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Samaritan’s Purse is helping coronavirus patients at an emergency field hospital in Lancaster, California, in addition to families recovering from natural disasters across the nation.
The organization packed up its North Carolina field hospital Wednesday because COVID-19 numbers dropped and the help was no longer needed.
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“Wherever we’re needed we’ll go if we can get there. We’ll try to make a difference,” Franklin Graham, Samaritan’s Purse president and CEO, told the Todd Starnes Show Thursday.
The state-of-the-art medical facility in Southern California has the capacity for 54 beds, where they currently have 26 patients and have discharged at least 104 patients so far.
The evangelist said they’ve already been in New York, Italy, the Bahamas, North Carolina, and now California this year to help with the pandemic.
Graham explained that hundreds of tough, fearless Christian doctors and nurses from around the country “are on call and they’re willing to drop what they’re doing and come work for us a week, two weeks, a month, whatever the case may be.”
“Most of them are fairly young, and it’s just great to see that there’s a core of young people today that have a burden to make a difference in this world for Jesus Christ, and they’re willing to put their lives in harm’s way to help save the lives of others,” he added.
In addition to COVID relief, Samaritan’s Purse hasn’t stopped helping with families recovering from natural disasters hit hard in the Gulf Coast.
“We’re working in Jefferson, Alabama; Lake Charles and Quincy, Louisiana,” Graham said.
In Lake Charles, Louisiana, the ministry has helped over 800 homeowners with close to 1,000 volunteers, and in Quincy they’ve helped over 500 homeowners with 350 volunteers.
“The need is still great and we still need volunteers, so if there’s churches listening and you’ve got a men’s group or whatever and you’d like to put together a few vans of guys, come on down, we’d love to have your help,” Graham implored.
“If you can’t get out there, you can also donate,” host Todd Starnes said.
“We appreciate not only everybody’s financial support but we appreciate everybody’s prayer support,” Graham said. “We need prayer and we would rather have prayer than anything else, because without God guiding and directing and leading us, we wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
Caleb Parke is a senior correspondent for the ‘Todd Starnes Show.’ Follow him on Twitter,Facebook, Instagram, and connect with him at calebparke.com.
TRANSCRIPT of FULL INTERVIEW:
GRAHAM: We’ve got a field hospital. It’s a 54-bed unit in the hospital that we’ve set up. Today we’ve got 26 patients. We’ve had a total of 130 so far. We’ve discharged 104.
It’s a great opportunity to help the folks there in Los Angeles County.
Los Angeles County is still very hard hit with coronavirus. The rest of the country, lots of places, it’s going down, but there in Los Angeles County, it seems to still be very hot, very active, so we’ll be out there in Lancaster for as long as we’re needed.
We had a field hospital here in North Carolina. We closed it yesterday because the numbers have just come down and we weren’t needed.
What we do is pack up a hospital and we crate it up and we’re ready for another deployment somewhere else if we’re needed. We’ve already this year been in New York; Crimona, Italy; we’ve been down in the Bahamas; of course, North Carolina; now California, and
Wherever we’re needed we’ll go if we can get there. We’ll try to make a difference.
State-of-the-art medical facilities. Graham said the doctors and nurses “come from around the country. We have hundreds of doctors and nurses that are on call and they’re willing to drop what they’re doing and come work for us a week, two weeks, a month, whatever the case may be, and these are Christian doctors and nurses and they just love a challenge. They’ll go anywhere in the world. They’re just not afraid. They’re tough. They’ve been to Iraq with us when we had the trauma hospital outside of Mosel, the most incredible team of men and women, and most of them are fairly young, and it’s just great to see that there’s a core of young people today that have a burden to make a difference in this world for Jesus Christ, and they’re willing to put their lives in harm’s way to help save the lives of others.
We’ve got a lot of wonderful people involved who volunteer and give their time as well as the COVID, responding to COVID, we’re still responding to some of the tornadoes that we’ve seen … the hurricanes that we saw earlier this year. We’re working in Jefferson, Alabama; Lake Charles, Louisiana to Quincy, Louisiana. You take the Golf Coast. It was just devastated this year. I think we had five … so we’ve got volunteers there. In Lake Charles we’ve helped over 800 homeowners and Quincy we’ve got over 500 homeowners we’ve been helping and we’ve had over 350 volunteers. In Lake Charles, we’ve had close to 1,000 volunteers help us down there. The need is still great and we still need volunteers, so if there’s a churches listening and you’ve got a men’s group or whatever and you’d like to put together a few vans of guys, come on down, we’d love to have your help.”
STARNES: If you can’t get out there, you can also donate.
GRAHAM: We appreciate not only everybody’s financial support but we appreciate everybody’s prayer support. We need prayer and we would rather have prayer than anything else, because without God guiding and directing and leading us, we wouldn’t be able to do anything.
So we just give God the glory and we thank Him for what he’s provided to the organization that allows us to be able to respond, whether it’s COVID, tornadoes, hurricanes or whatever disasters are out there, he’s allowed us to be able to respond and we thank Him.
Attacks from the Biden-Harris Administration:
GRAHAM: First I think we respond by praying for President Biden. I certainly don’t agree with a lot of these things that he’s been signing and some of the people that he’s appointed to the government, but this is his administration, and I think what we need to do is pray that God would guide and direct, especially as it comes to the threats to religious freedom, the Equality Act, I know he said he’s for that and that is extremely dangerous and we just need to pray that God would somehow intervene, and if the church prays, I believe that we can see great things happen. We shouldn’t be discouraged, we should be encouraged that we want to be the salt and we want to be the light in this very dark part of history that we’re going through, and this is the time for the church to stand up. We don’t need to retreat, and dig a hole and hide in it. Let’s stand out and let’s speak up and be the salt and light that God wants us to be.
Host Todd Starnes agreed, saying that in his book, “Culture Jihad,” he encourages readers to be happy warriors.
STARNES: We cannot and we must not adapt the tactics of the left. That’s not who we are as Christians.
GRAHAM: We don’t accept this wicked agenda that they are proposing. We stand in opposition to it, but we want to stand on God’s truth, on his word and what the Bible says.
We give to Ceasar’s what is Ceasar’s but when Ceasar comes along with moral issues that are opposed to the God standard then we have to speak up. Same-sex marriage is a big issue. Transgender is a big issue. These are things that we as Christians need to be speaking up and teaching to our children, warning our children, and pastors need to be warning their congregations and if we don’t, we’re going to lose.”
STARNES: I feel so encouraged by what Franklin Graham just said. We are people of faith. We people of the book and that’s how we should conduct ourselves, and it’s good times, bad times, it doesn’t matter. And when you do that you’re even keeled … but if you’re grounded in your faith you’re going to get through the difficult times, and no doubt about it, we’re going through some difficult times as a country right now, but we’ll get through it.