BGEA Chaplain: A Piece of My Heart Is Forever in Orlando Now

By   •   June 21, 2016

Crisis-trained chaplains with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team are providing a ministry of presence in the aftermath of the shooting in Orlando, Florida. Fifty people were killed and another 53 injured in the June 12 mass shooting that officials are calling the deadliest in U.S. history.
Chaplains have been offering emotional and spiritual care, notably at memorials.
Crosses are set up in memory of the 49 people killed during the mass shooting.
The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team is on site ministering to people in Orlando.
“We’ve got chaplains down there that don’t want to go home,” said Jack Munday, international director of the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team. “They just know that’s where God wants them to be. Every day it seems like the layers of opportunity keep opening up for ministry.”
This memorial is set up outside of Orlando Regional Medical Center.
Praying at the memorial.
Chaplains offering emotional and spiritual care at a memorial.
"A piece of my heart is forever in Orlando now," said chaplain Kelly Burke said of the deployment.
A chaplain prays with someone at a memorial site. Chaplain Kelly Burke said he often shares Psalm 73:26 when talking with people at the memorial sites. “It says my heart and flesh fail, which to me is the reality of life that sometimes life is too much,” Burke said. “It’s too hard to comprehend. The evil’s too wicked, the harm’s too heavy, the hurt is too deep. I realize in myself I can’t fix this. … But the verse goes on to say, ‘But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. That’s what I need, and that’s what I have, and that’s what I hope to share whenever I go on any of these deployments or do any ministry like this.”

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