The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team deployed to coastal Alabama after Hurricane Sally left a path of destruction across the region.
People are walking and driving up to the Mobile Ministry Center, which is parked by a Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Foley, Alabama. Residents are talking and praying with crisis-trained chaplains who are there to show God's love in the aftermath of the storm.
Hurricane Sally was the first hurricane to make landfall in Alabama since Ivan in 2004. The mid-September storm pummeled the Florida panhandle and southern Alabama. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
An aerial view of a business in Perdido Key, Florida, about 20 miles southeast of where the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains are deployed. (AP Photo/Angie Wang)
Elaine Hulgan describes the terrifying night she and her husband rode out the hurricane inside their home on the Florida-Alabama border. Chaplains often encounter people who didn't think they would survive a natural disaster and were forced to face their mortality. For those who have questions about life after death, the chaplains help point them to the promise of everlasting life through Jesus. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
So much has happened this year to cause trauma. Whether chaplains are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, the West Coast wildfires or hurricanes, they want to be walking, talking reminders that "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1).
While taking care to protect themselves and others from COVID-19, the chaplains aren't letting the pandemic keep them from sharing the love of Jesus Christ with people who need to hear how much God loves them. If you're struggling, call the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association's 24-hour prayer line at 888-388-2683 or go to PeaceWithGod.net to chat with someone who cares.
