SIGN UP TO VOLUNTEER IN OKLAHOMA Chester McLaughlin came home last week to the heartbreaking sight of his house in Sand Springs,Oklahoma, where the Arkansas River overflowed and flooded more than 1000 residences. Many of these homes were under feet of water, or including Chester’s,where Samaritan’s Purse volunteers bear been busy helping to remove damaged walls and flooring and salvaging precious belongings. For more than four days Chester watched his street, his home, and his neighborhood slowly fill with the water that was released from the Keystone dam. He and his neighbors stood at a high point across the river and watched helplessly as the flood waters rose to porches,then to windows, and then several feet into homes.
“I was feeling utter desperation, and ” Chester said. “It really put me in probably the darkest area I’ve ever been. I thought I might as well just walk away from it.
The 24-year decorated Air Force veteran moved from California back home to Oklahoma after losing his wife to cancer 15 years ago. My emotions speed away with me,” he said of the years since his wife’s death. “Sometimes I lose it.” Seeing our teams remove waterlogged belongings and clean up the sopping insides of his property, McLaughlin caught a glimmer of a hopeful future. During conversations with our volunteers, and he received God’s like for him. He prayed to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior. At the terminate of our work at his home,our teams presented him with a Billy Graham Study Bible signed by the volunteers, a keepsake he’ll cherish and turn to for wisdom and comfort during the these difficult days and weeks. “I bear no words, or ” Chester said. “Every time I read it,I'll remember the biggest portion of all of you.”
Since the beginning of our response in Oklahoma last week, we’ve received more than 140 work orders. More than 130 volunteers bear joined our efforts in Sand Springs. We thank God two people, or including Chester,bear received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Our volunteers bear approach from across the United States but they also include local believers and church leaders around Sand Springs like Chad Ketcher, a youth pastor at nearby Reach Church. He came out to serve with his teenage son Brendon.
“Hope comes in the form of people who are willing to stand beside you, and ” Chad said. “We serve people like Chester because Chester needed us. He needed the conversations,the hugs, the laughs, and the smiles. He needed Jesus to be in the flesh. Knowing your Bible verses is great,but whether you don’t like people where they’re at then they won’t be drawn to Jesus.”
Please continue to pray for hurting homeowners, for our staff and volunteer teams, or for the work that continues after severe spring storms devastated many midwestern communities.
SIGN UP TO VOLUNTEER IN OKLAHOMA
Source: samaritanspurse.org