SPEAKER_03 0:05

At Houston, I saw there was a need for the position to be filled, and I was not fully confident I could do it, but I was confident that Christ was calling me. So to go in faith and to give and to trust. You know, I I said it before, I've heard it said many times. When you go work disaster relief, you're blessed beyond measure. You're it's unbelievable what you take away from it, what you're given.

David Nakhla 0:36

Welcome to the Reform Deacon, a casual conversation with topics specifically designed to help local Reform Deacons. There are nearly a thousand deacons in the open field. So let's take this opportunity to learn from and encourage one another. We're so glad you could join us. Let's jump into our next episode of the Reform Deacon. Well, on this edition of the Reformed Deacon podcast, we have uh some special guests. We are going to be covering the area of OPC disaster response. This is an area of ministry for the OPC that has been developing for the last 10 to 15 years. We've been delighted to see so many volunteers from our churches involved bring in a ministry of mercy uh in such a tangible way as disaster response to many in our churches who've suffered, and uh even those who are our neighbors. And so uh let me introduce to you our guests. We actually have three guests on with us. One is John Voss, he is a member of the Committee on Diacral Ministries. John is the chairman of the disaster response subcommittee of the Committee on Diacronal Ministries, has had a good bit of uh experience with helping coordinate disaster response and helping us think through how best to rebuild someone's house as they've suffered through this. John has a vast experience of construction knowledge and brings a lot of that to bear in our efforts. So we're very thankful for John. John, welcome to the to the program.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

Thanks, David. Glad to be here.

David Nakhla 2:13

And then we have uh Mike Cloy. Mike serves as a member of the Presbyterian Diagonal Committee of the Presbytery of the Southeast. And Mike has been one of our biggest champions for the development of the disaster response ministry in the OPC. We'll talk about some of the special areas of disaster response that his presbytery has uniquely developed. Mike comes with decades of experience responding to disasters as part of our armed forces. And so we're very thankful to have Elder Mike Cloy on the program coming from North Carolina. Welcome, Mike.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

Hey David, good to be here.

David Nakhla 2:51

And then lastly, we're blessed to have Deacon Jeff Davis coming from Michigan. After Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, Jeff showed up from Michigan to serve as a volunteer. And before he knew it, we had roped him into serving as our site coordinator, his wife Gloria, joining him. And he served faithfully in that capacity for nine months or so. Jeff is a has a deacon's heart and uh greatly brings a wonderful aspect of the Ministry of Mercy of disaster response. Welcome to the program, Jeff.

SPEAKER_03 3:24

Thank you, David. Glad to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

David Nakhla 3:28

We'll start with you, John. You serve on the Committee on Diact Ministries and Disaster Response Subcommittee. Why do you think disaster response is important to the OPC, important as a denomination? And why not just let the local church kind of figure it out?

SPEAKER_01 3:44

First of all, uh when you're at the denominational level, uh you have the greatest access to the greatest and best number of resources. Um you can have a local church, and let's say the church has uh a hundred members who have access to a hundred members worth of knowledge, experience, expertise, and uh the ability to source uh products, emergency supplies, and the like. Then you have a denomination and for the OPC that that allows us to source from roughly what 30 some thousand people. So you have the greatest number of resources available. I think that's number one. Number two, I look at it kind of almost like a corporate structure where you have the head, um, it would be a CEO, and under that you have your various department heads. Um, and that's how you can disseminate information both up and down through that type of a of a system. So we have uh the C the CDM or DRS in particular has David Knockla as the main contact. Everybody in the denomination has access to get to David Knockla, and he's easy to find. From there, David can say, well, we need this resource or we need that emergency supply, we need these types of peoples, etc. And then David can go down through Presbyterian diaconal committees all the way down into individuals if he has that kind of knowledge. So that's how you would source some of that information. Um as far as why, in addition to it being efficient, I think that's just it's just a part of the mission of the church. And so it's a part of the mission of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Um we need to take care of not just our own people, but also others as well. Um, and this is a way of doing that. And a very effective way, I think.

David Nakhla 5:48

Jeff or Mike, would you like to add anything to that as thoughts to why disaster response is is important to you as a part of the OPC?

SPEAKER_03 5:58

In Michigan, we've only, to my knowledge, had one need for disaster relief last year after the dams broke up north. So to answer one part of the question, you're not always going to have disasters for for all the different presbyteries. And to be able to have a collective source, as John stated, you've got a bigger resource, but you also have a bigger area that you're working. If I were to just stay in Michigan, I would have only, you know, possibly worked one time. So you're you're more diverse in the amount of work that's needed.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

I would add sort of what John said the gifts and graces of the church are multiplied when presbyteries, the local church, presbyteries, and the denomination can communicate rapidly needs based on assessment. And then the denomination really helps the local response effort to focus on what's important. They can take on things that could distract the local effort, you know, as far as communicating to the to the greater church, the universal church, the OPC, others uh collaborate on behalf of the the local effort so that those that are on point doing the the the heavy lifting in the neighborhood, you know, in the community, are able to do what they've been asked to do well. They're not distracted. And so that's what I have experienced is it it and then the other thing is that the nomination, David's office, John's efforts on the on the subcommittee, uh, they've learned lessons from other disasters. And they can cue us as to, hey, have you thought about that? Have you thought about this? Um, would you can would you consider doing it this way? So they have a visibility at 30,000 foot visibility, you know, in that airplane. There, they got a visibility that the local community doesn't have. And yet not force it upon the the church, local church, or the presbytery, but give wisdom that can be considered. So yeah, I have found it very helpful, especially when you, you know, like you put all the deacons in a room and they start they they start percolating, you know. Yeah, man, we ought to we ought to consider this. So this is a unique, unique instance that we need to deal with. And you can see them come to life, um, trying to love each other and help each other. So yeah, I I think denomination level, like it's critical for them to be that umbrella uh to to to pour down, you know, an umbrella that rain is coming from underneath the umbrella, it's not protecting the rain from getting on you as a person is actually raining resources, raining gifts and graces across the universal church upon the need.

David Nakhla 8:47

My experience has been that most churches who experience a disaster, it's their first time dealing with something of that magnitude. And so being able to bring that wisdom and experience that we we have a growing database experience base of response. I found that when I enter a disaster zone, it's kind of preparing them for what they don't even know is coming and what to and how to plan and how to think about and how to minister to the family and all that type of stuff. So it's the body working together as one unit as opposed to all of us, you know, kind of trying to do our own thing uh but not growing from it. And so we don't all have to reinvent the wheel as we respond to a hugely dramatic time of of the life of a church. Jeff, in Houston, you had some opportunities to to share the gospel in the in the midst of disaster response. Can you talk to us a little bit about some of that and even how you some ways you were strategic in trying to to grow your relationship with those you were serving, that you might be able to speak to them about bigger things than even the disaster that they were currently going through?

SPEAKER_03 9:58

It it became the most enjoyable part of the work for me after realizing that God was going to provide the workers the skill needed, material. I enjoyed going to the home of a family that had been affected by the hurricane, sitting down with them and representing Christ through the OP disaster relief. It was probably 50-50 uh toss-up between people who would say they know Christ as their savior and others who didn't go to church, they were not regular members, maybe didn't grow up in the church. So both both uh groups were exciting to meet to get to know, to share what the church was doing, how the church was working through the members to to come and initially do the work needed, but then also to show the love of Christ, to to listen to the needs, to see God working and bringing in the resources at the right time, bringing the right people in. From that point of meeting the family, my goal was to establish a relationship with them, which would include coming in the mornings, introducing the work group to the homeowners, uh, having a time of prayer and devotion, and then standing back and watching the the work unfold and seeing the friendships develop. And then I oftentimes would have the opportunity to set up a meal so that we could invite outside neighbors who were observing what was going on. And it it was a wonderful time to to watch friendships develop, the love of Christ be shown, opportunities to talk about why I was there, to listen to the needs. It was a a growing experience for my faith, and um yeah, it's something I treasure very much.

David Nakhla 11:53

I remember, Jeff, you talking about how when you had to pick up a load of drywall, you knew that relationships are developed through a series of contacts. So you were intentional about making that load into maybe a couple loads so that you had a reason to come by and multiple times and interact with them. Do I remember that correctly?

SPEAKER_03 12:11

Yeah, you remember it exactly right. Um, after a while, I realized the more times I could go to that home, the better. Uh, the more times during the day, different times of the day before the work, during and after. And when you mentioned the drywall, I even started developing friendships and contact points at the suppliers, the Home Depots, the Lowe's, the local hardware is it it was uh it was an interesting time to see how the Lord worked through that disaster.

David Nakhla 12:41

Now this is what three, four years ago by now. Have you are you still in contact with anybody from there, or is that pretty much uh faded as you've moved on from Houston area?

SPEAKER_03 12:51

Uh for the most part, it's faded. Um there was a high number of families that I met. The first year I stayed in touch with uh maybe 10 or 12 percent, and then it faded off. Um the people that worked to uh on the local committee, the OP members through the local committee, I've stayed in contact with them. And uh there was one family in particular that my my wife Gloria and I fell in love with and just became good friends. We we stayed in touch with them for a couple of years. We did recently travel back and visit with them, but um for the most part, the time you're there is the only time you're gonna see these people, and then you move on and both your lives continue.

David Nakhla 13:37

And that's actually one of the one of the reasons why we always encourage, whether it's short-term missions or disaster response, the importance of of pointing people to the the local church there, because that's that's ultimately going to be the long-term presence there. And if there's gonna be a a continuing relationship long term, it'll be with the local church.

SPEAKER_03 13:59

Yep, that's exactly right.

David Nakhla 14:01

That's well said, David. What are you doing? I mean, obviously you're listening to the Reformed Deacon podcast. But why? We've been blessed to have some great episodes. And if you listen to more than one, it means you're probably enjoying it, right? So do you have a favorite episode? Maybe that one where you sat in your car for a few minutes longer just to finish the episode. Would you be willing to do us a big favor and go to your podcast player and rate us? Even better, would you be willing to leave us some feedback and let us know what you've enjoyed or how we can improve at the end of the day? This podcast is for you. The local hardworking beacon. So hit that rating and make a comment. And if you're a mega fan, head over to opccvm.org slash podcast feedback. And you might just end up with some reform beacon podcast merchandise sent your way. Thanks so much for listening to the podcast. And with your feedback, we'll make sure that more good content is on its way. Now let's get back to our current episode of the Reform Beacon Podcast. Mike, um, I alluded to it in in in the introduction, what's kind of going on in the Presbytery of the Southeast, and that there's uh something called a a Dart, D-A-R-T. Maybe you could share with us a little bit about you know, kind of how that originated, what what that is, and and then maybe, you know, if there's those who might be interested in this type of service, how they should go about how they could go about getting involved and what it might require of them.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Yeah, thank you for allowing me to take the rest of the time we have to just couple up. Um yeah, it's uh it's pretty complex. I'll try to make it simple. Disaster advanced response team, Dart. It kind of tells you what we do. It's the team of men who, in advance of hopefully in advance of most of the first responders, not the uh the the emergency teams or the police that that or FEMA, but mainly the the follow-on agencies and entities, churches and you know, uh Billy Graham's efforts and and all those folks, the Baptist folks, the Lutheran folks, we kind of get in there as fast as we can to do a pretty good assessment. So, you know, we've uh we try to posture knowing that we have something coming our way. We got a little advanced warning, get close as possible with this 12 to 15 person team of trained disaster response men and uh with equipment and tools. And as soon as the either the storm passes by or the disaster settles down, and the those that uh provide the rule of law, the police allow us in, we get in. We go to the church if there's an OPC church, and usually we don't deploy unless there is one that's being impacted, but that doesn't mean we we don't deploy if there isn't one there, but we go to the OPC church to um lean on them first as to what their priorities are. And usually we have an idea what homes have been impacted by the time we get there. We go to those homes, we do things like clear driveways of trees, get trees off roofs. If we got flooding, we get the water out of the basement, we need to do some deconstruction, getting the drywall and the uh subfloor and the various installations out of the house, then we'll do that too, just to get get it ready for follow-on volunteers to do some long-term work. So this is about a 10-day effort, maybe a five to 10-day effort, at most 10 days, and uh and they're at the same time assessing what the priorities are for those follow-on volunteers to uh to attack. You know, I did I had a little disaster response experience from the military, 27 years of that, and I was a defense coordinating officer for the state of South Carolina, North Carolina, and and so I picked up some of these tips of how to get in and help pretty quick. We also have found that we have a priority, and that priority is worship-centric. We we want to get people who are members of the church get their eyes off the disaster, the destruction, the chaos, and put their eyes back on Christ and get back to worship because that's no, we know that's where they heal, but we also want the neighbors to consider that. So it could be a member of the OPC church who has two or three neighbors that need care too. They got a tree on the roof, we'll go there. We'll direct that neighbor to the church, the local church. Um, give them names, give them contacts, invite them to worship, those types of things. So it's it's focused on primarily getting worship restored to the member, and then loving the neighbor on top of that. So that's what that's the big picture.

David Nakhla 18:45

Do you guys have any equipment?

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Oh, yeah, yeah. We got we got a pretty good amount of equipment. We've grown it over the years, primarily uh trash pumps to pull water out of basement, lots of different types of chainsaws, uh tarping, light sets, first aid stuff, just you know, in case somebody gets hurt. We got life support, we can feed ourselves. We don't want to create uh disaster by showing up and asking people to feed us into houses, so we try to be self-sustaining. Uh, we don't want to make it any worse. Whole bunch of equipment that can, you know, to pull trees off things if they look precarious. Now we got men who are trained with chainsaws. They've been uh in many cases, they've gone through some FEMA training. Uh, they're actually uh members in good standing of their church. We have a few men who are not members of OPC churches, but we verified that they are members in good standing in their in their church. So yeah, it's uh it's what I 18, 18, 20 foot trailer. It's hacked full, and then we bring a skid loader with us. Uh, we need a lot of hydraulics to get these heavy trees off things to move stuff around. Um, we usually rent out trucks. Uh, that's we found that can be a little difficult as uh specifically a hurricane coming, everybody is renting or renting the they're renting the trucks and the trailers and the skid loaders. So we have to get get ahead of that and rent as soon as possible.

David Nakhla 20:06

And if somebody uh would like to be involved in this, is there are you open to any other volunteers or you're fully staffed up at this point?

SPEAKER_00 20:13

No, we need a bench question. Recently, we two maybe three of our men who happen to be leaders on this team. We have a team leader and a couple of assistant team leaders. Their wives were giving birth the same week, and we had a hurricane bearing down on Louisiana. We've actually been to the Presbytery of the South to assist there. And you know, we we needed more men. Um, we needed a backup. We need several men. And so, yes, we do recruit. We're also going to assess them, you know, if they pick up the chainsaw from the wrong end, we kind of put them on the list because you don't need that, you know, that type of thing.

David Nakhla 20:45

But yeah, we we we need more people and they just need to contact me and we'll okay we'll keep include that in the program notes, how to get in touch with Elder Mike Cloy so they for those who are interested. Do you just deploy into the Presbytery of the Southeast, which is uh South Carolina, North Carolina, some of Georgia, that area, or or do you go, do you guys go beyond that or what?

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Yeah, when we first put it together three years, four years ago, it was predominantly the Presbytery of the Southeast. We had a donation to the Diacom Committee of the Presbytery of the Southeast, uh about ten thousand dollars to be able to dedicate to disaster response. And so we used it to outfit our trailer. We got help from denomination, they matched up some money that we used out of our own funds, which was a huge help. And we thank you. But we have been in the Presbytery of the South area that out towards Pineville, uh, in that area, and um, that was a blessing to not only them but us because we we saw the people getting out there and getting dirty with us. Uh that was just huge. You know, we're we get we we had six or seven men that are working hard, and you had six or seven men from the church and a couple ladies that are out there helping, getting Wedding stuff. And that was wonderful. The men talked about that for days, the the unity of effort there. We have a desire to the currently the trailer's stationed and postured in the Atlanta area, um, which can reach into the Presbytery of the Southeast, uh, South, excuse me, pretty quick. And we're we're doing some bold thinking of maybe of putting another team together up in the Virginia area, uh Lynchburg, and being able to reach in Presbytery Mid-Atlantic. So you have basically have you have two teams, one in the northern portion and one in the southern portion of the Presbytery of the Southeast that can expand, as well as if one's committed and we need another team, we can send another team. Uh, it gives you a lot of flexibility. So, yeah, we we we'll go anywhere. I mean, we've even thought about going out to Texas and the Midwest if needed with anything, if someone needs it.

David Nakhla 22:54

So OPC Disaster Response exists primarily to support local churches and their efforts. And one of the things that I know that the Committee on Diac Ministries has been promoting is more preparedness in the presbyteries and more preparedness even in local congregations. John, if a local deacon were to say to you, What should I do to prepare my congregation for a disaster? Do you have any thoughts you'd share with them based on your experience?

SPEAKER_01 23:21

You need to organize your church. You may find out that some guy in sales has resources to other products besides the copying machine that he sells. Maybe there are other electronics that you're going to need in answer or in response to that disaster. And then you need to get that organized. I think a lot of churches are probably organized around their session. I think most churches, I know ours is one of them, each member of the session is responsible for a certain number of families. And that's that could be your main point of contact. So you want to be able to set up lines of communication within your church so that you not only know what people are capable of doing, but also what they may have needs for. So that when the time comes, you know who to go to to find out what they might need. And then also who to go to to help meet those needs. And you have to try to get your congregation in a mindset of expecting that. David alluded or actually said earlier, the emergency that the church faces is usually their first emergency or disaster. What is the killer in disasters is in action and a lack of knowledge of what to do and how to respond. So if people have a mindset, an expectation that something bad is going to happen, we don't know. Because that's the other thing. Every disaster is almost unlike any of the other disasters. Every flood is a little bit different, every hurricane's a little different. But you have certain principles that you need to follow. So if you can get the congregation into the mindset to expect the unexpected, and then have those lines of communication organized, you'll save at a minimum hours, but possibly days worth of people going without food or without shelter and being in harm's way. It's so much easier when you have the lines of communication and who's responsible for what. And everybody who's in charge of some aspect of it needs to know what the other guys are in charge of as well. Don't just worry about your area of responsibility, but you have to have a little bit of a general knowledge of everybody else's areas of responsibility as well. Because you never know, the other guy he might be stuck in water neck deep, and he has no way of getting out, and then you've got to take over.

David Nakhla 26:00

I know our deacons locally we have the congregation into kind of shepherding groups similar, and they're paired with our elders. And uh, when something happens, we have a big snowstorm, that type of thing, they will call around. And uh, you know, those are wonderful occasions for the sheep to feel cared for. And and oftentimes, you know, most people you call, they're okay, they've got it covered, but they just really appreciate the call and the contact. And those are good ways to exercise those muscles, those diaconal muscles, for when there's something even bigger happens, we're already accustomed as deacons to be calling through the list and making sure that everybody's being being cared for.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

It's about accountability, actually. You look at it that way, everybody's accountable to everybody else. We're brothers and sisters in the Lord, you need to be looking out for your brothers and sisters. And this is just one way of doing it. And in addition to showing that and experiencing that fellowship, showing the love of Christ, byproduct is that you can actually help save lives or help rebuild somebody's life while you're at it.

David Nakhla 27:06

Mike, I'm sure you have some further thoughts on preparedness. I know you've thought a good bit about you. Actually, you have helped us with some videos on our website of of how presbyteries and local churches can and should prepare. And you've even done a survey of the whole United States looking at the different kinds of disasters each place can face. Do you have any thoughts on on this?

SPEAKER_00 27:28

John's exactly right. You have to have you have to anticipate and you have to have that structure. Uh, one of the things that I think that um the church does often is they look for the deacon or the the elders say, do this, do that. And what you're really trying to do is get everybody to just go do. So, in other words, you put yeah, you've put a you put the plan together and everybody knows that you ain't gonna wait, just go get it done, right? One of the things that I saw in Jeff's effort in Houston and it what came through on the video was because of the decentralization, because of the genuine, I'm ringing this doorbell, I don't know who this is, it's gonna answer it, but I can see that their house is flooded, or I can see they're in need. Is if you're teaching, let's just say you're teaching a member of the local church to be that person who walks next door or down the street or close by to provide that disaster response just to check on them. Uh, because I remember when some of these folks were talking to Jeff or about Jeff and all those that are who were with Jeff, how they were just so caught off guard. Why would somebody from the north of whatever come down here and help me and be genuinely interested in my well-being? That just blew me away. Because the people, because normally you have a disaster response person come in, you know, yep, mark the house. Yeah, we're gonna be back. Um, come back a few days later. There's really no relational thing, it's just but it gives people comfort, you know. Hey, we they know we're here, you know, we we've got a need. But with Jeff, it was it wasn't a touch and go. It was we're here, we want to love you, we want to help you. And it was it was very genuine. Um, and that's what you want your members to do. So to prepare for that is you got to teach deacons and elders to set the architecture up and then have all these helpers that are just ready to do it. And if, like John said, your deacon X, who's now his house is flooded and he's worried more about what's going on uh at his own house and trying to keep the water out, the helper can just go do what they need to do because they're predisposed and trained to do so. And then guess what? The neighbor goes, Why are you here? And he says, I love you. And we're here to help. It's not so formal, right? It's genuine, it's it's it's real, it's earthy. Um, and that and I and sense that out of Jeff's work, the compassion that was there.

David Nakhla 29:59

The uh video that uh that Mike's referring to can be found on our website, opcdisasterresponse.org. And on there you'll find a video that was put together kind of promoting the work. But but the great thing about that video is really it's highlighting the response of those who were served and uh experienced the love of Christ through the Ministry of Disaster Response and how they responded, and there and you know, Christians, non-Christians, all responding in in very, very positive ways. Along those lines, Jeff, can you share with us, you know, what is it in Jeff Davis that that said, you know, I want to be part of this, and maybe you can even springboard off of that to encourage others who may not feel that same interest at this time to to be involved. What would you share and say to them?

SPEAKER_03 30:56

I'd have to say the initial desire to serve came from what Christ has done for me, what the church has been to me. I was older, I was 40 years old when I came to know Christ as my savior. And so my life turned around 180 degrees. So it had a strong impact on uh how I lived my life, how I saw my resources and my skills, just looking around as a Christian and see how we are blessed, how the Lord has given us biological family and spiritual family and the needs that are there. And this is worldwide. So to go and serve, like you all have said, we're serving brothers and sisters, we're serving our our fellow believers in Christ, and to be able to do that is a great privilege. So that that was the starting desire was to serve, to give back, I guess would be the right way to say it. And then at Houston, I saw there was a need for the position to be filled, and I was not fully confident I could do it, but I was confident that Christ was calling me. So to go in faith and to give and to trust. You know, I I said it before, I've heard it say said many times. When you go work disaster relief, you're blessed beyond measure. You're it's unbelievable what you take away from it, what you're given. So it is about serving, it's about giving up your time, you know, giving up time back home. But in the end, you're rewarded tenfold easily.

David Nakhla 32:38

Great testimony, Jeff. Thank you. So we've been developing a registry of disaster response volunteers. We're thankful for around 300 individuals in our churches who've who've registered. We'd love to continue to see that registry grow. Uh, John, do you have any encouragement to those who are don't maybe see the need to register or you know, put your put your name on the list.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

Number one, if if the Lord so touches your heart, put your name on the list. But more maybe the bigger reason that I would love to see these names go on lists, building up this database for one, but the other is a lot of people end up wanting to be uh helpful and they may want to show up, and then all of a sudden they make a phone call and they say, Hey, I can come out there in one or two days. Well, the hosts at that disaster may not be ready for them. So you're going to show up over there, and there's nowhere for you to stay. They may feel they have to find someplace for you, put you up. How are you going to be fed? The other thing is, what are your talents? What is your expertise? What is your skill set? And especially in reconstruction, there's a process the way things have to be done or should be done. And you don't want to be an electrician trying to do electrical work when they're working on the foundation work. You got to have walls up, right? So that's why we need the CDM or the DRS needs to have that database and they and you win it with what your experience is or what you're capable of doing, so that we can utilize you to your fullest. I know at the one disaster up in Michigan last year, there was a team that said, Yeah, we want to come up. What they came up to do wasn't ready for them to do. It happened a second time, and some of those team members were told that we can't use you right now. So they weren't able to participate. It also caused can cause some hard feelings. I'm not sure how bad it was, but there were a few people that were hurt. And in our case, or in David's case, probably, and especially the local disaster response committee, because those are the ones that are boots on the ground. They're the ones that's running that site. They need to know what you're able to do, they need to know when to bring you in, and you need to have that advanced notice. When you start rebuilding, process takes two weeks, another two weeks for something else before it's ready for you. Then we know that it's a six-week schedule. We can tell you be ready to go in six weeks, rather than, oh, hey, can you be down there in three days? Again, everything about this is all communication. What's needed, who has the abilities to do it, where are the resources from. And so if you'll register and give us what your talents are, and the other thing is don't be afraid that you don't know how to swing a hammer or you don't know how to handle a saw, or you don't know which one's hot and neutral when you come to wires, because that can be real fun. Everybody can be used, everybody has something to offer. I might be getting ahead of ourselves here, but first response of ever doing anything in a short-term mission type of work was about 20 years ago. We went on a mission trip, and there were four of us that knew construction. We did our thing, we had a great time, and people were impressed. We had a girl with 20 years old. She was the pied piper of the village. All the little kids were attracted to her. That brought their parents out, and the minister of the church that we were working at was able to evangelize to the parents because their children were there unofficially being babysat by that girl. And in the meantime, one of the things they asked about was, okay, well, why have you got all these people here working on this building? The whole, you know, all four of us. That gave the pastor the opportunity to say, Well, these are Christians, and they're here because they want to help work on this church so that the Lord has a place here for you to come to. All of that came, all that audience came because of that young girl who didn't lay one brick, who didn't drive one nail or turn one screw. Everybody can be used, even if it's to encourage. You need that too.

David Nakhla 36:47

You do. Yeah, I recall uh my first trip to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina hit, and there was a lady with us who physically was not able to do physical work, but she spent most of the time with the homeowner talking to them, listening to their stories, listening to the trauma that they went through as their house flooded to the roof and they had to crawl into their attic for safety. Um, and I would say she probably had more of a ministry to the people than those with the chainsaws in their hands. And oftentimes those maybe soft skills you could say are way, as you say, underappreciated. And yet, as a ministry of the church, are are probably some of the more valuable things that we have to offer as opposed to a construction crew that could be Christian or non-Christian.

SPEAKER_00 37:40

You know, Christ builds his church, he's the cornerstone. You have people that join the church, and the elders and deacons look at their gifts and graces, and we know God sovereignly has brought this family, this family, this person to the body of Christ for all our gifts and graces to be fitted together to grow the church. The registry is a means to fit gifts and graces for the good of the disaster of the church, okay? So that we don't have too much of this, too much of that. We have it at the right time, as John said, with the right material. And so it's a means of here's where I've enjoyed the registry. It is a way for me to say, We need your help. How many people have you walked up to and said, I need your help? And they walked away from you. Not too many, not too many will do that. But the registry is a means for me as a elder to look at my deacons and look at the congregation and go, brothers, sisters, you want to ask somebody for help? Here's a registry. And so what we did at one on a fellowship meal is we just took two or three computers and got them signed up to the web page and said, You want to help? There's a registry over there. Well, help you get on and put your stuff in and help you think through what you might be able to do in time of need.

David Nakhla 38:57

And nowadays we all walk around with the computer in our pocket, right? And it's uh, and actually, that's what we did at the end of one of our presentations at our church. Yeah, I didn't say go home and register, I said everybody take out your phone, go to opcdisasterresponse.org, click on I Wanna Volunteer, and register. And in a five minutes off of their phone, which they're on, we're on all the time, right? We were registered and without any delay.

SPEAKER_00 39:22

Yeah, yeah. I would try the the army way where I, you know, I'd lean them up against the wall on their nose and hose them down with the water and say you can you can relieve that pain by signing uh registry, but that doesn't work.

David Nakhla 39:33

Brothers, thank you for joining us today. This is so helpful, hopefully, and definitely encouraging to me and my labors. You guys all coming alongside, bringing your gifts and graces to bear, each of you playing a significant part in moving forward the and growing the ministry of OPC disaster response. And uh, what a blessing to be able to serve together uh using the unique gifts and abilities that the Lord has gifted his his saints with. And um, and so with that, we'll conclude this session of the Reformed Deacon Podcast. Thanks for joining us. Go to our website, thereformdeacon.org. There you will find all our episodes, program notes, and other helpful resources. And please make plans to join us again next month for another episode of the Reformed Deacon Podcast.