Welcome- Are You Ready To Respond?

Welcome to Victim Relief Chaplains, Crisis Responders, Counselors and new Volunteers. And a big HELLO to Race Track Chaplaincy of America Chaplains, Council Members, Horsemen and all those from the "Thought of the Day" and other family and friends!

You have a new home to access to keep up with information in regards to disaster and emergency response, community preparedness, weather alerts, training insight, devotions, thoughts and spiritual and practical applications on many subjects.

There are several communication channels that are at your disposal, in addition to this blog make sure you store the following information for access:

email: edwardsmith@victimrelief.org and jethunter@aol.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/chaplainESmith
Twitter: twitter.com/ChaplainESmith
Blog: www.readytorespond.blogspot.com
Website: www.victimrelief.org

This is the 10th Anniversary of Victim Relief Ministries (VRM) and the celebration banquet will be held Thursday night November 5th in Dallas, Texas. And a special two day training conference will be held November 6-7th with an outstanding line up of speakers and trainers and musicians. But I will be talking about that awesome event in more detail at a later time.

The theme of the VRM Conference is Living Ready...Ready to Journey...Ready to Respond...Ready to Impact. And I want to focus for the moment on "Ready to Respond". In addition to being the VRM Deputy Executive Director I have responsibilities as Director of Disaster Response and Director of Training. So "Responding" is extremely important to me!

Being a Christian fits the principles of response to emergencies, and in helping victim survivors of disaster, crime and terrorism. It requires ACTION. We are commanded to be in ACTION!
We are to Love our Neighbor!
We are to Care for the widows and orphans!
We are to Carry the Good News to the Ends of the Earth!
We are to feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty and sometimes to give our lives to defend others!

Pretty ACTION packed if you ask me.

But let me ask you. If a disaster happended at your school, your church, in your neighborhood, in your city, in your state or on a national scale- would you, or are you ready to respond? Do you have the desire, but don't have the means. Perhaps you are already VRM certified and trained on many levels- are you living "Ready to Respond?"

So this blog site will help us prepare to be the Good Samaritan in Action, to be our Neighbors Keeper and to put the teachings and values that Christ modeled for us into action.

Again, welcome to my new blog. And get ready for news, information, spiritual teachings, and other applications to be posted on this site.

In the meantime, continue to pray for protection for our country as we have been spared a horrfic disaster at this point. And that in this grace period we will continue to train and prepare to mobilize and be ready to respond!

Blessings to all who serve others in the name of God and as fellow citizens of this great nation.
Ready to journey, respond and impact with you!
Chaplain Edward Smith
972-234-3999 office