Chuck and Sandy Bender made a cross-country trek from their home in California to lead a team of crisis-trained Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains in flood-ravaged Johnson County, Kentucky.
The Benders arrived at about 6:30 p.m. on Friday, with plans to begin ministering to the community first thing in the morning.
“Then we got a call that they found the last body,” Chuck said.
The call came around 9:30 p.m. An emergency management official knew the chaplains were in town and wanted to know if they could immediately come meet with the family of the man who had been found. Scott Johnson was 34 years old. He had been missing for several days, since rushing waters swept him away as he tried to rescue his grandmother.
When Chuck and Sandy arrived at the scene, they immediately noticed Scott Johnson’s mother on the bank of the creek, watching about two dozen local men work to recover her son’s body.
“I just walked up and I looked at her face, and she just fell into my arms,” Sandy said. “It was a ‘God thing.’ I just held her and she cried. She knew that her boy was there. We talked about him, and she told me the stories about him and what a hero he was.”
Sandy listened as Johnson’s mother described her son’s actions the day of the flood—how he saved several relatives and a family friend from the rapidly rising waters before going back for his grandmother, who didn’t survive.
As Sandy comforted the mother, Chuck was spending time with the men who faced the difficult task of recovering the remains from the muddy creek bank.
“It was a privilege,” Chuck said. “I consider those times privileges because that’s when people are at their rawest, most hopeless, most helpless. To be invited into a situation like that is an honor in my book. So we were able to pray and just stand by them.”
A total of eight crisis-trained chaplains have been ministering in eastern Kentucky since the floodwaters receded. Several chaplains have been stationed at the Rapid Response Team’s Mobile Ministry Center to talk and pray with people who come by. Others have been going out into the hardest-hit areas as sister ministry Samaritan’s Purse assesses the damage and assigns crews to help residents clean up and rebuild.
“It’s amazing—this is a little creek—the damage and what it swelled to,” Chuck said. “It became a huge river. People had moments to get out; this thing happened so quickly. And people didn’t have flood insurance because it was a little creek.”
An estimated 150 homes were damaged or destroyed. In one mobile home park, the Benders said 23 of the 26 homes were washed away.
Between material losses and the loss of life, the small community is hurting badly.
But the Benders, who have responded to disasters including Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 Haiti earthquake, know there can be hope in the midst of the toughest times, through the power of Jesus Christ. Their mission is to remind people of that hope as they serve the community however they can.
“God does his best work at the darkest moments,” Chuck said. “This community has come together. People are loving each other, taking care of each other, helping each other. Out of this whole thing you’re going to see a community tighter than it’s ever been.
“It’s an honor to be here.”
