Having worked with a Samaritan's Purse Disaster Relief team in
Terrace in 2007, I knew that their extensive experience would
greatly assist our city in recovering from our January 2009 severe
weather event. After my initial call to the Samaritan's Purse
office, our case was dealt with in a timely fashion and an advance
team member arrived late the next day.
Little did I know that by calling Samaritan's Purse for
assistance I would also receive relief assistance from Mennonite
Disaster Services and the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team! This
team effort provided our affected citizens with a complete line of
relief services that allowed them to move down a path to recovery.
With the assistance of the composite team, our Community Resilience
Centre was truly able to provide "one stop" services.
The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team's work in our Community
Resilience Centre reduced the often overlooked psycho-social impact
of a disaster on our clients and staff."
- James MacDonald, Emergency Program Coordinator and
Assistant Fire Chief - Chilliwack, BC
In the spring of 2008, we saw flooding at a magnitude that we
haven't seen in over 30 years. The recovery phase was our greatest
challenge since we were not equipped to deal with this type of
disaster. Samaritan's Purse is extremely self-sufficient, as they
come with the staff, resources, and tools needed to do their job.
They also recruit and coordinate all local volunteers.
We had no idea that Samaritan's Purse Disaster Relief services
and the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team exist in Canada. Their
disaster relief efforts provide not only the physical work to clean
up people's homes, but the Rapid Response Team emotionally supports
the community, allowing people to vent, or talk about their issues
and problems. A lot of people are scared of church-based
organizations, and they have preconceived ideas of what they would
be like. It wasn't like that at all, and the community was
extremely pleased with the emotional support and compassion they
received.
As responders, we had no idea how draining these circumstances
would be for our community. But the two organizations understood
people's frustrations and met them where they were at. I would
recommend to any municipality in this country facing crisis or
disaster that these are two organizations you should look at.
- Jody Price, Fire Chief - Oromocto,
NB
In 2007, the City of Terrace experienced flooding at levels that
had not been seen for 30 years. Our city's ability to respond to
the needs of those in the flood plain areas was quickly
overwhelmed. After a short phone meeting with the Billy Graham
Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse, they deployed to
our area and delivered an incredible amount of support to our
response and recovery operations.
The work done over a six-week period by Samaritan's Purse's
Disaster Relief team and the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team
chaplains was outstanding. I would not hesitate to include them in
future responses and encourage other communities to add both teams
to their disaster response plans as a key resource.
- Peter Weeber, Emergency Program Coordinator and
Fire Chief - Terrace, BC
BGRR is indispensable to those who want to learn how to
sensitively and insightfully support someone who is going through a
crisis. Immediately after the training, I encountered a young man
who had recently lost his wife to cancer. Because of the training,
I was able to offer the practical response of a listening ear and
an encouraging word of validation - instead of hesitating and being
unsure of what to say. Thank you for helping me to have the courage
to enter into someone's suffering.
- Dawn Robertson, Rapid Response Team
Member