J. F. Kruse Founder Travels to Texas to Continue His Passion of Serving
When Jim Kruse founded J. F. Kruse Jewelers in 2000, he genuinely wanted to help his customers. He didn’t see it as a financial opportunity, but an opportunity to enrich people’s lives. “It’s just the way I’m wired,” Jim said.
Now, in his retirement from the jewelry business, Jim and his wife Flo have found their calling serving others in a different way – through disaster relief.
Jim and Flo serve the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Organization, one of the three main organizations that provide relief in disasters. Through their home church, Park Fellowship Church in Sauk Rapids, they were asked to operate a shower trailer that provides clean water, showers and laundry services to disaster workers and disaster victims. They accepted.
“We didn’t just get trained on how to run the trailer,” Jim said, “but how to care for people who are going through grief and loss.”
In September, Jim and Flo were called upon by their regional directors to travel to Texas to aid in the Hurricane Harvey disaster relief efforts. Along with Vicki, a friend from their church, Jim and Flo left with their shower trailer on September 10 and headed south.
Along the way, they met a man at a gas station who flagged them down. The man saw their trailer and asked if they were headed to Texas to help. When they told him they were, he handed them a hundred dollar bill and said: “God bless you.”
Later on their trip, they were driving down the freeway when a woman started honking and signaling for them to pull over. When they did, she also handed them a hundred dollar bill to put to good use in helping the victims in Texas.
“It’s amazing to see what Americans can do when we come together instead of divide,” Flo said. “People’s generosity and love is incredible.”
What they saw in Katy, Texas during their travel will stay with them forever. “There were people in boats a little south of us that still couldn’t get into their houses. All their things were gone. Decades of memories – all they had in this world.
The team spent 2 weeks in a horrendously humid area providing support for the FEMA and Red Cross workers. They served meals, provided laundry service and offered a place of refuge for exhausted and emotionally drained servants.
“People worked so hard and never complained,” Flo said. “Everybody was focused on everybody else. People focused on the people in front of them. What an amazing way to serve: whoever the Lord puts in our path is who we’re supposed to be available to.”
“The time to become a volunteer is now – before the disaster strikes,” Jim said. People want to pick up and go when a disaster happens, but it creates chaos and inefficiency. Jim and Flo encourage people to get connected with an organization that can help you find a place to go and a way to serve when the need is there.
Their experiences in Texas have changed them forever. “They say once you’ve been through a trip like this, you’ll never be the same – and they were right,” Jim said. “We’re glad we’re doing it, we’re going to continue serving and we hope others will step up as well.”
Everybody can do something – whether it’s donating time, money, supplies, prayers, everything helps. If you’re interested in learning more, Jim and Flo would love to chat with you or you can visit Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Organization, FEMA or The American Red Cross for volunteer opportunities.