Find Peace With God

Kerrville Community Comes Together in Prayer and Worship

Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains walk with residents through their grief
By Maggie Fipps
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July 11, 2025

Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains pray with a group gathered at a high school stadium in Kerrville, Texas. During a service to remember more than 120 people who died in floods, attendees also prayed for over 160 others still missing.

The air was unseasonably cool Wednesday evening, with a slight breeze blowing through Tivy Antler Stadium in Kerrville, Texas. Normally, the community packs this venue to cheer on the Kerrville Antlers with soccer coach Reece Zunker pacing the sideline. 

But this night, they came together to mourn the loss of their coach, his wife, and many others who lost everything in the floods on July Fourth. The Zunkers’ two children are still missing.

The evening of worship and prayer was put on by Young Life, a global youth ministry that operates in the high school. Billy Graham Rapid Response Team (BG-RRT) chaplains stood with area pastors in the bleachers, available to pray, encourage, or simply listen to anyone in need. 

“When words fail us, thank You that You never do,” said Josh Smithson, a Young Life leader and the speaker for the evening. 

This promise echoes the ministry that BG-RRT chaplains have had throughout Kerr County. In the face of immense tragedy, a ministry of presence is often more powerful than words. 

“As our crisis-trained chaplains know, there are no words to say that will make things better in moments like this. There are no magic phrases,” said Josh Holland, international director of BG-RRT. “All we can do as Christians is to come alongside people, to be a listening ear, to be a shoulder to lean on, to cry with them.”

One of the final worship songs Wednesday night repeated the refrain, “Even when I don’t see it, You’re working. Even when I don’t feel it, You’re working.” 

That’s exactly what Jenny, one of the many in attendance, needed to hear. Jenny has lived in Kerrville for 25 years. Although her house was safe from the flooding, her friend lost someone close to her, and Jenny was wrestling with tough questions.  

“I was watching [the service] online, and I just thought: ‘I need to come,’” Jenny shared.

Sitting on the front row of the bleachers with tears in her eyes, she caught the attention of BG-RRT chaplain Jeff Steelman and a pastor from Trinity Baptist Church. The men had prayed together over two of the pastor’s church members earlier that day, and it was only fitting that they would again minister side by side. 

When they got to Jenny, she was open to prayer. At first, she wanted to pray for the community as a whole, asking for peace and comfort that many in the crowd desired. But when the two offered to lift up her own needs, she began to share more.  

“Everyone is dealing with something,” Jeff said. “So we just let her talk.” 

Jenny was honest about her constant anxiety and the pressures of life that keep her up at night. This flood shook her—but it also opened her heart to receive prayer and spiritual healing. The two men began to pray for her as she wept, asking God to replace the fear in her heart with His peace. 

Crisis-trained chaplains are equipped to meet people in their grief and gracefully point them to Jesus. Although there are no simple phrases to ease the pain, Jeff showed Jenny that God welcomes the broken into His arms. Following their prayer, the men connected Jenny with a church home at Trinity, where her sister already attends. 

As the men walked away, Jenny sat alone quietly on the bleachers, taking in the moment. She acknowledged that the floods would leave scars on Kerrville—both physical and emotional. But through the songs and prayer that evening, Jenny said she could feel God’s presence—and she knew He would never forsake them. 

“He’s our rock,” Jenny said, calling to mind Psalm 62:6: “He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken” (ESV).

Chaplain Jeff Steelman and local pastor JD Templeton pray with Jenny, a longtime Kerrville resident coping with the massive destruction in her town.

Chaplains stand near a memorial in Kerrville to remember those lost in this shocking natural disaster.

Hundreds filled the bleachers at Tivy Antler Stadium in Kerrville to pray, worship, and simply be together in a time of mourning.

This rock is just one picture of solidarity among several communities in the Texas Hill Country impacted by historic flooding. “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold” (Psalm 18:2, ESV).

BG-RRT chaplain Cathy Nordgaarden hugs a woman processing the damage in her community.

Flash flooding destroyed hundreds of homes and flattened many natural areas as the Guadalupe River rose 26 feet in 45 minutes early on July Fourth. Cleanup crews have been clearing massive piles of debris.

Life will be forever altered for many in this area of the country. Will you please keep them in prayer during this long and difficult process of recovery?