Red Cross volunteer Greg Gooch, a member of the Disaster Spiritual Care team, talks to shelter resident Patricia Keith, offering her words of encouragement. (Red Cross photo by Carl Manning)
By Carl Manning, American Red Cross
American Red Cross volunteer Greg Gooch was making the rounds at one of the shelters when he stopped to talk to a resident relaxing on his cot after surviving the St. Louis tornado.
As a Disaster Spiritual Care team member, Greg offers words of comfort and hope to those recovering from disasters like Anthony Anderson who talked about how he felt and then asked Greg to pray with him.
Greg, a retired minister, knelt next to his cot and as he started praying Anthony folded his hands and joined him. As Greg stood to leave, Anthony thanked him and said he felt better.
“Stay in touch with your faith background because it really is a source of strength,” Greg said.
The unique role of Red Cross Spiritual Care volunteers is to assist people in drawing upon their own spiritual resources of values and faith amid their pain, regardless of their faith or belief tradition.
When requested, team members listen and offer emotional, spiritual, and religious support. They also can be a conduit between the faith tradition of individuals and a spiritual providers in the local community when appropriate.
Because spirituality is very personal, Red Cross Disaster Spiritual Care volunteers must be able and willing to support any faith, or no faith, without injecting their own beliefs.
Greg said praying with people isn’t something he automatically asks to do, but if they request it as Anthony did, then he is there to help.
“As part of Spiritual Care,” Greg said, “we look for people in distress and try to engage them. As ask them how they were affected and let them talk — we just listen to what they have to say.”
At another shelter, Greg talked to Yolanda Brefford about her ordeal during the storm and how she wants to get back in her apartment to salvage what she can.
Red Cross volunteer Greg Gooch is part of the Disaster Spiritual Care team working in St. Louis after it was struck by a tornado. Red Cross shelter resident Anthony Anderson asked Greg to pray with him. (Red Cross photo by Carl Manning)
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“My focus is getting the person reconnected with whatever their faith background might be,” Greg said. “This is not about proselytizing in our faith belief. People need to voice their story and know that somebody cares.”
He talked to another shelter resident, Patricia Keith, about the trauma of the disaster and listened as she said, “I was spared by the grace of the Lord. The biggest blessing is being alive.”
Nodding in agreement, Greg said, “It sounds like the faith inside sustained you.”
Greg said he has been a Spiritual Care volunteer for seven years and last year he responded to eight disasters in seven months.
He said his reason for doing it is really a simple one .
“I love to help people, and I get a real joy and fulfillment out of helping people in a critical situation,” he said.
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