Crisis-trained chaplains with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team are ministering in the Nashville, Tennessee, area alongside Samaritan's Purse. A deadly tornado swept through the Music City region on March 3.
Edward Graham, Franklin Graham's youngest son (pictured center), visited and prayed with homeowners on Friday. Edward Graham serves as assistant to the vice president of Operation Christmas Child for Samaritan’s Purse.
"Our hearts break for those in the Nashville area who have been devastated by these tornadoes," Franklin Graham shared on Facebook last week. "Samaritan's Purse staff and volunteers are already on-site and working. We have deployed three disaster relief units and equipment, and are set up in Nashville, Mt. Juliet and Cookeville. We also have Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains on-site ministering to the communities. Pray for those who have lost so much to these storms—especially the families who lost loved ones."
"We love you, and Jesus loves you more than we ever could,” Graham told the homeowners during a quick break in the recovery effort.
The truth of Jesus' love was new information for homeowner Canh Dang Duc. A veteran of the Vietnam War, Duc talked at length with the chaplains and kept flipping through the Billy Graham Training Center Bible he received.
Volunteers left encouraging Scripture verses and notes in the Bibles for homeowners.
"Tennessee—America at Its Best" is the slogan the state's General Assembly adopted in 1965. Residents all across the Nashville area bear that out as they help one another during this time of crisis.
A sunny warm spot and a quick nap is all this pup needed. Family members—even the ones with fur—are walking through the aftermath of the storms.
Volunteer chaplains are carefully selected and trained to demonstrate the compassion of Jesus Christ and appropriately share God’s hope through the One who “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3). Learn more about becoming a Rapid Response Team chaplain.
“I would thank the tornado because without it I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet these people. I believe God sent you to help me,” Canh said after praying with Billy Graham chaplains Gena Small and Gwen Word and receiving aid from Samaritan’s Purse.
The March 3 storms were devastating, but some homeowners are finding peace in the aftermath. Please keep this community in your prayers as recovery efforts continue.
