Serving the Needs—Emotionally and Physically
Tamara Michalenko Terry
“It always amazes me how the Lord provides even before we ask,” Marshall Gonzales, Texas Conference Adventist Community Services (ACS) director, shares. When Gonzales and his wife, Julie, Texas ACS associate director, heard about the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, they did what they always do in a crisis—see how ACS can help.
Since the Gonzaleses are also Southwestern Union Conference ACS directors, El Paso is in their territory. But, as with all disasters and crises, there is a protocol. “Having people just showing up willing to help isn’t always helpful to the first responders,” Gonzales adds. “Sometimes being helpful is being patient to see where the needs are first.”
When the call for help came, it was for emotional and spiritual care providers, especially ones who spoke Spanish. Having taught the class previously, the Gonzaleses contacted those certified and found four willing to assist. “We provide training year-round to be ready for disasters and crises,” Gonzales says, “but it is still an incredible feeling to provide what someone needs when they need it. That only comes from divine inspiration.”
This coming week the Gonzaleses will serve a different group, joining more than 50,000 Pathfinders at the International Pathfinder Camporee in Oshkosh, Wis. There they will teach the ACS Honor “Serving Communities” alongside Lavida Whitson and Beverly Wynot, ACS representatives from the Arkansas-Louisiana Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Shreveport, La. “Once the Pathfinders complete the classroom honor requirements, they will assemble a disaster clean-up bucket,” Julie Gonzales shares. “In addition to an honor patch for their Pathfinder sash, they will receive a yellow ACS T-shirt to wear whenever they assist in a disaster or serve their communities.”
If you would like to assist in creating hygiene kits or clean-up buckets or want to learn more about the training ACS offers, email acs@txsda.org or call 817.641.7679. For more information or to donate to ACS as well as ACS-specific projects, visit the Texas ACS website at texas-acs.org.
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me,’” Matthew 25:40 NIV.
The Sabbath School lessons this quarter have really caused us to think seriously about our responsibility to those who are suffering any kind of distress at the hand of authorities. We have seen children in very confined spaces and removed from their parents. We can only imagine the trauma this children must be experiencing. How will it affect their futures? What is there that those of us who want to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ do to help? I am sure you are finding it difficult to respond to some of the needs, given the restrictions. If there is anything that we might do to contribute to providing for their needs we would be willing to send a check. Praying that you will have success in helping to relieve the suffering that is going on so close to home. Bob and Leona Murray