‘For Your Glory’

WHO WE ARE | PEOPLE

Todd Rapp, operations manager, and Emergency Disaster Services (EDS) coordinator at the Salvation Army’s church in Batavia, N.Y., talks about the effects of catching COVID–19 early in the pandemic, how 9/11 introduced him to The Salvation Army, and how God worked miracles as church members helped feed an entire community during the pandemic lockdown.

Twenty years ago, I was an EMS worker at Ground Zero. The day after 9/11, several EMS workers like myself came down from Rochester, N.Y., on a National Guard flight to help with the recovery. As I came off the pile at Ground Zero, a man in a Salvation Army officer uniform handed me a bottle of water. There was a warm connection in that quick, kind gesture that I still remember. Years later, when I was no longer an EMS worker and was wondering what God had next for me, I volunteered at the Batavia church to help during their Christmas distribution. From there, my roles went from helping in their kitchen for the weekly senior lunches to greeting people as they came to the church. Eventually, I was offered a staff position. I feel like it all started when that Army officer offered me water at Ground Zero. To this day, I don’t know who he is, but someday I will.

My wife and I took a cruise to Mexico in January of 2020, before most of us knew of COVID–19. When we returned home, we stayed in Tampa, Fla., at her mother’s house. I spiked a fever and lost my sense of taste. I was taken to urgent care. I thought that I had the flu. But when flu results came back negative, they sent me home, and I returned to New York. For weeks after I was better, I still felt weak at times and had brain fog. After a phone consultation with my doctor in April when I told him about my illness, I went for a blood test. The next day, I was told I had an extremely high number of antibodies from having contracted COVID–19 during my trip to Mexico. I was put on a schedule to donate blood every two weeks for six months; it would be studied and researched for the fight against COVID–19, which was just beginning.

Last December, I woke up one night feeling like I could not breathe. It was like someone was pushing an invisible pillow over my face. I called 911 and was taken to the hospital. The doctors said that having contracted COVID–19 had damaged my heart’s electrical system. I honestly thought that I would not return from the hospital alive. My prayer to God was: “Lord, just help me use this experience for your glory.” He answered by turning my days at the hospital into days of ministry. I met hospital employees who were looking for places to get vaccinated early. I had that info and resources from working at The Salvation Army in Batavia. On my last day at the hospital, there was a homeless man in the bed next to me. He couldn’t be discharged because he had no shoes. The hospital didn’t have any to give him, so I gave him my pair. When the staff asked why I would give a stranger my shoes, I answered, “Why would I not?”

Even though we sent our volunteers home during the pandemic, the employees stayed at the church to face the overwhelming need for food in the community. Before this year, our emergency pantry was used by about 25 families a month. Now we were seeing 100 a day. There were days when, after the distribution was done, we stared at what little we had left, and wondered how we would ever have enough for the next day. Somehow, God always opened the floodgates. Donations would pour in or food from restaurants would get brought to the church, and then we were ready for tomorrow. It was like the biblical miracle of the loaves and fishes, but in a modern–day setting.

My biggest lesson from the last year and a half is that when we have a job to do, no matter how big or small, we cannot do it with our own strength. If God is not at the center of what we are doing, there will be struggle. When we are at our weakest, God is at His strongest, and when we are desperate for a break, God continues to work. He is never on break.

Interview by HUGO BRAVO