Community Ministries Coordinator Finds Strength Through Helping Others

Lynn Spencer is the coordinator for The Salvation Army’s family services, food bank and children’s programming. She has been living with her family in High River for a number of years, so it’s not the first time she’s experienced flooding in her town. “We lost our entire basement and our garage” Lynn says with a sigh, referring to the 2013 June floods that forced hundreds of High River residents from their homes. “It’s the second time in two years, and last night, after a hard rain, our basement flooded again. So right now we’re just praying for no more rain.”

The Salvation Army Community & Family Services Thrift Store and church all suffered extensive flood damage which has meant a major disruption of services. “We’ve seen a lot of our regular clients coming to us for help, but there have been many new faces as well,” explains Lynn. “Families that normally wouldn’t need our services are showing up in large numbers every day.”

Like with any disaster, the recovery process that follows can be exhausting. Lynn is working countless hours to see that those affected by the floods are being looked after. When asked how she’s managing with her own flood recovery at home she smiles, “It’s tough, but I make sure to take some time for myself and re-group, and I realize that there are other people out there that have it way worse than we do. Yes we flooded twice, but we can still live in our home, plenty of other people don’t have that option, thinking about that helps put things into perspective.”