Home > Disaster Response Volunteer Trainings

Welcome to the Disaster Response Training Page! We offer a range of training divisions designed to equip and enhance the skills of our dedicated volunteers. Each division caters to different levels of experience and areas of focus. Here’s a brief overview of each division:

  1. Regular Volunteer:
    • This training is recommended for first-time disaster response volunteers, although not mandatory.
    • Gain insights on how trust can help you overcome concerns or fears associated with volunteer work.
    • Ideal for volunteers with field experience who are contemplating their return to disaster response efforts.
  2. Trained Volunteer:
    • Highly encouraged for all volunteers, even though it is not mandatory for regular volunteering.
    • Develop a deeper understanding of the trauma experienced by disaster victims.
    • Learn to provide appropriate and caring support, focusing on listening and accepting their emotional, spiritual, social, and physical challenges.
    • Enhance your comfort level when interacting with disaster victims and maintain inspiration in your volunteer work.
  3. Prayer Minister:
    • Open to NALC Disaster Response volunteers who have completed the Trained Volunteer Training Division.
    • Prepare yourself to offer prayer and spiritual support to disaster victims and fellow volunteers.
    • Learn to navigate the spiritual sensitivities surrounding disaster trauma, enabling you to listen and pray effectively.
    • Cultivate a deeper spiritual understanding of praying amidst suffering.
  4. Spiritual Care Provider:
    • Intended for individuals called to provide spiritual care to disaster victims and fellow volunteers.
    • Focus your volunteering efforts on offering basic spiritual care during a disaster response.
    • Learn various techniques such as spiritual listening, conversation, prayer, Scripture, and other relevant spiritual disciplines and ministries.
    • Develop sensitivity towards the spiritual needs of both disaster victims and volunteers.
  5. Advanced Electives:
    • Available to all disaster response volunteers, regardless of their training level.
    • These electives cover a wide range of themes related to disaster response work.
    • Continuously improve and expand your ministry work with disaster response victims and fellow volunteers through ongoing learning.

Click below for more information on each division or to begin the journey of compassionate service and personal growth as a disaster response volunteer.

These training presentations are for those who are considering doing a disaster response volunteer stint for the first time. This set of presentations speak of how trust can help you deal with concerns or fears of doing disaster response volunteer work.

This training is also for volunteers with field experience who are debating if they should return to another disaster response effort. It shows how trust can help you deal with field experiences that trouble or disturb you.

Note: This training is not required for you to serve as a volunteer; however, the training is well recommended.

This training is for all volunteers who desire to better understand the trauma people are going through. With this training you do not seek to provide counsel; you seek to simply care in a way that is appropriate and helpful for a disaster survivor who is suffering so much. You learn to listen with patience and acceptance of the emotional, spiritual, social and physical difficulties the disaster victim is having to deal with.

Understanding the affects of trauma will help you to feel more comfortable around disaster victims. They in turn will feel more at ease with you. Also, this training will help you to keep focus on why you are doing what you are doing.  The training seeks to help you to remain inspired.

Note: This training is not required; you may serve as a Regular Volunteer without this training. Yet, such training is highly encouraged.

This training is open to any NALC Disaster Response volunteer who has completed the Trained Volunteer Training Division.

If, in whatever way you are volunteering, you want to be ready to pray with a disaster victim or a fellow volunteer, then the Prayer Minister training is meant for you.

The training will help you to listen and navigate through the spiritual sensitivities of disaster trauma.  Thus, you will be better enabled so to listen and pray well with a disaster victim or fellow volunteer.  This training will assist you to pray with a more appropriate spiritual understanding of praying in the midst of suffering.

This form of training is for those who sense a call to provide spiritual care with disaster victims and disaster response volunteers.

With this training your entire time and energy of volunteering will be spent providing basic spiritual care to others during a disaster response.  Whether it be for a day or a week, you will focus on providing spiritual care that is sensitive to the spiritual needs of both disaster victims and volunteers.

With these training presentations you will learn to engage people with spiritual listening and conversation, prayer, Scripture, and other appropriate and available spiritual disciplines and ministries.

The electives are open for all disaster response volunteers. This is with the understanding that each volunteer will apply the learning from any elective to the volunteer’s level of training: the Trained Disaster Response Volunteer for providing a spiritual presence and atmosphere; the Prayer Minister for providing prayer; the Spiritual Care Provider for providing spiritual care.

These training presentations speak on a wide variety of themes related to disaster response work. They are meant for on-going learning, and for improvement of your ministry work with disaster response victims and fellow volunteers.

Coming Soon.

Interested in joining one of the Disaster Response Spiritual Care Training Teams or committee? Click below for more information or to apply. Got questions? Contact the Rev. George Zornow.