Plugged In Podcast
Plugged In Podcast
Episode 24 - Part 1 - Jesus' Farewell Message & Emily Mew, Director of Emergency Disaster Services
What drives someone to rush toward disasters while others flee? For Emily Mew, Director of Emergency Disaster Services for The Salvation Army Massachusetts Division, it's about creating order in chaos and offering compassion when it's needed most.
Having spent over a decade with The Salvation Army and four years working with children in Nicaragua, Emily brings extraordinary perspective to disaster response. From her first deployment to Hurricane Harvey with less than 24 hours' notice to walking through earthquake-damaged communities in Puerto Rico where families slept in tents outside their homes for fear of aftershocks, Emily shares what happens behind the scenes when tragedy strikes.
"You're not anticipating what re-entry is going to be like until it's happening to you," Emily explains, revealing the emotional complexity responders face when returning home after witnessing communities in crisis. This "ministry of presence" - simply being there in someone's darkest moment - forms the foundation of effective disaster response.
The episode opens with a humorous yet relatable parenting challenge as co-host Nate discovers his young son has made nearly $60 in unauthorized Amazon in-app purchases, prompting nostalgic reflections on how technology and responsibility have evolved since the days of Tamagotchis.
Whether you're curious about emergency response, considering disaster volunteer work, or simply want to understand how faith communities mobilize during crises, this conversation offers rare insights into the people who run toward trouble rather than away from it. Subscribe now and join our new segment exploring Jesus's farewell message in John 14-17.
all right, everyone, welcome back to the plugged in podcast. This is episode number 24. Hard to believe that we are 24 episodes into this uh adventure, uh, but here we are.
Speaker 2:We're recording on saint patrick's day yeah, you guys are wearing some shade of green, we are this is the best shade of green that we've got in our closet.
Speaker 1:I'm not. I'm rolling with all black. I don't even think I knew it was St Patrick's Day until I got to work.
Speaker 3:You are at a funeral.
Speaker 1:You know our last episode. I feel like we entered March and I put on the green colors in the background.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I was like oh, we're.
Speaker 2:It is strong.
Speaker 1:It's a strong green it plummeted our numbers like we can't do that anymore.
Speaker 2:We can't do that again. We have to try and come back from that, yeah.
Speaker 3:Nate, you got something for us today. Oh man, I have a rant today. Okay let's hear it. If anyone knows me, they know that one of the things that really, like I get frustrated about is spending unnecessary money. Yep, this is true.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:I am a cheapskate and I will go out of my way to not spend.
Speaker 2:If you listen to the last episode, he was basing his rankings for March fatness.
Speaker 1:Yeah, five guys.
Speaker 2:Too expensive, go ahead.
Speaker 3:So this morning this is my routine. After I like get up go to the bathroom. I check my bank account every day to see if like any ridiculous charge just like posted to my account. And today I saw four ridiculous charges on my account 1593, 1593, 1593 734. Is this from your wife?
Speaker 1:no, no, this is not from my wife. I mean, it's a natural question.
Speaker 2:It's a natural question, other heinsman. No, we, we talk like we have a great cooperative.
Speaker 3:You know financial agreement like we work together cooperative financial agreement I ask.
Speaker 2:I ask if I can spend. That's how we cooperate.
Speaker 3:We work on it but um, yeah, yeah, this came from the one and only our son, oh jackson. His first purchase ever no, not his first, unfortunately, this has become a pattern of destructive behavior.
Speaker 3:So he has a Amazon Fire tablet Okay, and most of the time he only gets to use it when we're on long car rides, you know traveling on a Sunday or we're road tripping or whatever, because you know if he could be on all day he would, yeah, and we try to limit that, sure. And so he loves playing different games. Has a like a plethora of games on this amazon kids account. However, amazon, my rant is really against amazon. They make it impossible for you to I don't know, block in-app purchases or to prevent the store from popping up.
Speaker 2:They, they fish at kids knowing that they're just going to click any button for the next game. Last month he spent about 70 dollars, yeah, so we went in and we took all the in-app purchases off we did what we could. The problem is he likes to watch kids youtube, which you can't watch on the kids account, so he was. He was on like my account okay, just linked to prime yeah then he just spent another like like 60 bucks we're at like close to 200 dollars.
Speaker 2:It's amazing and like and one of them was, just like this princess game, 15 bucks. I said jackson, what are you he's like, he's like. You have to get her like you have. She has to like race through these different like clothing items she has to race and get the right clothes on so that, so that the boy will marry her. I'm like what I was so angry so I did some internet sleuthing this morning and blocked my account now, so you can't do it.
Speaker 1:As soon as you started telling this story, I was like Jeff Bezos somewhere is like this was the plan. This was the plan, and here we are, and this is why he's like a trillionaire. Yeah right.
Speaker 3:Because of little five-year-old kids that are buying apps every day.
Speaker 2:The worst part was like nate got up and started his morning routine. I was still laying in bed just waking up. Jackson had come in and was was kind of barely awake. He was just kind of laying there. Nate charges out of the bathroom and is just like have it again and I'm just like like so jackson. So jackson shoots out of bed and he's like I'm sorry, daddy, I didn't buy anything with numbers, it just had words.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness. So I was like Nate, you need to just calm down We'll talk about this when we are vertical and awake At some point, he's going to buy something that overdrafts your account.
Speaker 2:He's on a good trend for it. Yeah, he's going to have like a $3,000. Yeah, buy a new iPhone.
Speaker 3:We're going on vacation next month and I keep telling him Jackson, if you keep buying these things, we can't go on vacation.
Speaker 4:He's like Dad are we not able to go on vacation anymore? Then I felt guilty.
Speaker 3:I don't want to put fear into him.
Speaker 2:He said are you going to leave me behind when you go on vacation?
Speaker 3:I was like you need to turn this around. I need to tone it down a bit. I get a little bit too intense sometimes.
Speaker 1:You don't want to hear that at like 7.15 in the morning but that was me today, wow. That's crazy, like when you're at the store and you're like buying kids toys like you can tell I mean I feel like your eyes don't really open to this until you're a parent but you see like, oh, they don't make toys that are like you know, they don't make it by accident that you can purchase like oh, here's how you swipe your credit card, or like there's that cash register machine Like no.
Speaker 1:this is made by a for profit company that wants you to.
Speaker 3:It's probably sponsored by MasterCard or you know, but no, that's a big bucks behind a real men young man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Strategically they're probably. I mean, that's like it's a whole different world.
Speaker 2:Yeah but now the app that pops up and it's like you can continue playing with tom the cat and you can get him a new hat for 15 and it's like why? Yes, I do want to do.
Speaker 3:It's just too easy we had tamagotchis when we were kids right, and it's like you clean up their poop and you feed them, but you're not making in-app purchases this is basically, this is basically the tamagotchi of 2025, because it's like, oh, if you want tom the cat to survive, you need to pay for this yeah, no, when, tom.
Speaker 1:Just a quick side story. I can't believe you brought up tamagotchis millennials, baby let's go. No, I like have distinct memories of first of all, like everyone had them yeah to your belt, yeah, belt loop but I distinctly remember, like once they got banned from my school.
Speaker 1:Yep, like you had to have a real conversation with your mom that was like, hey, I have to leave this at home, but if you don't like relieve it, let it go to the bathroom. It's going to die. Like mom, can you take care of my Tamagotchi? And like I'm just trying to imagine myself in that situation now.
Speaker 3:The ridiculousness.
Speaker 2:Yes, are you serious, mom? You need to feed, like. Here's my tamagotchi. Take him to work with you. I'm not allowed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I have an embarrassing tamagotchi story. Okay, I'm here for it. I borrowed a friend's tamagotchi on the bus and I want to take care of it. Yeah, I dropped it in the toilet at my house, nice, and then I had to pretend to my friend that I just lost. I lost it because I didn't want to admit to him that I dropped it in the toilet and it died.
Speaker 3:I ended up like reimbursing him Reimbursing your parents, my parents paid some money to him, but I just didn't want him to know that I dropped it in the toilet.
Speaker 2:Now, he knows.
Speaker 3:Now it's out there. Public record.
Speaker 1:I have to imagine that somewhere like our parents had a conversation that was just like well, I mean, it's teaching them responsibility.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Like you know anyways.
Speaker 1:Well, hilarious, okay, good start.
Speaker 3:Yeah, episode number 24 of the Plugged.
Speaker 2:In Podcast.
Speaker 1:We do have a really strong episode for you today. In just a minute we're going to welcome a special guest. We're bringing in Emily Mew, who is the Director of Emergency Disaster Services for the Salvation Army Massachusetts Division. Now I don't know Emily that well personally, but from my interactions with her professionally over the years I can say she is the kindest person with the biggest heart.
Speaker 1:She cares about people and I'm really excited to ask her some questions about emergency disaster work here in the Massachusetts Division. And I'm almost stunned that she didn't cancel on us today because as far as when we recorded this this weekend, there were deadly tornadoes that kind of ripped across the South.
Speaker 1:So I'm curious to hear if she knows if the Salvation Army is being mobilized in the South and if sometimes they draw in major disasters, they'll draw from teams in the South, and if sometimes they draw in major disasters, they'll draw from teams in the North. So I'm just curious to see if, if, uh, if she may get deployed. So that's going to be a great interview and then, uh, at the back half, the back end of our podcast. So we're going to start a new segment today and as we lead into oh, you smiled Cause you did, you think I was going into March fatness. I thought you were going into March Fatness.
Speaker 1:I wasn't, I wasn't, I forgot all about it.
Speaker 3:He was ready.
Speaker 1:No, we're going to continue our bracket with March Fatness. We have an update for the voting that took place on Instagram at MassYouth, so we'll update our listeners with that, and we'll do that while Emily is here. Right, but in the latter half of our podcast today, we're starting a new segment that's going to lead us into the Easter season and there is a Bible study that we're going to focus on. That's called Jesus's farewell message, and so this is done by Francis Chan and it's on right now media. So if you're a salvation army core officer, uh, listening to this podcast, you have access to right now media for free. There's a subscription that's paid for you.
Speaker 1:So if you're interested in going through this with us, uh, with people in your core, it's a very interesting study. And I will say, um, for someone I like to think like, uh, cinematically. I like to think kind of like on Epic proportions, like when I read the red letters of the Bible and know that Jesus is speaking. I hear like the slow pace in his voice, or I hear like the pad of music underneath it that provides that like intensity.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm talking about maybe in the post production I'll put a pad to my words right now, just so it can provide some gravitas.
Speaker 1:but Francis Chan, he has some videos and he talks about. When you're reading this passage, we're going to be looking at John 14 through 17. He says take yourself to a place that no one can find you, because the weightiness of the words of Jesus this is the last thing that he says to his disciples and, by extension, to us before he leaves earth and the weight of what he has to say is so crucial, so consequential, so massive that it's not something that you can just gloss over or just read, but you need to be alone, you need to meditate, you need to be connected to God.
Speaker 1:When you hear these words, when you read them, it's also I can save this for later but I also found it really challenging, because you're like reading Jesus' words and I felt like a disciple, where half the time I'm like, okay, I get that, and then the other half I'm just like what does that mean? Yeah, exactly Like what are you really saying?
Speaker 3:And show us yeah.
Speaker 1:And the disciples have those questions. So if you're curious, stick around all the way to the end of the podcast. We're going to break this into two segments. Yep, so today we're starting Jesus's farewell message. Well, we're going to take a quick break here on the Plugged In Podcast, episode number 24. And when we come back we'll have Emergency Disaster Services.
Speaker 3:Director Emily Mew, We'll be right back.
Speaker 1:All right. Welcome back to episode number 24 of the Plugged In Podcast we are recording this time.
Speaker 2:Oh good.
Speaker 1:We just had a little snafu with our Should have been here five minutes ago.
Speaker 2:everyone I know.
Speaker 1:I'm going to redo all the jokes now.
Speaker 4:You had the most amazing things in those five minutes and you lost it. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1:So, like I always say, our production budget it's not low. It's not low, but it's also not high. It's not low but it's also not high. So, anyways, well, we are here, episode 24. None of the listeners know what we're talking about, but we are here with a special guest today. In just a minute, we're going to fill you in on our March fatness bracket, but before we do, we want to welcome to the studio, which you're familiar with, emily Mew, who is the Emergency Disaster Services Director for the Salvation Army Massachusetts Division.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the podcast, Emily.
Speaker 1:Thank you there it is Not at that time.
Speaker 2:There it is. Second time's a charm.
Speaker 1:Well, Emily, we're happy to have you on the show today. We'd like to know, and for our listeners to know, kind of your story. How did you come to your position? Why do you work for the Salvation Army?
Speaker 4:What does a day in your life look like Sure? So, as I was, saying the last time we started this conversation before we were recording.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to live this one down.
Speaker 4:No, I just said that there's no sort of like crazy story of how I got here prior to and I've been here for about 11 years or going on 12. That's incredible, and I've worked in two different departments here. I started in service extension and, for those who don't know, that's a department that does social services outside of the core area, so the core have their catchment areas and their towns and then across the rest of the state is service extension, and so I would work with volunteers, recruit volunteers to provide services through the Salvation Army. Prior to that, I had been doing social services mostly in my life, working with kids and teens, some of who had behavioral issues, and then I went to grad school for public policy and administration because I wanted to change the systems that I had been working in.
Speaker 4:After grad school I ended up traveling and actually moved to Nicaragua. So I lived in Nicaragua for four years Wow, yeah, four years Met somebody, got married while I was in Nicaragua and then got pregnant and decided I did not want. And while I was there I was working with kind of the kids living on the streets.
Speaker 4:So the kids who you know in other countries. Kids aren't mandated to go to school all the time, so their parents, who are living in extreme poverty, sometimes send them out to the streets to sell stuff or to just work and bring money back to the household. And we were trying to get those kids into school. So that was what I was doing down there. But when I got pregnant I decided I was living in an area that didn't have good health care and I decided I did not want to give birth in that area. So I started looking for a job and landed the job in service extension. Wow, it's the Salvation Army here in Massachusetts. And going a little bit farther back, my father was a firefighter and he used to ring the bell for the Salvation Army years ago, and so I obviously knew a little bit about the army, but like most people, I knew a very tiny amount. So I applied to this job that was mostly because it was like social service stuff and then I learned all of the amazing things that the army does.
Speaker 4:And here I am, 12 years later, in a different position because I ended up getting involved in the emergency disaster piece. So out in Western Mass I live in Western Massachusetts. So I was out there We'd had some big fires. I started working with Chris, who was my predecessor, started responding to some of those big fires and realized this is this is it, this is what I want to do, um, and then when this position opened up, I applied um and I had already, before that, been deployed. So I actually my first major deployment, um and when I say deployment it's a two week period uh was to hurricane Harvey in Houston. Wow, so that really opened up my eyes to what the EDS department does here and really got me excited about that type of work or this type of work that I now do.
Speaker 1:I remember the visuals from Hurricane Harvey and it was, like you know, highway overpasses in Houston that were underwater.
Speaker 3:That was a huge, huge thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you said your, your dad was a firefighter, yep, and so your family has a history of of helping people, or just, uh, I said before you came out, I told you you were saying all good things, um, you have a huge heart, you're extremely kind, you have a huge heart.
Speaker 1:Was there like a, like, a, a turning point or a moment in your life where you're like I, I want to help people? Or you said you went to school to change the systems, Like, was there any kind of like? I don't know, that's a very specific question, but was there a turning point where you were like I want to do this, I want to help people?
Speaker 4:Well, I don't know about a turning point. I mean I feel like I always did, I always, even in high school and college. I mean in college like I ran the local chapter of the Habitat for Humanity and so you know a couple spring break trips like we took week trips down south to build homes, homes, and I did a.
Speaker 4:I actually did a like a medical trip and also one of my spring breaks to, and I was like translating. I wasn't in the medical field because I was only in college, but I had studied Spanish and and so went with this local, you know local doctors. It wasn't it wasn't Doctors Without Borders, but one of those types, something like that, yeah.
Speaker 4:Something like that and went down and I remember translating for the physical therapist. So I was like in this room and you know, my Spanish was not super great as a college student, it's still amazing but I was like I could figure it out, yeah, so like doing those sorts of things just early on, I guess, was sort of always been what I've done. And I don't know, maybe I got it from my dad, but I remember a story he told me years ago about like going and running into a burning building and pulling out a baby. You know, like saving a baby's life was like the moment for him as a firefighter.
Speaker 4:And maybe I, you know, I never strangely. Maybe it's because back then, like women, didn't really go into firefighter, um, and maybe I, you know, wanted I never. Strangely, maybe it's cause back then, like women, didn't really go into firefighting, um, it didn't really cross my mind to become a firefighter. But maybe figuring it, figuring out other ways to help, was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean we've talked on the podcast before about having generational influences on us whether we know it or not, you know having it be there, modeled for us, has an impact on your life, um in your current position here at the Salvation Army. What does a normal day look like? And then what does like the most chaotic day?
Speaker 4:look like yeah, and it can really vary, it goes back and forth. A normal day would be me sitting at my computer, just like everybody else's day, you know, like making connections, planning meetings, figuring out you know an event that's coming up. And then a chaotic day would be actually just like yesterday. Fresh off a chaotic day, it was a Sunday, I just said to.
Speaker 1:Loretta, I'm almost surprised that you didn't cancel on us today based on the tornadoes that went through yesterday. So I don't know if any of our teams are being deployed, or because I know sometimes we get pulled down to other areas.
Speaker 4:Yeah, not yet. That doesn't mean yes, we'll go. It doesn't mean no, we won't. The southern territory has a pretty solid EDS response. They have way more people than we do up here. They have way more capacity, way more money. They've got money and they reach out when they don't have what you know like. The most recent was the hurricanes, obviously Hurricane Helene and Milton. They reached out, which was actually surprising, because that's the first time in a long time that they have requested so many personnel so quickly, I think, since 9-11, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 4:So no, we haven't been requested yet. I don't know if we will. So I don't want to make it sound like, yeah, I'm just waiting and we will, because they may be able to handle it. But yesterday there was a big fire in Boston. Yeah, it was an eight alarm fire and it was a Sunday morning and of course all of our officers are about to go do church and and it's the day before Thanksgiving, the day before St Patrick's Day, where everything is closed. It was not. It was a plant of some sort like a trash receptacle plant, so there was no displaced, thankfully.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of the parade was yesterday, right? I mean there's a lot of like Boston Police Department Fire Department involved in that parade. I don't know if it was yesterday or I don't know what day. The parade was yesterday, right? I mean there's a lot of like Boston Police Department, fire Department, correct.
Speaker 4:Involved in that parade. I don't know if it was yesterday or I don't know what day the parade was or was, but yeah, I mean I was. I had a day planned because it was a Sunday.
Speaker 4:I was driving down to New Haven and I'm like trying to call everybody as I'm driving with my kids, I'm late for where I'm going, coordinating with my deputy, trying to figure out like who's going to go, you know, and who's available, and nobody's available and nobody's answering their phones, and it ended up not being our best response ever, but we did have a presence and we, we did get a canteen there and we did make some lunches but, um, you know, we don't always, we don't always rise to the needs, um, as they are, but we do what we can and we put pieces together and we figure out, figure it out, um can you give our listeners like a brief overview of that process, like who calls you, who's your first call when we do get a team there?
Speaker 1:Like what exactly is happening?
Speaker 4:Sure, I mean it can be a. It can be a number of ways, so it's not always the same step-by-step process. Sure, yesterday I heard about the fire because I get alerts on my phone. So I reached out to a partner agency called the Boston Sparks. They are a fire rehab organization and they work with Boston Fire directly and a lot of the surrounding towns and they go to every single fire and their primary job is to provide food and hydration to the first responders.
Speaker 4:So sometimes we're not needed because they've got it covered and they have enough resources and it's a smaller fire and if there's no displaced then you know it's not always necessary for us to go. But if it's a building of a hundred people and we can go and provide food and hydration and emotional and spiritual care to the people displaced, we might show up on scene and do that, working alongside the Red Cross or other agencies. Or whether it's the city emergency management or a local community center that wants to help out, we'll partner with them on the ground and we'll work with them on getting food and resources to the people that are displaced. So yesterday I reached out to the Boston Sparks. At first they were like we're all set, we're good, and then 20 minutes later, as sometimes happens, you get one answer and then 20 minutes later or five minutes later, everything's different.
Speaker 4:And then actually they called and they were like actually get a team together, we'll need you, and so I had already called my people off, and so then calling them back and to you know, to be like it's happening it's happening, I'm sorry and and that's one of the hardest things for some of our volunteers to understand, because they they want, you know, they want answers and they want time yeah. And they, if they're going to go, they want to go. If they're not, then you've got to tell them no. But sometimes you have to like. There's this like period of waiting where you don't know, and they don't know and they're getting frustrated. And you know we're trying to keep that balance of like okay.
Speaker 4:Well, it's a disaster scene. Things are shifting at it, you know, minute by minute. So, just try and be patient and that's kind of how yesterday, when it was a little bit chaotic because of that.
Speaker 1:I'm sure in your training of volunteers you're probably telling them disasters aren't on a schedule. Exactly, absolutely, and I always tell them.
Speaker 4:I say they will happen on Sunday mornings, they will happen on Thanksgiving 100%, every year there's a big fire on Thanksgiving, um, and it means, you know, having to pull away from your family. You know, you know we'll, we'll work with what we have. And you know, some people we don't make anybody go. If they can't go, they can't go. But we'll, you know, we'll, make a lot of phone calls and try to figure out a plan B and a plan C and a plan.
Speaker 1:Z.
Speaker 2:All the way down. My dad, before he was in the current role that he's in, he worked in EDS at territorial level, but he responded to like, like the 9-11 situation. So my question for you is is there or has there been like a specific disaster that you've responded to or that you've been involved in, maybe deployed to um, that was either like really powerful or meaningful to you in some way?
Speaker 4:Yeah, they all are. Yeah, that's true, I would say my first one, though was which was Hurricane Harvey.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And I went down terrified because of one. I didn't even work in this department yet. Right, you know, I was in service extension and they sent me down as liaison and I remember like and I tell this story a lot, this is a story that I share with volunteers to kind of help them ease their minds a little bit that I went down knowing, feeling like I knew absolutely nothing, like they sent me out to this EOC, which is emergency operations, to figure out what was going on in one of the like outer counties of Houston. And I get there and I'm by myself and I'm the only Salvation Army rep and they give me a desk and they're like here, this is where you're going to work. And I sat there and I was like for two hours I was like Chris made, chris made a mistake, oh my goodness I shouldn't be here?
Speaker 1:I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 4:Um, and I'm like opening my computer, like what should I do?
Speaker 2:Right, where do I start?
Speaker 4:Yeah, exactly, and this was literally probably three days after the hurricane hit. So, and I got sent with less than 24 hours notice. So I got a call oh my goodness, are you ready to go, can you go? And I was like, oh sure, less than 24 hours later I was on a flight, that's insane.
Speaker 1:And then I was there for two weeks.
Speaker 4:So, in any case, I was there, sitting there and finally got up the courage to start talking to people and realized nobody else, knew Nobody else.
Speaker 4:They were all like professional E, yeah, were still underwater. I mean, I had gone out to some of these towns and just seen the water, um, and just been like blown away by that. I'd never been that close to that type of extreme disaster, um and. But you know, by the end of the two weeks, like I was 100% invested in that community, had made friends, had met people, had gone and made connections and and um, and just yeah, it was to come home, because that becomes your world in your life. And I had a family too, I had a son at the time and I just remember coming home and being like I can't talk to anybody about this, nobody understands it, and feeling just really sad that I had abandoned them and also remembering, of course I didn't abandon them, but that's what it feels like the feeling Right, also remembering, of course I didn't abandon them, but that's what it feels like the feeling right.
Speaker 4:And feeling like it was a privilege to be able to pick up and leave.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And leaving them in those same circumstances. And we all saw the piles of debris and household goods that were like lined the streets Right and just realizing it was such a long road ahead for all of them and just being able to come home to my home and yeah there's that guilt.
Speaker 2:It's a guilt for sure. I have a friend, a childhood friend, who lives in Houston. I remember watching it, like through her, like what she was posting, and she's a teacher in Houston and I was just like this is insane. So yeah yeah, I can imagine what that guilt would have felt like.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but I mean, I have a lot of stories like that and I, you know, I don't want to. I I know we only have a certain number of minutes left, so oh, no, we can, we can go, we can go all day.
Speaker 1:We can we can split this episode into three parts.
Speaker 4:We can release it week after week.
Speaker 1:Let me just share one other story, though, about a deployment for real, though don't feel like you have to be brief, no, okay. Yeah, we'll re-rack the cameras, we'll go um another.
Speaker 4:Another deployment experience was I had.
Speaker 4:I went to puerto rico during the earthquakes um, and the earthquakes were still active when they sent us. So you know, there was the first big one and then there was a couple of smaller ones after that and everybody was waiting for the next big one because they were continually happening. Um, and I remember going house to house and um and visiting with people who were literally, they had their home, their home was intact. Maybe there's some cracks in their home, um, but we were live, they had their home, their home was intact. Maybe there's some cracks in their home, but they were living on the street in tents because they were afraid to be in their home because their homes were made of cement.
Speaker 4:And so if a big one hit and they happened to be sleeping inside. They would be dead. So I remember this. They wanted to show us this one house that I went to. They wanted to show us the cracks and the way their house was built. It was like on a hill, so so, and the front of the house was where the road was. The house was right there and then behind it was this steep hill. So the the back of their house were on these cement like, like stilts yeah, stilts um, and those were cracked.
Speaker 4:so you know it was compromised, the structure of the house was compromised, but he wanted to show us the cracks, and so he wanted to take us under his house to show us the cracks. And I was like um, maybe not today.
Speaker 1:Send me a picture.
Speaker 4:The thing is is I did because I didn't want, you know, I I was there to support them and I just prayed to God that the earthquake didn't come at that exact moment.
Speaker 2:They were still active.
Speaker 1:They were still active and they were still happening. It's a real leap of faith. Yeah, wow.
Speaker 4:Um. So it's like moments like that where you can really be with somebody, be present in their fear, in their uh, in their moment, to share Um and also their gratitude to you for coming to give them supplies, to provide something to them and to um, you know, to just be a part of their lives for that second.
Speaker 3:So yeah, so that that ministry of presence that you're talking about is so critical, just to show up, just to say you know someone's here. For me I'm wondering how re-entry, or when you come back, how do you and your team, how do you kind of decompress from those things that you saw, the traumas that weren't directly inflicted upon you, but you're taking some of those things on yourself and just how do you decompress from that? How do you release that? How kind of find space to for self-care afterwards?
Speaker 4:We encourage the self-care, we encourage the. You know, make sure you talk to people. If you don't have somebody that can understand, like, we're here for you, um, do those things that make you happy, um, whether it's like going, going to watch a funny movie or going to the gym or, you know, eating your favorite foods. You know, and we, once back, support our fellow deployees as much as we can, but personally, you know it's hard.
Speaker 4:It's definitely hard when you don't have, if you don't have, not when, if you don't have the people that can understand what you just went through. Sure, so we want to make sure you know, as coworkers and like team members, to offer that to the people that are being deployed. And you know, those who have done it many times over, kind of they know what to do, they know how to manage that. But people who go for the very first time, like my first time, like I was talking about, you know you're not. You're not anticipating, you're not anticipating what re-entry is going to be like, um, until it's happening to you, and I remember just being like this is so stupid. I don't want to do these stupid red kettles Cause I had gone, like in September, and then it's like I got back and it's like red kettle season.
Speaker 3:I'm like.
Speaker 1:You're not the only one who said this when you, when you were talking about first showing up and feeling kind of lost at your first, your first time, um, I was just like thinking how many countless stories in the Bible are, uh, demonstrating that very fact that God equips those who are willing to go, and it's not necessarily God calls the people who are equipped, but he's going to equip the people who are willing to go and serve. So I just think that's the fact that you were able to go and just be there and be present and be willing to give of yourself in that way is super admirable, and be willing to give of yourself in that way is super admirable In terms of. I have two questions kind of about faith, you know. So, when you're on long deployments, whether it's you personally or your team, do you find one? Does your faith intersect with EDS work? And then, what do you kind of do physically, mentally, spiritually during those long deployments, like how do you stay in the moment?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean. So when we talk about my faith, um, I I'm a, I'm not a salvationist. Um, I grew up Catholic. Uh, I've kind of wandered. Um, I have, you know, a spiritual. I have a spirituality I guess you could say. And you know, I sometimes go to church. So I'm not as faithful as maybe you all are. No, no, all are, um the the, you know the, the definition, but um, that being said, I, you know, I pray to God. I love being a part of the army and I love being in those scenarios, in those situations where the officers are praying and the officers are bringing people together, um, or non-officers, you know.
Speaker 4:I don't want to say that it has to be officers yeah, bro yeah.
Speaker 3:Anybody man.
Speaker 4:Anybody, and that I guess I've never been in a job longer than two years until I got to the Salvation Army. So being part of this community is amazing to me. This community um is amazing to me. So, on a deployment, um really leaning into those, you know, those uh meetings slash prayer moments Um, cause we combine them right, like you know. You have your brief out in the morning and then somebody does a prayer and everybody goes on their way and then, uh, when you come back, you discuss how the day was.
Speaker 4:you know those ministry of presence, moments that people had and you share, and that's really what I think, how it, how my faith intersects with the work that I do.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 4:Um, and knowing that you know you're, you're providing that emotional support to people, um, who just went through really something really awful and traumatic.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Um and just being with them in their moment and um helping them to process.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah, we are going to take a quick break on a plugged in podcast. Do you have a few more minutes? Yeah, you stay with us. Yeah, okay, we're going to take a quick break. Plugged In Podcast, episode number 24. We will be right back.