Ministry Behind the Scenes

Our Samaritan’s Purse flight attendants are ready to take off on our DC-8 aircraft at a moment's notice in the wake of disasters to bring life-saving, urgent relief. Though these members of our flight crews may not even get off the plane or deploy to the frontlines of a disaster response, they play a critical role in our relief responses. When the DC-8 is carrying passengers such as our disaster response specialists, the ministry is required by the FAA to have flight attendants on board, and while their primary purpose is safety, they always go above and beyond in ministry. Our attendants get the opportunity to pray over our Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DART) before they step out into the uncertainty of a disaster situation. Flight attendant Britte Conner sat down with Kristy Graham and talked about her role and what it’s like to serve in this capacity.

“It was put on my heart that you're still serving and even though this team is going into Sudan or Armenia or Ukraine or Poland or wherever that may be, my job had a very distinct purpose and that was to serve our own people, to build them up and to encourage them, so when they were literally boots on the ground that they knew that they were loved and cared for.” —Britte Conner

The flight attendants are humble, surrendered to the Lord, and willing to go wherever He calls them. They constantly look for ways to bless their passengers through seemingly simple things like providing extra protein bars or a warm blanket. Britte talks about how emotional it is to watch the DART members—who she considers family and her brothers and sisters in Christ—get off the plane and step into battle.

When a trip is coming up, Britte emphasizes how important it is to be in prayer and to get in the Word before setting foot on the plane. She shares Scripture with Kristy that has been especially meaningful to her recently. Cathy Gellatly, another flight attendant, tells a story of a time she got to encourage and pray with a Disaster Assistance Response Team member. Not only did this touch the DART member, but it encouraged Cathy in her own faith to witness God at work in this woman’s life.

“So, I prayed with that DART member, and I said ‘He will always provide what He needs you to do. It may be a stretch or something you've never done before.’ Well, we had a very long flight to where we were going and the next day, I find out that this particular DART member was involved in an emergency C-section within a tent with refugees.” —Cathy Gellatly

DART members recount the many ways our flight attendants have blessed them during their travels on the DC-8. Jodie Bushey, a nurse who has been on 13 different deployments with Samaritan’s Purse, told Kristy a story about how something as simple as a pillow became a source of comfort during her deployment to Grenada last year during Hurricane Beryl.

“[The flight attendants] had the pillow for us for the airplane and we had asked, ‘Hey, can we take these pillows with us?’ And sure enough, they're like, ‘Absolutely. Take what you need, take what you want.’ Just having that pillow was an incredible comfort that I didn't know was going to make such a huge difference.” —Jodie Bushey

Be encouraged that whatever you do, wherever you serve, it can be used as ministry for the Lord! If you’d like to keep up to date with more stories from On the Ground, please visit SamaritansPurse.org.