and encouragement.

HOWINGTON: People think if they can evangelize or they can preach they can be a disaster chaplain, and that’s not necessarily true. You're just trying to come alongside and just walk with them through a season.

SOUND: [Hammers and saws]

And sometimes that ministry of presence leads to something more. Graciela Briones, who earlier recounted being rescued, accepted God’s offer of salvation before the chaplains and volunteer workers left her house.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Todd Vician in San Angelo, Texas.

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