Billy Graham Rapid Response Team (BG-RRT) chaplains deployed to Lenoir, North Carolina to provide emotional and spiritual support at a Samaritan’s Purse Emergency Field Hospital that has been set up as regional medical centers reach capacity. Samaritan’s Purse will begin the construction of the 30-bed, emergency facility on Friday. The unit will provide COVID-19 support and assist five health care systems in western North Carolina.
“In 2020, we deployed crisis-trained chaplains to serve alongside Samaritan’s Purse Emergency Field Hospitals, helping support communities in Italy, New York City, the Bahamas and the Navajo Nation, which were overwhelmed with COVID-19. As the virus is spiking at the beginning of 2021, we consider it a privilege to offer the same support in our ministries’ home state of North Carolina,” said Josh Holland, assistant director of the BG-RRT. “We pray that the Lord will use our chaplains to share the love of the Lord Jesus Christ in this area where the virus is impacting so many families.”
The 30-bed field hospital has been constructed on the grounds of Caldwell UNC Health Care.
With a total of 47 deployments in 2020, this is the first new deployment in 2021 for the BG-RRT. Chaplains continue to serve in Lake Charles and DeQuincy, Louisiana, as well as Foley, Alabama, where they have been deployed since the fall as the Gulf of Mexico was devastated by multiple hurricanes during one of the worst hurricane seasons in history.
For more information on the ministry, including videos, photos, news articles and an interactive map of former and current deployments, visit BillyGraham.org/RRT.
Updates can also be found at Facebook.com/RRTChaplains.
The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team was developed by Franklin Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It has since grown into an international network of chaplains in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia who are specifically trained to deal with crisis situations. They have deployed to more than 450 disaster sites across the globe, including shootings, floods, hurricanes, wildfires and tornadoes.