Participants:
Series Code: TDY
Program Code: TDY017103A
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00:02 I want to spend my life
00:08 Mending broken people 00:12 I want to spend my life 00:19 Removing pain 00:24 Lord, let my words 00:30 Heal a heart that hurts 00:35 I want to spend my life 00:40 Mending broken people 00:46 I want to spend my life 00:51 Mending broken people 01:10 Hello, friends. Welcome to 3ABN Today. 01:12 My name Is John Lomacang. 01:13 If you are part of our family, you already know that, 01:16 but thank you 01:17 if you are tuning in for the first time, 01:19 remember this network, 01:20 Three Angels Broadcasting Network, 01:22 one we believe ordained of God, preparing the world 01:25 for the coming of our Lord and Savior. 01:28 We have a very blessed program today. 01:30 We like to encourage you to stay tuned. 01:32 Our world is a world that's replete with disasters 01:35 of every kind and every magnitude. 01:38 And we have three guests today, they're gonna talk about 01:40 how the Lord has moved in their lives over the years 01:43 to relieve the suffering, 01:45 and bring aid, and relief, and resilience 01:47 to those impacted by disaster, 01:50 so please do stay tuned. 01:52 We know that your heart will be challenged 01:53 not just to receive information 01:55 but to find out how you can become involved 01:57 and also being an extended hand 01:59 of the ministry of Jesus Christ. 02:02 Also, thank you for your prayers 02:03 and your financial support of this network 02:05 as we continue going and growing, 02:07 we're getting ready for the coming of our Lord. 02:09 As you also know, we always have music on our program. 02:12 And one of our very own, Pastor CA Murray 02:14 will bless you heart and prepare you with a song, 02:17 Is It Any Wonder? 02:35 My faith has found a resting place 02:40 Not in a man-made greed 02:45 I trust the ever-living One 02:51 That He for me will plead 02:56 I need no other evidence 03:01 I need no other plea 03:06 It is enough that Jesus died 03:12 And rose again for me 03:25 Enough for me that Jesus saves 03:30 This ends my fear and doubt 03:35 A sinful soul, I come to Him 03:40 He will not cast me out 03:45 I need no other evidence 03:50 I need no other plea 03:56 It is enough that Jesus died 04:01 And rose again for me 04:09 The great physician heals the sick 04:14 The lost He came to save 04:19 For me His precious blood He shed 04:24 For me His life He gave 04:30 I need no other evidence 04:35 I need no other plea 04:40 It is enough that Jesus died 04:45 And rose again for me 05:01 My soul is resting on His Word 05:06 The living Word of God 05:11 Salvation in my Savior's name 05:17 Salvation through His blood 05:22 I need no other evidence 05:27 I need no other plea 05:32 It is enough that Jesus died 05:39 And rose again 05:43 For me 06:02 Thank you, Pastor CA. 06:03 Our faith has found a resting place, 06:06 and that is really 06:07 what our program is about today. 06:09 Where do people find a place to rest 06:12 in time of disaster and difficulty? 06:14 And I want to first begin by introducing 06:17 the CEO and Founder of GR3, David Canther. 06:20 Good to have you, David. John, good to see you... 06:22 I should say good to see you again. 06:23 Thank you. 06:25 And we had an opportunity to work on, 06:26 do a program together, 06:28 and even to go down and see when there was a hurricane. 06:30 Yes. 06:32 Now where was it again? 06:33 So I think the first time 3ABN came out with us, with Danny 06:36 and what not was hurricane Katrina. 06:38 Katrina, that's right. Yes. 06:40 And we had an opportunity to go down to see the disaster 06:42 down in the gulf, part of the United States. 06:44 But good to have you here, you have... 06:46 We were there two years helping in the Katrina. 06:48 Yes, that's right. 06:49 You guys, it was a real honor to have you there as well. 06:51 Yes, and just for those who may not know who you are, 06:53 tell our audience, who you are, what you do 06:56 and where you're from. 06:57 So I was a Pastor in Florida for about 32 years. 07:01 Okay. 07:02 And God called me to a unique calling 07:05 that I wasn't asking for. 07:06 But when a lot of the hurricanes 07:08 began happening in Florida, 07:10 I was challenged to say, "Well, you know, 07:13 we have over 100 ministries going on 07:15 in our five different services of our church 07:17 and we just felt that there was more that we could do 07:20 to impact helping and saving lives." 07:22 And, so we started feeding thousands of people. 07:25 And then the conference asked 07:27 if I would expand to work throughout, 07:29 you know, the state of Florida. 07:31 And from there, 07:32 God has just blessed abundantly by faith. 07:35 And leaving that comfortable salary check 07:38 and moving by faith as you do here. 07:40 That's right. 07:42 And so it is a faith journey, 07:45 but the beautiful thing is to see quitting the logistics, 07:50 when you allow people to respond 07:53 to our trained volunteers around the world, 07:55 professionals, and many different people 07:58 that can go and serve, 07:59 it's interesting that the lives were blessed the most 08:02 isn't particularly those that you're going to help, 08:05 but how God blesses you as a result of serving. 08:08 Thank you, David. 08:09 To your right is Erick Baltodano. 08:11 Good to have you here, Eric. 08:13 Thank you, it's good to be here. 08:14 Yes, and for our audience, do the same, 08:15 who you are, where you're from, 08:17 and in short, what you do right now. 08:19 My name is Erick Baltodano, and I'm a lieutenant 08:24 for the City of Naples Fire Department. 08:25 I've been there for, now 19 years. 08:27 Okay. 08:28 And I started off with GR3 08:30 when we had our deployment to Haiti in 2010. 08:35 So I've been working with them since then. 08:38 Okay, well, good to have you here today. 08:39 Thank you. 08:41 And to my far is Malcolm Seheult. 08:43 Am I saying it correct? That's correct. 08:45 Okay, wonderful. 08:46 And for our audience, 08:48 who are you, and where are you from, 08:49 and what you do right now. 08:50 Thank you, glad to be here. 08:52 I'm an attorney, and a educator, 08:55 and I'm the President of GR3. 08:57 On a side note, 08:59 my wife and I are blessed with eight children, 09:00 seven of them are girls. 09:01 Amen. 09:03 Eight girls? Seven girls. 09:05 Seven girls, and one boy. 09:06 The boy is in there somewhere. 09:08 He is in the mix. He is in the mix. 09:09 Okay, well. Good to have you here today. 09:10 Glad to be here. 09:12 Okay, my wife is eighth of eight. 09:14 So, hey, having eight children is good. 09:16 Somebody's gonna be blessed by the eighth, 09:18 and all of them together. 09:19 Good to have you all here today. 09:21 For those who are watching into, 09:23 we're talking about disaster relief today. 09:24 But just kind of give us 09:26 a little historical walk through 09:28 how the Lord impressed you to start a ministry 09:31 that makes a difference in times of disaster? 09:34 I know we did the ACTS, I remember ACTS, 09:36 it had a number of ACTS. 09:38 The beginning of the... 09:39 I should say the prefix was ACTS 09:41 but you had ACTS 911, Acts Ministries, but now GR3. 09:45 What is GR3? 09:47 So GR3 is actually a continued enlarging 09:52 of that original name ACTS World Relief. 09:55 We found that we needed to separate 09:57 because we're doing a lot of church growth strategy. 10:00 A lot of times going into countries 10:01 when you're doing spiritual, emotional healing and training, 10:05 a lot of churches and presidents were saying, 10:08 "You know, could you come back and develop more of, 10:11 how to reach out and help our communities 10:13 in a lot of different ways." 10:15 And so we developed the ACTS 911 one side, 10:18 church growth strategy, 10:20 and then the GR3 international, global rapid, 10:24 actually, Global Rescue Relief and Resilience. 10:27 Okay. And we are rapid. 10:29 But, so as first responders going into help, 10:33 doing an assessment, doing the response, 10:35 and then leading to recovery. 10:38 That stretches out many times over several years... 10:40 Okay. In helping people. 10:42 And so we find it very effective 10:45 to go in by request 10:46 to different countries around the world. 10:48 Malcolm and I have worked with the BIDMC program of Harvard 10:53 in their Disaster Medicine 10:54 which he is gonna talk about later. 10:56 And how, now he's developing 10:58 and we're developing a lot of in that area 11:01 to help bring training instructions 11:04 at a very high level physicians. 11:06 I'm getting that type of opportunity 11:09 that they can be able to not only to serve 11:12 but get fellowship degrees and specialties. 11:15 So the main simple way of looking at it is, 11:19 God had called us to serve others in love. 11:21 And how can we do that more effectively 11:23 where you need to create the logistics 11:25 so that when they volunteer a week or two weeks 11:27 of their time, 11:29 they leave saying, "I was blessed, 11:31 I was a blessing, and I'll do it again." 11:33 Okay, so on your end, 11:35 the blessing is not only to those you help 11:37 but to you and your team. 11:39 To those that are part 11:41 of the Rescue, Relief and Resilience, 11:43 which is the three R's. 11:45 Yes. Okay. 11:46 And it's a good point you're making. 11:48 The last two doctors in Puerto Rico 11:50 that went with us, 11:51 they both said independently of each other, 11:53 "We really needed this," individually, 11:56 "get things back and perspective in our lives." 11:59 That's why God had called us to serve. 12:01 So many times people think it's, 12:03 "Oh, we did a great thing out there helping somebody." 12:05 But in reality, God knew us because He created us. 12:09 And He said to keep things in perspective 12:12 and your life balanced, 12:13 keep your focus 12:15 so that I'm in the center, hopefully, 12:17 is when you see those 12:18 that are hurting more than yourself. 12:20 If you're depressed today, 12:21 if you maybe experiencing PTSD or whatever, 12:25 my encouragement to you is 12:27 reach out and help somebody in need. 12:30 As you do that, 12:32 God will bless you more abundantly. 12:33 You'll look back and say, "Wow," 12:35 because you gave your life to somebody else 12:38 like Jesus gave to us. 12:39 We are the most blessed. 12:41 That's right, said like a pastor. 12:42 And, but now you've been evolved in a number of reliefs, 12:47 more recently the disaster relief 12:49 in Puerto Rico. 12:51 And I want to take a little time 12:52 and go to Erick here 12:53 because we talked about logistics. 12:55 And Erick having been in the field, 12:56 he's in for 19 years, 12:57 you have seen quite a bit of disaster 13:01 form the individual level, to the community level, 13:04 to the country level. 13:06 And we brought with you some photos 13:09 that you're gonna walk us through, 13:10 but just tell us about some of the logistics. 13:11 And may be both of you could chime in on that 13:13 or any one you, but I'll begin with Eric. 13:15 That's correct. 13:16 A lot of the logistics is the, actually the first part. 13:21 It's how we get together, 13:23 we get to have a meeting with some of the officials 13:27 from hospitals, the health department, 13:31 and everybody conjoint effort on one mission 13:35 to be able to, to bring Puerto Rico back to its feet. 13:40 And with the first couple, 13:42 the first two pictures that you're gonna see, 13:45 this is the team that was there together 13:49 at the Bella Vista Hospital. 13:51 In this picture, you have, 13:53 we have people from walks of life of different. 13:58 We have here the pastor, the youth pastor. 14:01 We also have director, director of pharmacy and laboratory. 14:06 We have in there also administration 14:09 that are from that hospital 14:11 that was able to point out some of their needs. 14:15 The next slide shows the health department, 14:18 which was able to sit down with us 14:20 and give us specifics of which towns were needed 14:25 for us to be able to go and visit. 14:28 They had a lot of the mountain towns and cities 14:33 people weren't able to go 14:35 and even see if there was a need. 14:38 The day we were there, 14:40 the health department let us know 14:42 that the roads were now open. 14:45 So they gave us two towns specifically, 14:48 Las Marías which was one of them, 14:50 and then also Maricao. 14:52 And those two cities, 14:54 they have not gotten reports back yet 14:56 of whether if there was any need, 14:59 so this was our first mission. 15:02 So our first mission as we went out 15:04 was to go ahead and touch base with some of these towns and, 15:08 I'll get a little more into that 15:10 as we get into the later pictures. 15:13 Erick, if you can share the... If I can... 15:15 Hold on just a second, 15:17 the individual on the right hand side 15:19 was from where on that last picture? 15:21 From Florida Hospital? 15:23 Yes, Florida Hospital. 15:24 Well, also played a great part. 15:26 We were able to team up not only with Florida hospital 15:31 but also ADRA within the Bella Vista Church, 15:35 so you're talking about agencies coming together 15:38 to get this done. 15:40 And then, you know, GR3 coming in there, 15:43 seeing what needs to get done, and having boots on the ground. 15:49 So I kind of cut off Malcolm here a little bit 15:51 but, Malcolm, if you might share a little bit, 15:53 what were some objectives that we went in to accomplish 15:56 and how did you see it's accomplishing, 15:58 and whatever else you like to? 15:59 Well, I just wanted to add that 16:01 part of the strategy of GR3 is that we're usually invited... 16:05 Okay. 16:06 To a deployment. We don't just go in. 16:09 It was important to note that the Bella Vista Hospital 16:12 requested that we come in to assist them, 16:15 they service a remote area, 16:17 that's part of their service area. 16:18 And they had difficulty and challenges 16:21 meeting some of those needs, 16:22 so we went in there on a voluntary basis, 16:26 they very graciously hosted us there. 16:28 And during the course of the time that we were there, 16:30 we probably looked at and serviced over 500 patients 16:35 in various remote areas. 16:38 We also provided, and Erick will talk about this further, 16:42 over $175,000 worth of gifts 16:46 in kind, medicines, and materials, 16:48 and things like that. 16:49 So it wasn't just simply a case of us going 16:52 without knowing what we're doing. 16:54 It was preplanned, there was a careful assessment. 16:56 And in fact that assessment is continuing 16:58 and we'll talk a little bit later 17:00 what we're going to do with that. 17:02 So Malcolm, there is another thing you accomplished 17:04 that was pretty significant as well 17:07 on this trip to Puerto Rico, 17:09 working with the university and jobs maybe, 17:11 if you could share... 17:12 Yeah, one of our team members is from another part of the US, 17:18 and he came with a representation 17:21 offering over 1,500 jobs 17:24 and we have also about 3,000 jobs 17:27 that were available. 17:29 And we went down to Puerto Rico to let individuals know 17:33 that we're there, we're supportive. 17:34 You know, Puerto Rico's about 1,100 miles south of Miami, 17:37 and it is been part of the United States since 1898 17:41 through the Spanish acquisition, 17:43 so they're really part of us. 17:45 And with this population 17:46 of about three and a half million people 17:49 and a 100,000 people had left the island. 17:54 We have noticed, 17:55 when we were leaving the airport, 17:57 that there were people that would pull up to the airport, 18:00 leave their car there, go in, get on a plane 18:03 and just leave and come. 18:04 We have reports and you can verify this 18:06 that in Orlando there are needs for more buses, 18:10 more bus drivers, more teachers. 18:13 There is an expansion that's going on 18:14 in certain parts of the country 18:16 with our Puerto Rican friends and visitors. 18:19 So there is a tremendous need. 18:22 That need continues 18:24 and we are here to appeal to you, 18:25 let you know first of all, what is going on, 18:28 what we're doing about it, and how you can help, 18:30 and we'll talk about that in a while. 18:32 And what I want to also add that, 18:34 when you talked about the airport, 18:36 people actually just leaving and not coming back, 18:40 a 100,000 people, 18:41 and there were some outlying errors 18:43 and we have people that work here at 3ABN 18:47 whose family particularly, the Denzies. 18:50 And one of the towns I think that you mentioned, 18:52 there are outpost cities, outpost small communities 18:55 that were so cut off from access 18:58 that people had needs. 18:59 It was amazing that people had, you know, 19:03 there particularly like oxygen or a CPAP machine, 19:07 there was no electricity to run those things. 19:09 And so when it comes to some of the items 19:11 you get there, 19:13 what are some of the things that you take? 19:15 It's a very good question. 19:17 And that's where you try to do 19:18 the initial assessment team doing 19:20 and so you're not bringing the wrong things. 19:22 But a little bit, to piggyback 19:23 at what Malcolm was sharing, some of, 19:25 we tried to have clear objectives going in. 19:28 You modify that every day. 19:30 But how much medicine do you bring in? 19:33 Well, we had been in touch with Bella Vista, 19:35 and other doctors, and with government doctors, 19:37 teams of doctors, 19:39 so we got all that intel in. 19:40 And we asked them to tell us, 19:42 "What medicine do you need in particular?" 19:44 Which Erick is gonna talk about it 19:46 a little bit more in a moment. 19:48 But specifically we took in about $175,000 of meds, 19:53 and so this was the stuff they requested though. 19:55 You want to try to match what their needs and requests. 19:59 The hospital said, "We need certain things." 20:01 So we tried to bring that in initially, 20:03 and the kind of medicine you need to go 20:05 and do the mobile medical clinics 20:07 which they request us to do... The triage. 20:08 The triage type of treatments of people with acute care 20:12 and what not. 20:13 But say you have to match the meds, 20:16 we have sent in before we got there 20:18 a couple of 80,000 KW generators 20:23 with a very large fuel tanks, 20:25 500 gallon, 1000 gallon fuel tanks. 20:27 We knew that was a big need 20:29 because this is a long term recovery. 20:30 Right. 20:31 The small generators are giving out after, 20:33 you know, a month, two, or whatever, so you need... 20:36 Diesel generators are built to last. 20:39 They're estimating the magnitude of the storm, 20:41 just to put it in perspective. 20:43 It's gonna be next march before they get power back up 20:45 in the mountains. 20:47 The storm came, hurricane came right up 20:49 through the center part of the island. 20:51 And so you're talking months down the road, 20:54 and so there's about 70% of the inhabitants of Puerto Rico 20:59 that have water 21:00 but it's all condemned, okay? 21:02 You have about 20% of people that have power right now, 21:07 and it's growing maybe 10% a month. 21:10 And so this is long term, 21:12 there are no utility directs lined up waiting. 21:15 And so as we look at the magnitude, 21:17 Erick's gonna talk about some of the rampant challenges 21:21 with diseases and outbreaks and things of that nature too. 21:24 So you're trying to match the going in there 21:26 with the correct needs. 21:28 Malcolm and some others went in as business people saying 21:31 here's some jobs. 21:32 My son works 21:34 at the Orlando International Airport and construction, 21:36 1800 people arriving everyday from Puerto Rico, 21:40 and they go through a quick theme assessment, 21:43 boom, here's your check, that's it. 21:45 It's like, well, where do we go from here? 21:47 And so people are arriving, arriving, you know, 21:49 100,000 people is a lot of people to assimilate. 21:51 Yeah, migration, primarily... Yes. 21:53 And, so basically that's what we're trying to do long term 21:57 is preempt some of that, go and help them, 21:59 say here's jobs, 22:01 here's specific jobs of people that will hire you. 22:04 Okay. 22:05 So that gives you a little bit of insight 22:06 into the bigger picture. 22:08 Erick, I want to go back to you 'cause you have some... 22:10 Sure, yeah. 22:11 So one of the first things that we did 22:13 after we had our meetings was 22:15 we need to get the community running. 22:18 They know, we need to let them know 22:19 why we're there, what are we gonna do. 22:22 And we also tried to, we tried to empower them. 22:26 Sometimes they have certain talents 22:29 but they're not sure whether if they'll be needed or not. 22:32 So we had an appeal 22:33 that very next Sabbath at the church, 22:35 and we went, we met with the church, 22:37 we met with the church members. 22:38 We were able to talk to them, 22:40 let them know what our needs are 22:42 as a group coming in, 22:45 and we needed to have food and water prepared. 22:49 I think there is a picture of that, isn't there? 22:51 Yeah, the next couple of pictures coming up here 22:53 are gonna be showing that. 22:54 This is the appeal, Sabbath morning, 22:56 and from this appeal, we had and 84 year old lady, 23:00 who is the director of ADRA for Bella Vista, 23:05 and she's on the next slide, 23:07 and you will see that she with her, 23:09 this is her niece, 23:11 she had 25 volunteers after that appeal 23:14 come Sunday morning, 5 o'clock in the morning 23:17 to start to getting meals ready. 23:18 They had 150 breakfasts for us. 23:21 And now I was just asking for a little box of food. 23:26 And she goes, "Oh, no. 23:27 We need some hot meals." 23:29 She goes, "These families that we have not touched base with, 23:33 they need a hot meal." 23:34 So she went out and she made 150 breakfasts 23:38 and then she made 200 lunches 23:41 which she actually came out in to the field 23:43 and brought to us, 23:45 which is about three hours away. 23:46 So we're talking about 84 years old 23:48 and has the energy of a young person. 23:52 And the picture that was shown up there, 23:54 I'm sure if you have anybody who is Puerto Rican, 23:58 anybody who has family, there's a famous pot, 24:02 and that pot is a Puerto Rican pot. 24:05 And she has the biggest pot that I have seen, 24:08 and this is what she uses to cook with. 24:10 Wow. 24:11 And then with her help, we were out to, 24:14 we were able to do food and water 24:16 as we had also medical teams going out there. 24:20 We had set up a base camp, 24:22 but we're also going door to door. 24:24 Now another thing that I want to touch on is 24:26 how we were saying that we were 24:28 again, the community ready and to help us. 24:31 The next slide shows us a little town 24:34 that's called Mani, 24:35 this little town is on the west side of the island. 24:38 This is right on the shore, 24:42 the Medical Cadet Corps, very famous in Puerto Rico. 24:45 This is, over there, after the Pathfinders 24:50 which is a youth ministry, 24:52 after they reached the age of 16, 24:54 they actually go into this Medical Cadet corp. 24:57 This is for young adults, 16 years of age and older, 25:01 and they have all kinds of trainings that they go through, 25:03 CPR, medical responses, 25:07 so they know, and they have been out, 25:09 and they actually were the first ones out on the field 25:12 and were able to even relay to us 25:14 as far as we need to focus on this side of the island, 25:17 this side of the island are where the needs are. 25:20 So we had young people out there serving, you know, 25:24 that always brings me back 25:27 where it says that, you know, 25:29 "Jesus came not to be served but to serve." 25:33 And this is what you see with these young people. 25:38 So as we keep going forward in these pictures, 25:43 you are also gonna see some of the damages 25:47 which is where we are gonna move in to. 25:49 We can't, we obviously can't show you all the pictures, 25:52 we are very limited to what we can show you, 25:55 but on these next slides, you will see here 25:59 this is in the same town, town of Mani, 26:02 which is on the western side, 26:04 the eastern side is where they had a bigger surge. 26:07 This surge here, if you look at the wall, 26:09 look at the background... I got that. 26:10 You could see the water line over the stove 26:13 and up into the first quarter 26:14 or the first third of the building. 26:16 You are talking about four to five feet of water 26:19 inside this home. 26:20 The next slide shows the dirt, and the mud, and the sand 26:24 that was, that's on the floor. 26:26 The residue. Yeah. 26:29 We are talking to some of the home owners 26:30 and they were saying that 26:31 it took about 48 hours for this water to recede. 26:35 But you are talking about furniture lost, beds, 26:38 whatever it is that they had 26:39 was all on the side of the road, 26:41 along with debris and all kind of stuff. 26:43 And the next slide here, this was a wooden home, 26:47 if you had a wooden home in Puerto Rico 26:50 during this storm, 26:53 you suffered great damage, 26:56 some homes were completely gone. 27:00 One picture that I wasn't able to give you was a home 27:03 that had concrete block for the first floor, 27:07 wooden floor for the second floor, 27:08 second floor was completely gone. 27:10 And this was a family, a mother who had eight foster children 27:15 and she had to return those kids back 27:20 because she knew that she wasn't gonna be able 27:21 to take care for them during this time. 27:25 And then the rest of the story, you can fill us in on that. 27:29 Well, she asked to have the children back 27:32 after the storm came and went 27:34 and they refused to give her back the children 27:37 because she has nowhere to go. 27:39 She and her husband are living in a tent in their open garage, 27:43 and it's a very tragic situation. 27:45 Erick and I were there and we stood upstairs 27:47 and there is nothing but open air. 27:49 And the tragedy is that 27:51 the children are being used to one home, 27:54 have to go back and readjust, 27:55 and this is part of the process of what we are doing 27:58 with the psychological, social, emotional, training 28:01 that we provide also, that's one of our objectives. 28:04 It's not just simply the medical assessment, 28:06 but the tremendous amount of needs 28:08 that are going to continue for months and even years 28:11 with the psychological training. 28:13 Erick has some slides about the help 28:16 that he gave the children, the play therapy, 28:18 and it was just wonderful 28:19 as they really feel they need that. 28:22 So, with the next slide coming up, you will, 28:24 you are gonna see some of the pictures 28:26 of the road ways. 28:28 This picture is actually showing sewer. 28:32 It's showing here how it all starting to back up. 28:35 Yes. 28:36 And which brings us in to a number of health issues. 28:39 Okay. 28:41 Which we were gonna, beginning in to... 28:42 Contamination. 28:44 Yeah, contamination, a disease 28:45 which we are gonna be talking about in our story later. 28:47 This here shows the road just being washed out. 28:52 And this town is, this is on the east side of the island. 28:56 This is the actual site of the island 28:57 that had seven to eight feet of surge. 29:00 When you walked into homes, 29:02 there was water all the way up to the ceiling. 29:04 And then this is what happens 29:06 when you have all this wash out of the roads... 29:08 Erosion. Sinkholes. 29:10 You start to run, and now you have here, 29:12 some of these towns has one road going in. 29:15 So now you run into issues of 29:16 how can we bring help to these residents 29:20 when we can't get there. 29:22 One of the towns that also came up 29:24 as we were there was Utuado, 29:27 I think I am saying it right. 29:28 They actually lost a major bridge 29:31 that connects the people to the main part, 29:36 and they are having to make chains of people 29:40 across the river 29:41 to be able to hand over food and water, 29:43 to be able to get it to that little town. 29:45 I think I have seen that picture 29:47 where they were talking about how they took it 29:50 into their own responsibility to create a human chain. 29:54 Yes. 29:55 So that they could get supplies across. 29:57 And so many of these stories are told and retold, 30:01 and the disaster, just to add to the broadening picture, 30:04 you know, we had hurricane Irma and then hurricane Maria, 30:07 and Maria was kind of the clean up 30:10 of whatever Irma didn't hit, Maria did. 30:12 And Maria really devastated Puerto Rico, 30:14 but Irma devastated the Virgin Islands, 30:16 and Maria also cleaned up some of the Virgin Islands 30:19 like Saint Croix and then strayed over to Puerto Rico. 30:21 So, we are talking about a wide area. 30:23 And what I want to emphasize on this is 30:24 when GR3 looks at the assessment, 30:27 and you get a call, 30:28 and have to also determine 30:31 what your resources are able to cover. 30:33 Because, if you got a call from Saint Thomas, Saint John, 30:35 Saint Croix, Puerto Rico at the same time, 30:38 you have to determine, 30:39 "Wow, how are we gonna be able to cover that large area, 30:45 and begin to assess, 30:47 and then to bring relief and recovery. 30:51 How do we do that?" 30:53 How do you determine, Dave? 30:54 And I want to ask you this question. 30:56 How do you determine what you are able to do? 30:57 Is it by the finances or is it by the team size or... 31:00 And actually, it's a good question, 31:02 an excellent question. 31:04 A lot of it is determined by a number of factors. 31:07 One is when it's large enough, 31:11 you are always trying to figure out how much beds, 31:14 how much supplies do you take and resources needed. 31:17 And we need to keep in mind 31:19 that there were storms happening domestically 31:21 in the US first... That's right. 31:23 And so we were responding, 31:24 we had one of our paramedics in Houston 31:27 leading out a team there. 31:29 We had in Florida situations, 31:32 we were doing more debris relief in Florida 31:34 where some of fork lifts and things you know, 31:37 heavy duty stuff. 31:39 But then we saw, you know, the path of things coming, 31:42 because we are focused more 31:43 on doing international response now. 31:45 So you are looking at the global picture, 31:47 usually where there's one storm, 31:49 the next one's on its heels. 31:51 And it just usually happens cyclically. 31:53 And so too often we think, "Oh, whatever organization, 31:58 we are big enough to do it all." 32:00 No, you are not. 32:01 You are a little pebble in the pond. 32:03 And so you are trying to asses now 32:05 where do you put your priorities and focus, 32:08 and there is donor fatigue going on globally. 32:11 There's so many storms happening, 32:12 people are saying, "Well, I already gave 32:14 or what do I give to," 32:16 that's another challenge that is facing, 32:18 there are many emergency response organizations 32:21 that seized to exist today financially. 32:23 Even in light of GoFundMe. Yes. 32:26 Because people, I've seen on, I did a go GoFundMe page 32:28 for a family help in St. Thomas. 32:31 After doing that 32:33 I have realized so many GoFundMe, 32:34 Help Puerto Rico, Help Harvey, Help Miami, help 32:37 and so that's the donor fatigue 32:40 because people will say, "How can we give to so many? 32:44 Our resources are limited." 32:46 But then also to help, 32:48 and when you talk about the assessment of it, 32:51 the team that you talked about. 32:52 You partnered with other organizations too, 32:54 like ADRE, 32:56 you mentioned one of those which is helping us 32:58 in development of relief agency, 32:59 so that helps you to collaborate your efforts. 33:03 And I just, may you want to speak to that, 33:05 but I want to ask Malcolm a legal question 33:07 because on that perspective, I didn't forget you, 33:10 How do you get by the logistics of it legally 33:14 because, you know, there are so many risks 33:16 to not only to team members, 33:18 but you are going into areas 33:20 where if a team member's hurt on a foreign soil. 33:22 These are the logistics that, how do you... 33:26 To answer that question simply, there is always that risk, 33:29 and there is the aspect of due diligence. 33:32 And our volunteers are well aware of the dangers, 33:37 potential dangers, 33:38 but we use every effort to keep them safe 33:40 and to make them safe. 33:42 We usually have security with us 33:43 and to help answer your question to David, 33:46 again, we go in by invitation. 33:49 We always do a pre-assessment, 33:51 and we always make sure that we have a place to go, 33:54 we have adequate security. 33:56 We will not put our volunteers at risk 33:59 in any way shape, manner, or form. 34:01 As much as we do that, 34:03 there is still always that potential for danger, 34:05 but we try to minimize that. 34:07 If you go to our website, you will find that 34:08 you can find place to sign up as a volunteer, 34:11 and also we provide excellent insurance while you are away, 34:16 it's very, very inexpensive. 34:17 So those are two other things 34:19 that we wanted to address with you. 34:21 And I brought that up 34:22 because of being aware looking at the website. 34:24 I want you people to know, 34:25 those of you listening and watching the program, 34:27 I want you to know 34:28 that they are not flying by circumstance, 34:32 but they are covering these issues. 34:34 So that when you partner with the GR3, 34:37 you are not putting yourself at risk 34:39 without any kind of possible coverage 34:42 if something happens to me while I am in the field, 34:45 there is coverage, like you mentioned insurance. 34:47 But, then also from a paramedic, EMT perspective, 34:52 having been in many of these situations, 34:54 you say well here are some of the things 34:55 that we have to be very careful 34:57 before we even go into situations like that. 35:00 And we want to make sure that we have the skill set, 35:04 the expertise for the particular location. 35:07 We don't want to overestimate our ability. 35:10 We want to be humbly enough to recognize our limitations. 35:13 I think it's very important of that pre-assessment 35:16 that we have talked about numerous times 35:18 is taken care of and looked after. 35:19 Erick? 35:21 And, John, I want to mention like this, 35:22 the assessment is an ongoing thing. 35:24 That's right, 'cause you... 35:26 That's something they can change day-to-day, 35:27 it can change hour-to-hour. 35:29 And the next couple of pictures you are going to see 35:30 where we actually have the group 35:33 that is actually out in the field. 35:35 Now this is what we call boots on the ground. 35:38 And I just want to sidetrack just for one second. 35:41 Something we, you will see pictures 35:43 where we went into the little town of Maricao, 35:47 up in the mountains which was called Indiera Fría. 35:50 When we went there, something as simple as, 35:52 we were there for hours, 35:53 something as simple as not having a bathroom location 35:58 for our staff to be able to go to the bathroom, 36:01 to be able to, I mean, something as simple as that. 36:05 I was actually joking with Pastor Canther, 36:07 I had a knife with me, 36:09 and that knife on this trip opened up so many, 36:11 it's a knife, a little trick 36:13 that we use at the fire department 36:15 to be able to open doors. 36:17 Now I say that, I say that cautiously 36:20 because there's doors that God always closes for us 36:25 because He doesn't want us to go there. 36:26 So, when I physically open a door with that little knife, 36:30 that thought always comes to my head. 36:32 You know, is this a door that the Lord wants me to open. 36:36 And that day, 36:38 we were in a little basketball court, covered, 36:43 and we were able to open up the bathrooms 36:45 that were there, 36:47 so we were able to use it. 36:48 We were using that area as a base camp. 36:51 So to go back to some of the pictures here, 36:53 we have here doctors from California, 36:56 doctors from Maples, Florida, from Fort Myers, 37:00 and we were on... 37:01 Seen here, this is Dr. Fox, 37:04 a wound specialist from California, 37:07 and he was treating here a diabetic patient 37:09 that had a sore on her foot 37:12 that had not been seen or treated 37:16 for the last 30 days. 37:17 He was able to go in there, debris, clean it, 37:21 and give her a fresh bandage and fresh wrap, 37:24 which it might seem like a little thing, 37:27 but kept her from having, from developing an infection 37:32 and serious problems later on. 37:34 And this is a lady who just needed a simple treatment 37:37 to be able to keep her healthy. 37:39 This is now a German who came in 37:40 who had a cyst on his back, 37:43 a cyst that was about a good three to four inches, 37:46 and we were able to take care of it, 37:50 and clean it out from. 37:51 And then some of the next slides 37:53 that you are gonna see here also show you the whole team. 37:56 Wow. 37:57 As this is the team that went into the mountains, 38:01 I mean, I can't even give you a number there, 38:02 but you can see the amount of people. 38:04 And when they, they were very thankful, 38:08 the hospital, to have us there 38:10 where you had doctors and nurses, 38:12 they were coming off duty and were saying, 38:15 "Where are you guys out today, I want to come with you." 38:17 And these are local doctors that were able 38:20 not only to help us to be able to get to some of these towns. 38:22 Some of them were from these towns, 38:24 lived in these towns, and were happy to go back 38:27 'cause they had families, relatives, 38:29 to be able to go and take part of this effort. 38:35 And I want to mention some of the partners also, 38:40 MAP International which actually helped us 38:41 to get some of the pharmaceuticals. 38:44 What does MAP mean? 38:46 I will turn over to Dave. 38:48 He's been working with them for years. 38:50 So MAP has been a great partner. 38:51 They have many donors that sponsor pharmaceuticals. 38:55 A lot of pharmaceuticals are from the Netherlands, 38:56 different countries that are pennies on the dollar 38:59 compared to the cost of getting them in the US, 39:02 they are the largest in the world. 39:03 We have found that by partnering, 39:05 it is a huge blessing. 39:07 And so when we order like in Haiti, 39:09 24 million dollars of pharmaceuticals 39:12 which we brought in, you know, 39:13 with 7500 medical care providers. 39:17 It's a lot of value in medicine, 39:19 but we are getting it for pennies on the dollar. 39:21 And so donors say, 39:23 "Well, how can you afford $24 million?" 39:24 I know, I was just thinking about that. 39:26 But the beautiful thing is you have donors 39:27 that are sponsoring MAP medicine, 39:29 so they can buy it, 39:30 they are buying it from the Netherlands 39:32 and other sources, 39:33 so they're getting it pennies on the dollars 39:34 compared to US prices, 39:36 so partnerships are invaluable. 39:39 People say, "How can you do so much?" 39:44 And the reason is because of partnerships. 39:46 And, David, we can add that air link 39:49 is another tremendous partner that just helps us with travel 39:52 and transportation arrangements. 39:54 Okay. 39:55 And other organizations like that. 39:57 Air link? 39:58 Air link. Okay. 40:00 So these are ways that GR3, while being the core, 40:05 while being the base of it, 40:06 if I could use the analogy of the octopus, 40:09 there are many arms. 40:10 There must be many arms in emergency response, 40:13 if not, you would need to have 40:15 so many millions and millions of dollars, 40:17 because we do know many organizations 40:20 that we work alongside. 40:23 They fly expensive air fares, 40:25 they stay in first class hotels, 40:29 they do a lot of things that cost a lot of money. 40:31 GR3 has always operated on the premise 40:33 that we all are volunteers. 40:37 You have less than one percent overhead 40:39 compared to many organizations 40:41 that it's 70 percent overhead... 40:43 I have learned that recently. 40:44 And a lot of people don't realize that. 40:46 They don't know that. 40:47 But when you are giving a dollar, 40:48 70% of it is going to administration. 40:50 It's not boots on the ground. 40:51 We are opposite of that. 40:53 So when you give a donation to GR3... 40:56 You know, Danny has asked the question, 40:58 you have over the years, "How do you do so much? 41:01 Well, it's because that donation 41:02 is going directly into action helping people. 41:06 And so by having partnerships when the, 41:08 Malcolm works a lot with air link, 41:11 making sure that our first responders 41:13 have free airfare. 41:15 Now some of the doc could pay for their own air fare, 41:17 but when you do things like that to bless others, 41:20 it allows them to return to keep helping, 41:23 and it helps be good stewards of God's money. 41:28 So when people give, they say, 41:29 "Wow, that is really making a difference." 41:33 And I heard about one organization is, 41:35 I am glad you made that point, 41:37 because a lot of times when people hear donation, 41:40 they ask, "How much is going to the field? 41:42 How much is going to the participants?" 41:44 I heard a story where one company, 41:46 I'm not going to mention the name of the company, 41:48 it's fairly well known around the world, 41:49 that the CEO had a 650,000 dollar bonus, 41:54 and I thought, "Do the people know 41:57 that the 650,000 of their donated dollars 42:00 just was a bonus, not salary." 42:02 How much relief can the people actually experience 42:04 on the ground? 42:06 And a lot of that happens, 42:07 but the GR3's philosophy is we volunteer, 42:09 and the money goes to fund the relief effort, 42:12 the assessment effort, and the revitalization effort. 42:15 And if I can just add to that, 42:16 one of the most rewarding things was our opportunity 42:18 to visit the Anatolian Adventist University... 42:21 Yes. 42:22 Dr. Herman is a wonderful, wonderful man, 42:25 and they have a problem with water, 42:28 and they have a problem with electricity, 42:30 and they are spending about 7,000 dollars a day 42:33 in a budget 42:34 that they don't have that money for, 42:36 just to keep things going. 42:37 Now the point that I am raising is that we have partners 42:40 that helped us in the Philippines 42:42 to provide huge water-filtration systems. 42:45 And they have asked us to help them with this. 42:48 And we are working towards getting that process 42:51 where we can take the system 42:53 to help keep the university going. 42:55 So let's pray for them, let's continue to work hard, 42:58 and we will work with our partners, 42:59 see what we can do to get the Anatolian University 43:02 back on track and working again. 43:04 And similar to Maranatha which does building, 43:08 you were the reserve, a rescue, relief, 43:12 and resilience aspect of an operation 43:15 that operates on pretty much the same premise by invitation. 43:19 Now do you have any more pictures 43:20 that you want to walk through? 43:22 I have the last set of pictures here I want to show you. 43:23 It's something that we, that we tend to forget. 43:26 Yes, and these are the kids. 43:28 While we had the base clinic, those in the mountains, 43:32 I saw these kids that were hanging around, 43:34 they came with the families. 43:35 Now you know they, 43:38 it's hard sometimes to have a child open up to you 43:44 and share their feelings with you. 43:46 So you start with, what is called, 43:48 was called play therapy. 43:50 So you get them involved, they get your confidence, 43:54 and you start to, you know, 43:56 they start to learn and talk with you, 43:59 and then they start to open up. 44:00 And kids, believe it or not, 44:04 they like to have a little bit of discipline, 44:07 And what I mean by that is, 44:09 I am one of the directors for the Bonita Springs Pathfinders. 44:13 So to me, when I see kids, I try to put them into action. 44:17 So even these kids that are there, 44:20 I had them marching. 44:22 I had them like if they were, like if they were a little... 44:25 Little military. A little pathfinder group. 44:27 Okay. 44:28 And let me tell you that we were playing games, 44:30 we are doing all the stuff, 44:32 and they always ask me, "Let's go back to marching. 44:33 Let's go back, we want to march." 44:35 Why? 44:36 'Cause possibly for the first time 44:37 they were able to do something as a group together, 44:40 and they were seeing the results 44:42 of how they were able to work together. 44:45 And so, you know, we were talking with them, 44:47 and this is one of those stories 44:50 where the parents were like, 44:51 they have been so into trying to get their homes fixed, 44:54 trying to get water, food. 44:56 You know some of these things that they have to get 44:58 where they are not able to have that time with their, 45:01 with their children. 45:03 Just to be able to be, to be kids, 45:05 and you know, the parents were like, 45:08 "This is the first time I have seen my child smile 45:11 and even laugh." 45:12 In the midst of disaster. Yeah. 45:13 Tell me about the by faith credit card 45:15 because these things that you are doing take funding. 45:18 Are there ways that people can participate? 45:19 They do. 45:21 And what Erick was tapping into, 45:22 and I will get to that in just a second, 45:24 it has to do with intervention, 45:26 the sooner you intervene in the traumatic stress, 45:29 the sooner they respond, and they're resilient, 45:31 God has made us that way. 45:33 So what Malcolm and Erick are sharing 45:35 that mental and emotional, spiritual care 45:37 is very intentional with GR3 and what we do. 45:41 Well, 80% of people's illnesses are of the mind 45:44 and it develops into others. 45:46 And the good point of that is you are not just restoring 45:48 buildings, and roads, and waters, 45:52 but you are restoring people. 45:54 That's a very, 45:55 and the Pastoral aspect of that gives you that insight 45:58 that we are not just administering to broken things, 46:01 but to broken people. 46:02 Pastor John, I want to mention to you, 46:04 we talked about this earlier. 46:05 This is the card actually that we use by faith. 46:09 This is the credit card that all of our expenses 46:11 for buying meds for, deploying goes on through the years. 46:17 It is by faith. 46:18 There are times that my wife and I 46:20 have had to pick up the tab on this, 46:24 but we continued to know that God is faithful. 46:27 Right now, there is a balance on this credit card of $28,000. 46:31 Deployments, medicine, 46:33 and sometimes we need to assure the particulars 46:36 that our listeners listen, there are viewers, 46:40 and they say, "How can I help?" 46:41 I want to make an appeal 46:43 that God may be speaking to someone right now. 46:46 There is a $28,000 balance on this credit card. 46:49 There are other storms coming, and God maybe speaking to you 46:53 and saying, "You know, this is a specific need." 46:55 We know how our money can be blessed and multiplied. 46:59 And if you would like to make that donation, 47:01 there is an address right now that you can see on the screen. 47:03 We will give it to them before the program. 47:04 And that will be on the screen, 47:06 and it's a new address 47:07 that we have a benefactor that is actually starting up 47:11 over calling our new training center 47:13 in Clermont, Florida. 47:14 That address will be on the screen at the end. 47:17 And there is a phone number. 47:18 It's Malcolm's phone number 47:20 so that when they make a donation, 47:23 you can call Malcolm, speak to him. 47:24 If you are calling on the Latino station, 47:26 you will speak with Erick. 47:28 Malcolm will send a personal thank you as a donor 47:32 to help out with things 47:33 specifically like this credit card. 47:35 Okay. 47:36 So that's what we are believing for is, 47:38 we don't believe this balance should be here. 47:40 And so a number of you could give small donations, 47:43 some of you could give larger donations, 47:45 but whatever exceeds this 47:47 goes in to our next deployment in helping. 47:49 So we are just thankful that many of you donors 47:52 through the years have made this possible. 47:54 And I also want to mention something that, 47:55 we did not establish in the beginning. 47:57 Not only are you an EMT, and a paramedic, 47:59 and have been in the field for 19 years, 48:01 but you are the Spanish Director for GR3. 48:04 I just want to make sure that we put that in place. 48:06 And as Pastor David pointed out, 48:10 there are differences that you can make 48:13 in your donations, 48:14 if you want to participate in, you may say, 48:16 "I want to be a volunteer," 48:18 at the website information, we give you in just a moment, 48:20 you will find out how to be a volunteer, 48:22 how to be involved in not only volunteering, 48:24 but receiving training 48:26 because there are upcoming disasters 48:28 that are not yet on our calendar. 48:30 We don't have it in the news yet, 48:32 but we live in a world of constant pain and disaster. 48:35 And there is this ever present need 48:38 to help individuals in the sense of 3Gs 48:41 or the 3Rs rescue, relief, and resilience. 48:44 And so to participate in that, to volunteer, 48:46 to be part of the training, to find out more 48:49 about inviting this organization 48:50 to come and present at your facility, 48:53 as well as donating, they are 501 C3 organizations, 48:56 so this is a tax deductible donation. 48:59 Here is the information that you need to participate 49:01 in this ministry. 49:03 Thousands of youth and adults 49:05 are joining the GR3 volunteer community 49:07 since volunteer work is an exceptional way 49:10 to help others. 49:11 To join their global response network, 49:13 please visit their website, GR3International.org. 49:17 There you will find the various ways they provide 49:20 disaster preparedness training, education, 49:22 and related services 49:24 to both domestic and global communities. 49:27 Donate online at GR3International.org 49:30 or call them at (941) 504-2324. 49:35 Their mailing address is GR3 International 11450, 49:40 Nellie Oaks Bend, Clermont, Florida 34711. |
Revised 2018-02-22