The Anglican Relief and Development Fund (ARDF) strengthens communities by coming alongside the local church to offer relief after a crisis and to create partnerships towards development. If you are interested in volunteering, praying, or partnering with ARDF, find out more here.

by Tommy Lamb

When one thinks of disaster response, mucking flooded houses and clearing trees and debris come to mind. And while these are important tasks during emergency relief, long-term recovery means so much more to survivors of a natural disaster. Such was the case in April, as ARDF and four volunteers joined the North American Lutheran Church in Hazard, KY, to serve three surviving families of the July 2022 flooding in Appalachia. 

One of our team members, Dn. Betty Budyka, St. Luke’s Anglican Church (Diocese of the Great Lakes), Copley, OH, decided to join our disaster response trip at the last minute. Having vacationed in Tennessee while on sabbatical, Dn. Betty thought she would experience disaster response firsthand by spending a week with us and one of our partners in Hazard, KY. Not knowing what to expect, Dn. Betty arrived at our host church and joined one of three teams charged with rebuilding the home of Lowell and Barb Mullins on Lost Creek. Having a gift of pastoral care and experience as a hospital chaplain and Deacon, Betty sought the Holy Spirit to show her how to minister to the spiritual and emotional needs of the Mullins. 

On day one, it didn’t take Betty very long to see that what was needed to make the Mullins’ partially reconstructed house a home was to start to collect, clean, assemble, and arrange personal belongings and memorabilia that had been lost to the rock, sand, and water of the flood. Betty began with a curio cabinet…then a gun cabinet, cleaning them and restoring their wood-grained beauty and use. After completing the furniture, Betty turned to smaller personal items…a model train locomotive, ceramic piggy banks with wings, toys that grandchildren played with…collectibles lost in the overwhelming aftermath of rebuilding after losing everything. Some were plucked out of the still sand-and-rock covered front yard, some were stored in boxes on the front porch, a front porch unusable because of the stacks of family items collected on it. 

One item, a quilt, was noticed in the back of a tumbled and totaled burgundy SUV in the creek bottom. Upon inquiring about the quilt, Barb told Betty and Mary Beth Lee, also on the trip, that it belonged to a young woman named Evelyn, whose great grandmother, Ellen, had made the quilt for her. While on break, Betty and Mary Beth ventured to remove the quilt from the back of the SUV. The quilt was twisted around work-out equipment that happened to also be in the vehicle. Upon removal, the quilt was washed in the creek and hung out to dry. The week after leaving, Barb presented the quilt to Evelyn, with her mother Danita close by. 

The quilt’s owner never thought she would see that quilt again. Many survivors give up hope of having a semblance of the life they had prior to the event. It is starting over. That’s why Spiritual Care is an integral and important part of disaster response. We can rebuild the physical house of the affected families and help restore the memories represented in personal items lost or broken or ripped apart by the water and wind of a storm. Barb was grateful that Betty restored her collectibles and memorabilia. Because Barb could share her memories with Betty as her collectibles were cleaned and dried, a renewed sense of normalcy has begun. The assurance of things unseen is hoped for. Faith is alive. Lowell and Barb had a front porch to sit and enjoy each other’s company, with vases of wildflowers, something they haven’t shared in nine months. 

If you say, “Yes!” to the invitation to participate in a disaster response trip, your life will be forever changed by the lives of those served. You may feel you are not equipped to serve in this way. Dn. Betty was not sure, but she said, “Yes!”

As Betty stated, “It is simply amazing how the Holy Spirit can and does bring beauty and restoration to the disasters in our lives, often blessing many others in the process.” 

Tommy Lamb is the National Disaster Network Director for the Anglican Relief & Development Fund.

By building the ARDF Disaster Response Network across the Province, ARDF will increase individual and parish preparedness, helping to develop parish Emergency Action Plans, thereby enabling disaster response ministry in the community and region if there should be a need, all the while offering spiritual care with the light and love of our Savior!  The vision at ARDF is to have a disaster response coordinator in every diocese and parish across the ACNA. If you are interested, contact the DOMA office.