How To Rebuild

March, especially if you live in the northern half of the United States, can be a dreary month. It’s been two weeks since Valentine’s Day and it’s more than two weeks until St. Patrick’s Day. We need something to celebrate, right? Let’s celebrate the Red Cross.

Founded in 1863 in Geneva Switzerland, the month of March was declared Red Cross Month by presidential proclamation in 1943. Talk about an organization built around the struggles of others. Red Cross members breathe, think, sleep, eat and work through one disaster after another, year after year after year in all parts of the globe. The members of the Red Cross can take the worst disaster and show by their loving organizational skills how to rebuild one hour at a time by offering the victims food, clothing, shelter, medicine and most of all, hope.

The Red Cross international humanitarian movement has organizations in over eighty countries and a membership of well over 100 million. The main purpose is to help victims of war or natural disasters such as floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunami’s and famines. The Red Cross also maintains blood banks and trains people in first aid and water safety.

If you’ve ever lived through a natural disaster or volunteered to help the Red Cross during one, you know how important this organization is. When there’s a need, thousands of Red Cross volunteers rush to that part of the country and often live in primitive conditions themselves while they help feed, house, and care for thousands of people whose lives and homes have been disheveled by disaster. This army of guardian angels can calm the masses, giving victims the strength to rebuild and start their lives over.

Next time a huge struggle falls into your life, think about starting with the basics like the Red Cross does: food, clothing, shelter. Start with those. Then go on to the others: Pray. Listen. Help. Pray like gangbusters. Listen to those who are struggling. Help them rebuild. Surviving a struggle happens one step at a time. Just ask the people in Haiti or Chili.