My time with the Red Cross Disaster Spiritual Care response to Hurricane Irma in Georgia and Florida is nearly done.  Tomorrow will be my last day here. It is an interesting experience to see so much still to be done and to be walking away.  I got used to it in hospital chaplaincy, this walking away and not knowing the way things would end up, but this feels so different.  This is almost like walking away in the middle of a heart attack.  It feels like abandonment.  It feels like survival.  It feels like exhaustion.  It feels like necessity.
So how do I find strength for myself in this time?  I look back and I remember to be thankful.  In this time, I have cared for hundreds of individuals one on one.  I have assisted in the organization of providing care for thousands and I have walked with them, holding stories, hands, and tissues.  Each one let me share an intimate time in their life.  Each one let me in and let me walk with them when they barely had energy to stand.  I held stories of survivors, not victims.

I think on this and all the work this team has done- from sheltering to feeding, from health care to spiritual, the Red Cross has really thought of every aspect of a survivors journey.  I am sad not to see the next steps roll out, but am confident that they will and that more amazing volunteers will step up to walk that path with our clients.

Today I cried and all these folks at HQ who found out were right there- checking on me and did not leave until the last tear was cried and laughter came easily again.  This is what the Red Cross does- not just for our team, but our communities around the world.  We wait until the last tear is cried and laughter comes again.  I am confident this will happen here too, and because of that, I can wave a teary farewell and head home.