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Thursday, April 3

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Following breakfast at The Cove, we boarded our coach and headed for Wilkesboro, North Carolina for a tour of Samaritan’s Purse Operations Center.

Our bus driver stopped to get directions from this safety officer. Before long we had a thumbs up to move ahead.

After getting name tags and a short orientation, a staff person took on an incredibly interesting tour of the building.

One of the first things we learned was that Bob Pierce was the founder of Samaritan’s Purse.

After World War II, Bob Pierce traveled throughout Asia as an evangelist and journalist with Youth For Christ. While on a university lecturing circuit in China, God gave him a vision for ministry. He dedicated himself to finding and supporting Christians who were caring for the poor and suffering in the distant corners of the world. Bob died of leukemia in 1978, and a little over a year later, Franklin Graham became the President and Chairman of the Board of Samaritan’s Purse.

One of the first displays we saw was how their doctors and nurses have to dress during outbreaks of infectious diseases – especially Ebola.

We were amazed at the number of items that were stored and ready for emergency shipping to disaster areas.

She explained how the items go from here by tractor trailer to the airport where one of their large planes is loaded for transportation to a disaster area.

We were going to work on a project when there, but the earthquake in Myanmar caused their staff to be quite busy preparing things to be shipped there – including two field hospitals.

When items are donated, they are checked to make sure they are in good condition and will work. They even have equipment to change electric items to the electric of the country to where it is being shipped.

There were small filters for one household (I failed to get a picture) which included buckets and a filter.

There are larger water filters that can work for a village.

Our group listening as she explained the water filters.

There we almost any kind of item that might be needed at a disaster location.

The most fascinating thing to me was to walk through a small field hospital.

This is the section where there are supplies, including field wheelchairs for helping our military members who are seriously injured, need marriage counseling, or help in many other ways.

Shirts for the volunteers

We were fascinated by this rig which is set up with almost any kind of supply that may be needed at a disaster area in the homeland. It is patterned a bit after a NASCAR rig that hauls cars and supplies.

The inside is filled with shelves and shelves of supplies – with doors that can be secured.

We were told that we could open any door to look at the supplies inside.

Not far away was a truck trailer that was ready to be loaded with supplies to go to a location or airport.

Behind the trailer was this huge lift for putting skids and large items into the trailer.

Huge generators

Our next stop was another building across the parking lot to join many of their staff persons for lunch. According to the Internet, Samaritan’s Purse has about 160 people working in this distribution center. (There are several other distribution centers across the USA.)

Following lunch, we boarded the coach and headed to Charlotte, North Carolina for the next day’s tour of the Billy Graham Library.