LCC CARE TEAM MINISTERS TO RUIDOSO RESIDENTS OF MANY BACKGROUNDS, CIRCUMSTANCES

Led by professional counselors Dawn Petersen of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Houston, Texas, and Jeanette Singer of Lord of Glory Grayslake, the LCC Care Team paid special attention to the biological, livelihood, emotional, social, and spiritual unmet needs of the residents of Ruidoso, who had endured so much tragedy and internalized it for months. 

The Care Team started its ministry of caring by handing out a Heart of Mercy & Compassion at Shepherd of the Hills to Pastor Jason Rust and his wife Rebecca (pictured at right) during Sunday service, followed by a pastor-to-pastor dinner among the Singer and Rust families. The Rusts have been on the frontline of ministering to the community for the summer and fall. Pastor Rust is also a volunteer firefighter in town. 

HMCs were also presented to officers at the Ruidoso Police Department and to officials at Ruidoso town hall, all of whom bravely helped evacuate community members at the height of the wildfire.

Over three days, the LCC Care Team visited more than a dozen locations, encouraging residents across a spectrum of backgrounds — hospital ER staff, first responder dispatchers, firefighters, nursing home and assisted living center residents, property owners, and mobile home park residents, Boys & Girls Club children — all of them with anxieties about the fire and flood. 

Workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency helped by pointing out additional people who could benefit from extra attention and care.
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LCC K-9 Comfort Dog Persis with handlers Steve and Roxy Hurry of King of Kings Lutheran Glenpool, Oklahoma, were welcomed by dog lovers at fire stations and nursing homes. One woman who had the ashes of past golden retrievers in urns in her room delighted at Persis’s calm presence.  

“The Care Team was able to experience meaningful moment after meaningful moment,”said LCC President/CEO Rev. Chris Singer. “We encountered people who were putting on a brave face after months of coping after so much of their town was decimated. Some were guarded and slow to talk about what had happened. Others were more willing to share what they were going through. But one thing was clear — all of them needed to hear the hope and joy of Jesus that can be experienced no matter the circumstances.”

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​On Tuesday, at one of the final ministry stops of the trip, Persis Comfort Dog and her handlers the Hurrys, plus other LCC Care Team members, played and talked with a group of children at the Ruidoso Boys & Girls Club after-school program.

The LCC Care Team listened to their stories about wildfire smoke filling the sky and how they had to hurriedly flee to shelters with their families. Afterward, the children sat down and wrote about what the visit meant. One child summed it up: "I forgot about all of my problems." 

The visit lasted only an hour, but the joyful interaction seemed to be a divine appointment for the kids to experience peace and hope for a short time.

READ MORE about the Disaster Response part of the deployment