Andrew* walked up to the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team’s tent stationed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with his head down and shoulders dragging.
It’d been four days since the derecho hit. The intense storm brewed for 90 minutes in the area with 100-mph winds pulling trees down left and right, including a massive one onto his roof.
“How are you holding up today?” asked chaplain coordinator Cathy Nordgaarden. Part of the Rapid Response Team, she drove four hours from her home in St. Louis, Missouri, to lead a group of chaplains in offering emotional and spiritual care to the recovering community.
“Not good. Everything’s a mess,” the older man admitted, grabbing a chair.
He explained that his son was being released from prison that day, but Andrew hadn’t seen him yet. In fact, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to see him.
Nordgaarden listened intently as Andrew continued to open up about his past. When he was a teenager, Andrew participated in church services and Bible studies, but he was eventually hurt by the church. That incident changed his life forever and sent him into a spiral of living in sin.
>> See photos from the deployments in Iowa.
“Do you remember the story of the Prodigal Son?” Nordgaarden asked.
She explained how a son squandered his inheritance and lived among pigs before returning home, where his father had been graciously waiting for him.
“It’s the same for you today,” Nordgaarden said. “No matter what you’ve done, God has a place at His table for you. He’s been waiting for this moment.”
Andrew shook his head, saying she didn’t know all the horrible things he’d done since the “incident.”
“That’s what Jesus’ blood shed for. He’s a healer,” Nordgaarden continued, but Andrew struggled to let go of his wrongdoings. Using a metaphor of a caterpillar crawling through the dirt, Nordgaarden explained how people live in sin before being forgiven by God.
Mistakingly, Andrew thought she was talking about the bulldozer brand, Caterpillar, and they burst out laughing.
Still, the chaplain was able to share her point: “When I said a caterpillar turns into butterfly, does it want to look back on its old life or enjoy the day?”
“That caterpillar will never look back,” Andrew responded, recognizing it could be the same way with his past. Still, that didn’t completely resolve the gap that had grown between him and his own son.
On a previous time his son was released from prison, the two had agreed to meet for a meal. Andrew had waited at the restaurant, but his son never showed up.
“My heart sunk and cut in half,” Andrew said. “When I got home, I found he had ransacked my house and stolen so much from me. I don’t know if I can trust my son in another visit.”
Nordgaarden assured him that God could give him peace. “Can I share with you what you’ve been missing?” she asked.
“Yes, I need to know,” Andrew responded.
Pulling out a Steps to Peace with God booklet, they read the pages of Scripture together. Nordgaarden shared that Jesus offers freedom from sin, like a prisoner set free from captivity.
“I absolutely want all of this,” Andrew said at the book’s end. The two read the sinner’s prayer, and Nordgaarden said, “If you have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior—”
“Yes, yes, yes,” Andrew interrupted.
“Then you have the Holy Spirit,” Nordgaarden said.
“I didn’t even know I could feel this love again,” Andrew said, signing and dating a piece of paper recording his decision to follow Christ.
August 21. He smiled as he read the date—a time of freedom for both him and his son.
Before parting ways, Nordgaarden gave Andrew two Bibles and a Steps to Peace booklet, telling him, “You could be the one to witness to your son about Jesus Christ. If you can get this to your son, God will use it in a mighty way.”
*Name changed for privacy.
