I have the distinct honor this week to work alongside 6
other amazing individuals from Torch Community Church whom I get to call
friends as we minister to those in New York who were affected by the Hurricane
Sandy disaster. We are serving with the well-oiled and Gospel focused disaster relief
organization ran by Franklin Graham called Samaritan’s Purse. My goal upon
arriving was to update everyone as to our adventure every night, but I didn’t
realize how busy and exhausted we would be! But what an adventure is has been,
and we are only half way through.
While I have a passion for missions and reaching out to
people who are genuinely in need, a large part of my hope for this trip was to
begin building into the DNA and identity of Torch Community Church the same
vision and passion for missions. I knew the best way for this to happen was for
the 7 of us from Torch to witness not merely the physical recovery we are
participating in, but rather to witness the spiritual recovery. So my prayer in
the weeks leading up to this was for us to discover the joy of being a part of
the process of someone’s salvation by one of the homeowners in whose house we
were working to accept Jesus as their Savior.
Well, that was my hope. But my plan was for us to be here
early Sunday night, get a good night sleep, and be ready to work Monday
morning. That was, until the left rear tire on our Suburban decided to explode
just outside Columbus, OH. And when it did, it severed the coolant hose that
ran adjacent to it. We can replace the tire with a spare, but we could not
drive 600 more miles without coolant. We took about 45 minutes to change the
tire (long story), and then drove the SUV to a T/A Truckstop off the next exit
and pleaded with them to help us out as they typically only service
semi-trucks. After explaining the purpose of our travels, they obliged, and
within another hour, we were back on the road all fixed up!
After only getting about 4 hours of sleep, we got up Monday,
and spent the day working for a lady who is a retired NYC police officer. We
spent the day completely gutting her basement. Her house was around 7ft under
water, and currently unlivable. She was very nice and even purchased real NY
Style pizza for everyone’s lunch! We took out drywall, insulation, toilets, and
a whole bunch of screws, getting her basement down to the framing to begin
dying out. Sand from the ocean water sat a few inches deep INSIDE her walls! As
we worked, the BGEA chaplains talked/prayed with her. And that’s when it
happened. On our first day, my prayer was answered and our first homeowner gave
her heart and life to Jesus!!!!! It gives me chills to think about.
But wait, it gets better! Tuesday, we go to a younger man’s
house who is a volunteer fireman. We do generally the same thing, except it’s actually
the first level of his house that was underwater rather than a basement. He
kitchen floor was still saturated with water as we removed the linoleum
flooring, a month after the hurricane. Let’s just say I’ll be OK if I never
remove another nail or staple out of a sub-floor. At the end of the job, I was
privileged to be the one to present the SP Bible to him, a gift they extend to
every disaster victim they serve. And we left as the BGEA chaplains stayed
behind and talk/prayed with him. Yep, you may already know where this is going.
We discover back at camp that when my Father wants to bless, He does so
abundantly, and my prayer was yet again answered in the first two homes we work
at. I can assure you, this isn’t normal or nearly that common! There’s been
dozens of homes work on these 2 days, 4 salvations, and we were blessed to be a
part of 2 of those. God is abundantly good.
Let’s just agree that I look forward to tomorrow’s
experience.
BJ Sanders
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