Standing where their primary bedroom once was, Jonna Lee and her daughter, Freddie Dennis, sift through rubble of their home, hoping to find the remains of a tiger tooth necklace — a family heirloom.
Lee, an artist and actress, moved into her Altadena home on this quiet cul-de-sac 22 years ago with her husband and their three kids. Now, dressed in full white Tyvek suits, N95 masks and gloves, she sifts through the debris with the help of volunteers from Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical disaster-aid nonprofit.
Samaritan’s Purse volunteers offer free, three-hour sessions where they help homeowners sift through shovelfuls of ashes. They search for jewelry, safes, artwork – anything salvageable left in the rubble from the wildfires that wreaked havoc on L.A. earlier this year. During each session, they’re joined by two disaster relief chaplains from the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team, who offer emotional and spiritual guidance.
Since January 23, the evangelical sister organizations – the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) and Samaritan’s Purse – have helped nearly 700 families recover from the Eaton and Palisades fires. The first volunteers arrived on January 9, just days after the devastating fires in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades. Since then, over 1,600 Samaritan’s Purse volunteers and over 80 Billy Graham chaplains came from across the country to help affected families.
Faith-based groups are often among the first responders to disaster relief worldwide. Working alongside FEMA, faith-based organizations provide the majority of nonprofit-based assistance nationally: about 75% of the organizations that are part of National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD), an alliance of volunteer organizations helping FEMA, are faith-based, according to USA Today.
While faith is a driving factor for these organizations, for those receiving aid, religion doesn’t necessarily play a role. For homeowners, the priority is getting help, regardless of the organization providing it.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association was founded by evangelist Billy Graham in 1950. Samaritan’s Purse is run by Graham’s son, Franklin Graham.
Samaritan’s Purse operates “in Jesus’ name,” a phrase written across their trucks. Their goal is to emulate Jesus as he was on Earth — although their services are open to anyone.
“We do it because Jesus would have done it for us,” said Aaron Richards, a program manager for Samaritan’s Purse. “He would have walked through similar things with us… to let us know that he loved us.”
Samaritan’s Purse volunteers come from across the country to serve in week-long shifts, helping with personal property recovery. They require no prior experience. The volunteers are housed and fed by host churches near the disaster area: In Pasadena, Lake Avenue Church supports them; In the Pacific Palisades, Cornerstone Church of West Los Angeles hosts.
Before and after the work, volunteers gather in a circle for prayer. Near the end of the session, a pair of BGEA chaplains arrive and offer optional support to the homeowner. At the end, the Samaritan’s Purse team offers the homeowner a Billy Graham Training Bible, signed by all of that day’s volunteers. This Bible explains “the 50 most asked questions of Billy Graham during his ministry,” and is meant as an introduction to their faith.
Richards reiterated that homeowners don’t need to participate, and that the organizations will assist homeowners of any faith. Last week, they helped a Jewish family unearth their menorah from the rubble.
“I’ve seen God’s hand in every single person that we’ve helped, in every neighborhood we’ve been in,” Richards said.
For Freddie Dennis and her mom, the experience wasn’t a religious one, but they said they appreciated the help regardless.
“Our family isn’t and has never been religious, but we’re also the type to live and let live,” she said. “We’re grateful their devotion has led them to help our community in our time of need.”
Tara Thomas was one of the disaster relief chaplains present at Jonna Lee’s home site. She was volunteering on a week-long stint in Altadena, away from her work as the children’s pastor at Sunridge Community Church in Temecula, California.
“A chaplain’s ministry is mostly a ministry of presence,” she said. “It’s one thing to be invited into a home and have dinner with someone and their family, but it’s another thing to be invited into their ashes or their rubble… it’s holy ground.”
If a family does choose to speak to the chaplains, they’ll receive a listening ear, a hug and a word of encouragement.
“Our job is just to share a little bit of hope in the midst of their crisis, but we try to get a real pulse on how they are doing,” Thomas said.
If appropriate, the chaplains will offer a prayer.
“Everyone I encountered this week said, ‘Yes, [I] would love that,’” Thomas said.
In times of crisis, Chaplain Thomas said many people grapple with the question of how a loving God could allow such devastation to occur, or if God even exists.
“I try to listen to, ‘What does God want me to say to this particular person?’” Thomas said. “It’s not necessarily about me trying to defend my faith to anyone. It’s more about, ‘How does this person need to know that God loves them personally, and He’s not attacking them?’”
Lee and Dennis said the chaplains and volunteers do not push their views.
“There was very little mention of religion. No one ever asked us to join a church. With how little they brought it up, one could almost forget the group was religious in the first place,” Dennis said.
The two organizations are not without controversy. Some have described the work of BGEA and Samaritan’s Purse as “proselytizing through aid” or “missionary aid work.” Others have accused the organization of political partisanship, with critics citing Franklin Graham’s close ties to conservative politicians like President Donald Trump.
The organizations share a “Statement of Faith,” which volunteers must agree to before serving. The statement describes the Bible as the “infallible, authoritative Word of God,” and says that “God’s plan for human sexuality is to be expressed only within the context of marriage.” It also states “we believe that marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female,” and “We believe God wonderfully and immutably creates each person [as a] biological male or female.”
Franklin Graham also publicly opposed same-sex marriage, leading some cities and organizations to sever ties with the group.
However, according to Gabrielle Bouquet, the media relations coordinator for Samaritan’s Purse, recipients of aid don’t need to agree with the statement of faith. Samaritan’s Purse serves anyone in need without exception, regardless of their beliefs, background, or socio-economic status.
“Our mission is to come alongside those who are suffering, offering support, reminding them they are not alone, and helping them take the next step toward recovery in Jesus’ name,” Bouquet said.
In late February, the Trump administration enacted significant staffing reductions at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and FEMA. The majority of USAID staffers worldwide — and over 1,600 in the U.S. — were fired. However, Samaritan’s Purse says their disaster relief efforts won’t be impacted by these cuts. The organizations receive most of their funding from private donations — less than 5% of the funding that Samaritan’s Purse received in 2024 came from government grants. Even so, government-based funding is not used in the U.S.; Instead, it’s used for emergency feeding and medical programs in Africa, which are still ongoing.
While Samaritan’s Purse has strong private financial backing and can likely weather the storm, the future of disaster relief is unclear, as many organizations are at risk of losing government funding.
In the end, Lee, Dennis and the volunteers worked for three hours but couldn’t find the tiger tooth necklace, an heirloom from Lee’s mother’s time as an employee at the Los Angeles Zoo. However, they did find some of Lee’s mother’s pottery and mugs that held heavy sentimental value.
“Our family’s joy is a little bit of humor, and it’s sometimes kind of dark,” Lee said. She gestured to a section of the rubble. “I was supposed to clean up that damn bookshelf. And you know what? I don’t have to do that anymore.”
Samaritan’s Purse will stay in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades digging through the rubble until there are no more requests for help left — at least until April 12. Homeowners interested in receiving help from Samaritan’s Purse can contact their disaster relief hotline at (828) 262-1980, visit the Disaster Relief page, or email info@samaritan.org.