“The dogs make us feel safe”

On second deployment to Texas Hill Country, LCC ministry teams bring care, comfort

More than three weeks have passed since the tragic Texas Hill Country flooding took at least 135 lives along the Guadalupe River basin, decimating multiple communities and bringing heartbreak to hundreds of families.

Lutheran Church Charities responded with its second deployment to the region in July with six LCC K-9 Comfort Dog Ministry teams from four states. Partnering with Hosanna Lutheran Kerrville and flood relief coordinator Hope Timmer, the teams met and prayed with residents at a Saturday night memorial in Kerrville and Sunday afternoon community gathering in Hunt. The groups also visited with FEMA Disaster Response Center staff, city and county law enforcement officers, and workers at a mental health facility.

The trauma of the catastrophic flood continues to hit hard. As the K-9 Comfort Dog teams greeted a group of teenagers at Hosanna, one youth admitted he hadn’t fully processed the emotions of what had happened.

“But the dogs make us feel safe,” he said.

Residents shared story after story of finding bodies and the lingering heaviness of grief. “Everybody knows somebody,” one woman told the LCC contingent. “It’s all interconnected.”

Another said: “My house is okay; I am not.”  

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Ministering on LCC’s second deployment were:

Gabriel Comfort Dog (Messiah - Houston, TX) with handlers Janet and Charles Cook
Keren Comfort Dog (Immanuel - Ellsworth, KS) with handlers Mike and Linda Rust
Olive Comfort Dog (St. Paul - Fort Worth, TX) with handlers LuAnn Kelly and Laura Lewallen
Persis Comfort Dog (Christ Redeemer - Tulsa, OK) with handlers Eric Wendelbo, Lori Knoepfel, and Diane Fager
Thomas Comfort Dog (St. Paul - Concordia, MO) with handlers Beth Kruse and Andrea Schmidt
Triton Comfort Dog (Messiah - Plano, TX) with handlers Marti Matz and Amy Plenger
Point person Kelly Shivertaker (Bethany - Austin, TX)
Ministry partner Ken Wehmeyer (Bethany - Austin, TX)

After arriving on Friday afternoon, the K-9 teams had a full schedule on Saturday, making a stop at the FEMA Disaster Relief Center in Kerrville. On Saturday evening, as the stifling heat and humidity started to wane, they fanned out among residents gathered at the city’s memorial wall. They experienced numerous encounters and conversations fueled by the Holy Spirit:

• Laura Lewallen of Team Olive met a woman who had left Kerrville two days before the flood and is still struggling with guilt that she wasn’t in town to help when the river rose.
  
• Mike and Linda Rust of Team Keren shared a prayer with two men who approached a cross memorial.
  
• Also at the cross memorial, Beth Kruse and Andrea Schmidt of Team Thomas comforted a woman who was crying. Thomas Comfort Dog approached, and the woman stopped weeping and pet him. The women prayed together.
  

On Sunday, after worship at Hosanna, the church’s flood relief coordinator Hope Timmer invited the group to a community get-together in Hunt. “I’m grateful for the K-9 teams’ presence here. I feel they were able to touch many people in our community,” she said.

That evening, local restaurant Billy Gene’s picked up the tab for dinner for the K-9 teams.

On Monday, the group visited coffee shops in the area to greet residents, and then they had a full slate of stops, including the Kerrville Veterans of Foreign Wars lodge, the city’s 911 call center, Kerr Country Sherriff’s Office, and the Hill Country Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Center.

HELP LCC BE THERE: TEXAS HILL COUNTRY FLOODING