Mormon Helping Hands volunteers have worked with local communities and service groups to begin cleaning up after heavy flooding in the province of Saskatchewan.
The province was hit hard by floods caused by massive rainfall. Local members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints responded quickly and sent out crews to fill and place sandbags and build dikes to minimize damage to homes and businesses.
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However, there is at least as much work to be done to clean up after the flooding as had been done to minimize the damage. Dikes and dams must be taken down. Endless drifts of mud and debris must be cleared from basements and low spots in communities. Damaged materials must be removed for disposal.
Under the guidance of local Church leader Douglas Robertson, members of the Church have begun forming alliances with other organizations to provide emergency services. Groups like Mennonite Disaster Services, City of Saskatoon Emergency Measures Organization and other faith communities are working to become strategic allies in dealing with any form of disaster. “It just makes sense for us all to pool our resources to meet the needs of people,” says Robertson.
As a result of this cooperative effort, Mennonite Disaster Services requested Latter-day Saint members and missionaries from Saskatoon to assist in the cleanup of an area Bible camp. The church that owned the camp had allocated most of its own members to work on other projects. The Bible camp project allowed Church members to interact with the camp owners and other cleanup team members to restore the camp to its original state.
“This was a great experience for me,” said one young missionary. “I got to put up sandbag dams to stop flood damage to one town, and here I am helping fix another place. This is one more way to demonstrate that Christlike living means doing something rather than talking about doing something.”
Robertson feels the recent collaborations are simply a continuation of efforts begun last year in which diverse faith communities unite in times of crisis to meet the needs of anyone. “When we are in a time of crisis, it should never matter that we have differences in theology. What matters is that there is a need. If we can help fill that need, then we need to act.”