By Frank Ramirez
“Growing up in a small country I always wanted to try new things,” said Lieketseng “Keke” Phooko, who hails from Lesotho, a country entirely surrounded by South Africa. “I always wanted to be outside of my home country to practice English.”
Phooko has been able to do these things, and so much more, working for Brethren Disaster Ministries. Speaking at the Brethren Disaster Ministries and Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) Volunteer/Supporter Breakfast Friday morning at Annual Conference, she emphasized, “Brethren Disaster Ministries has really opened my mind. Travel and meeting people has been am amazing journey. I am really grateful.”
Along the way, she said, “I have learned so many skills. With all the skills I have learned I will be able to put them into practice. This is what I really wanted.”
She compared rebuilding homes in Kentucky to being both a striker and a midfielder in soccer. As a striker what she does in scoring goals is very visible, but as support staff she is like someone in the middle who makes it possible for others to achieve their goals. All this is part of fulfilling “my love, my joy, of being with people.”
Jan Fischer Bachman, web producer with the Church of the Brethren, is also a volunteer with CDS. She related some of the rewarding experiences she’d had with as a volunteer following the tornadoes that struck St. Louis. She asked her listeners at the breakfast to imagine, “If your house was hit by a tornado, would you go to a shelter? Most of us would go to a friend’s house. Those in a shelter have no friends or family who can help them.”
After allowing that to sink in, she continued. “Picture this. Imagine sleeping with your kids on cots in a room where everyone can hear what you say. Everything you still own is in garbage bags under your cot.”
The job of volunteers with CDS is to engage with children in shelters or disaster assistance centers. Stations are set up with toys, crafts, games, and play space. Fischer Bachman recalled one girl who was easy to serve until other children came into the space. Then she suddenly insisted that everything in the room was hers.
Fischer Bachman described how their training helped them navigate difficult situations like this, with language like, “You both want the same thing. How can we solve this?”
One young child refused to open her eyes, because of the trauma she’d witnessed. “I helped her walk with her eyes closed. I told her, ‘We’re not going to say you have to open your eyes.’”
After half an hour or so, she was willing to open them again.
On another occasion police arrived, fully armed, to evict some kids and their family. “Their eyes were big and full of tears,” as they were taken away. Trying to think of how to help, she spoke to each one, saying things like, “You are a great person. We loved getting to spend time with you. Always help. Don’t hurt. You are going to do amazing things.”
The next day one of the evicted children, who’d been avoiding their station, showed up again. Acknowledging the confusing situation, she said that it was the most engagement she’d ever seen from him. And someone later told Fischer Bachman, “Your words made a difference.”
The program concluded with video clips from the president and vice-president of the Church of the Brethren in the Democratic Republic of Congo, describing their work on behalf of Brethren Disaster Ministries, and thanking everyone for their help. They were unable to get visas and so were unable to attend the Annual Conference.
— Frank Ramirez is a retired pastor and a volunteer on the Annual Conference Press Team.
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