Graham met with homeowners and volunteers in the Lone Star State as our teams continue relief efforts at five locations across four states.
Graham met with Samaritan’s Purse volunteers at our work sites in Texas.
Graham was able to encourage and pray with homeowners whose lives were turned upside down in a matter of minutes.
Residents of Livingston, an hour north of Houston, endured heavy rains that triggered flash floods in early May forcing mud, water, and debris into homes. Our volunteers began working days later to help remove ruined belongings, walls, and flooring and salvage precious keepsakes from waterlogged homes.
Just two weeks later, tragedy struck again in the Lone Star State, this time in the Temple, Texas, area north of Austin. A powerful storm system May 22 spawned a tornado that ripped through neighborhoods, damaging or destroying more than 100 homes. Our volunteers are helping to tarp damaged roofs and remove trees and debris from properties.
“We want homeowners to know they have not be forsaken by God. They are not forgotten. That’s why our volunteers go,” Graham said.
A number of the homeowners he met lost everything, and this crisis hit in the midst of crises they were already facing in their daily lives.
“They need to know that we love them and that Jesus loves them,” he said.
Graham met with fellow military veterans and their spouses who were volunteering in Texas with Team Patriot.
Graham also met with Team Patriot volunteers who’ve joined our Texas relief efforts. These wounded veterans and their spouses are part of our Operation Heal Our Patriots community, which provides 180+ military couples each year with a week of Biblically based marriage enrichment training and wilderness excursions in Alaska. This is followed by a lifetime of support through our family care ministry.
The Team Patriot program provides these couples with opportunities to work on the frontlines of disasters through our U.S. Disaster Relief.
Graham visited the home of an Air Force veteran where a Team Patriot chainsaw team was removing a massive fallen tree from the roof and property. The spouse of one Alaska alumni veteran serving on the team was able to share what a blessing it was to serve a military veteran. She was also grateful for how God had used Samaritan’s Purse to save her marriage as they encountered Jesus Christ through Operation Heal Our Patriots.
“She told me God had restored her marriage, her faith, and her life,” Graham said. “And now she had pure joy being able to serve someone else.”
These Texas communities represent just two of several devastated areas we’ve been serving following a weeks-long onslaught of deadly spring storms across the middle and southern U.S., including tornado damaged areas of Florida, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. We recently completed storm responses in Indiana, Ohio, Nebraska, Iowa, Louisiana, and the Carolinas.
Please continue to pray for these still-hurting communities that they would experience God’s presence in their lives and that many would trust Jesus Christ for salvation as we continue to work in His Name.
