Gail and I just completed our fourth week working with teams to help homeowners in the Ft Myers area rebuild from Hurricane Ian. We’ve worked with some remarkable teams during that time, and seen some remarkable work done in homes. Yet all that has not been the highlight of this time. The highlight has been watching the spiritual impact of the response. As Scripture promises, the presence of caring, loving, and verbally Christian people does lead to questions, learning, and transformed lives.
Some years ago I read a book which described a good church as a field with a well at the center where people could come and drink “the water of life.” There were no fences protecting the well, but rather an open invitation for all kinds of people to get closer to the well, to Jesus. This is one of the ways I picture the spiritual ministry of Crisis Response.
The first element of ministry is connecting with others to help with their physical needs.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 5:16
In Crisis Response, this is the classic “mudding, gutting and rebuilding” that we undertake after a hurricane, tornado or flood. Gail and I have written often about these efforts to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We see these “good works” are a way of letting the light of Jesus shine through us toward others. Many of you who are reading this have also invested yourselves in these ways.
But we also need words to go with our deeds:
But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.
1 Peter 3:15
Katrina Welch puts it this way “If you love on someone long enough, they will eventually ask why.” We get to be not only the hands and feet of Jesus but the heart and voice of Jesus. We don’t lead with the Gospel, but it is never far from our lips. The first “gospel” thing we do is listen. We listen to the stories people tell of their experiences during and after the crisis. We also listen to the background stories, the crisis before the crisis, the struggles that almost everyone has even without a storm destroying their homes. This listening is incredibly powerful. Gail has written of this “trauma care” often.
The second thing we do (and it’s not far into our time with people) is pray. I think this is one of the most “attractive” elements of a response. We pray (with permission) when we hear people’s stories, lifting their needs and their hearts up to God. We pray with the homeowner when we arrive at a jobsite in the morning and before we leave in the afternoon. We take prayer walks after lunch and pray with and for other people we meet in the community. This is not “I’ll pray for you” but “Can I pray for you right now.” It is a powerful way to bring the reality of the presence of God into a moment with a person.
The third thing we do is speak of God and the Gospel. Often this is in response to the “why do you do this?” question. Sometimes it simple declarations like “there is hope” or “God loves you.” Sometimes it’s in response to the “why did this happen?” or “how can a good God allow this?” questions. People do ask for a reason for the hope that is in us, and we want to gently and respectfully point them to Jesus as the only source of hope and life.
The fourth thing we do is sustain relationships. Sharing good news and even rebuilding a house is not “one and done.” We find ways to continue interacting with people, often by just taking time to knock on their door when we’re in the community to say hi and catch up (and pray). We also invite people to Bible studies, to church, to our weekly community dinner, to celebrate the completion of other people’s homes or (this week) to a pickleball clinic.
Here in Ft Myers God has used this simple “doing and relating” approach to make amazing differences in people’s lives. Gail and I easily listed a score of people who have either moved closer to Christ, become believers, or moved closer to becoming believers. Here are just four quick examples:
Betty returned to the well. She had lost her son tragically nine years before, had been angry with God and stopped going to church. Now, through conversations before and during her rebuild and through Bible Study, she says “God sent this storm to draw me back to himself.
John has come to the well for the first time. We’ve told his story before. He has found Christ after eighty years with no church or Christian involvement at all. But then, after the storm, he says “God showed up in my driveway” in the blue shirt and green shirt disguise of Crisis Response staff and volunteers.
Valerie is moving closer to the well. We’ve only recently begun work in her home, though we first met her some time ago. She didn’t start out very open to spiritual things and had a rather dour way of interacting. But just in the last few weeks, she has become more open, more happy, more willing to pray with teams and just this week she said that she was going to begin coming to Bible Study.
John and Kate are also moving closer. I told the story of a day working in their home a few weeks ago. John, I mentioned, has trust issues. But gradually his trust is growing, as he sees the good work we’ve been able to do in their house. The week following that post he allowed us to continue the work even though he and Kate had to go up to Chicago for medical reasons. Part way through we called to introduce the team members working in their house that week, to check on his doctor visits and to pray with them. At the end of that phone call John himself prayed a prayer of thanksgiving and petition. And the following week he went out of his way to report that he’d been praying on his own for the teams and the staff.
Jesus is the well of life. It’s thrilling to see people coming to him and toward him.
Thanks for partnering with us on this adventure. If you would like to support our ministry financially, visit Giving: Bob and Gail DeGray. All gifts are greatly appreciated. If you want to be on our frequent pray-ers team, just drop us an email, a text, or reply to this post.