As wildfires continue to burn in Canada, crisis-trained chaplains with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team are in Fort McMurray providing a ministry of presence to first responders and utility workers in the area.
Fires ignited there in early May, prompting mandatory evacuations and displacing thousands. First responders and utility workers continue to work in the area as old blazes are hushed and new ones erupt.
Because emotional and spiritual needs are surfacing alongside physical suffering, the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team (RRT) readily deployed at the invitation of the Canadian government. Jack Munday, RRT’s international director, said the chaplains have been permitted to stage its Mobile Ministry Center (MMC) in a prime area at the emergency operations center. This is the MMC’s first trip across the United States border as chaplains from both Canada and the U.S. deploy.
“The focus of the ministry is to the first responders and those who are attempting to get the city ready for the residents to come back,” Munday said. “We’re getting a lot of people who are visiting the [MMC] and opening up and recognizing that their needs are great. They’re exhausted and emotionally spent, and very open to prayer.”
Chaplain Mike Mattingly, along with his wife Pookie, drove the MMC from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, to Canada.
“Some of the things we’re running into is these first responders were residents or lived here, and they were hustled out of this place in a tunnel of fire just like anybody else,” Mike Mattingly said. “To be able to come back and do work here and not be able to go to their homes is a challenge for them. They’re struggling with that.”
Mattingly recounted how one worker was separated from her husband because she was in a different evacuation zone. Her husband, because of his location when the fire happened, was forced to evacuate north with their children. She was sent south.
“Just a lot of emotional trauma that’s involved here,” Mattingly said. “We’re listening to heartbroken stories and trying to lend a listening ear where we can.”
Prayer is one thing the entire community needs. In addition to lifting up first responders and municipal workers, chaplains are asking for prayer for displaced residents, many of whom anxiously wait to learn whether their homes are still standing.
“Please also pray overall for an openness to the Gospel,” Munday said. “That they would experience a relationship with Christ in such a way that they would experience that hope in the midst of their despair.”
Additional, experienced RRT chaplains from Canada and the U.S. are expected to deploy during the first part of June to coincide with the anticipated return of residents.
Until then, the small team of chaplains will focus on serving those in their presence and watching how God moves.
“God is always faithful,” Mattingly said. “And He always goes before us, and we’ll do whatever He puts in front of us.”
