Driving home to Pasadena on the evening of January 7 on the 210 Freeway, a Scientologist named Jan spotted what appeared to be a wildfire racing down a distant hillside. Sensing the danger of what he saw, Jan checked with nearby friends to ensure they were alright.
Within six hours, the outbreak, fanned by Santa Ana winds, engulfed 988 acres. Combined with the Palisades Fire, these two conflagrations have killed at least 27, destroyed more than 12,000 structures, scorched nearly 60 square miles of Los Angeles County, and are now considered among of the worst wildfires in California history.
The following morning, text messages began pouring in to Jan’s phone from fellow Scientologists who were responding to the disaster. Jan rushed to a nearby store and bought $1,200 worth of blankets, pillows, food, water and other essential goods. Then he loaded a truck with the supplies and drove to the Pasadena Convention Center, which began operating that day as a shelter for evacuees of the Eaton Fire.
“I saw many Volunteer Ministers already active at the center,” recalls Jan, a Dutch-born technician with an Irwindale, California, company. There were piles of donations of all kinds and descriptions—the generous outpouring of help from people throughout the region. The Volunteer Ministers were organizing supplies, making it simple for evacuees, many of them in need of food, clothing and hygiene supplies, to find what they needed among the massive stacks of donations.
Jan, too, is a Scientology Volunteer Minister (VM). These volunteers respond to disasters, great and small, as part of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers program, a religious social service created in the mid-1970s by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard.
After unloading most of his supplies at the convention center, Jan drove with the rest to the Church of Scientology Los Angeles on Sunset Boulevard in East Hollywood, where the Church had established a Scientology Volunteer Ministers disaster response headquarters for the fires. He then headed out with a team of VMs to help those affected by the disaster.
Roy, an Israeli living in Los Angeles, was another who volunteered to help with the fires. No stranger to disaster, Roy had worked previously as an inspector with Israel’s national public transportation authority. Although not a Scientologist, he found an ad for the Volunteer Ministers hotline at (323) 953-3240. He called and was immediately activated to join a team of volunteers providing relief to fire victims.
Baron, also new to the Volunteer Ministers program, arrived at the headquarters and joined a team helping at the Alkebu-lan Cultural Center in Pasadena which was assisting Eaton Fire victims evacuated from their homes. Baron sorted donated supplies—everything from food, clothes, and toiletries to shoes, books, and board games—and provided moral support to victims whose lives had been upended.
According to Susanna Kaneer, public affairs director for the Scientology Churches of Greater Los Angeles, anyone wishing to help in this time of urgent need is invited to come to VM headquarters at the bright yellow tent at 4810 Sunset Blvd., just west of Vermont. Those with no previous experience are assigned to teams headed by trained volunteers. “With the extent of the devastation, everyone’s help is needed and valuable,” Kaneer says. “Many donation hubs will close down when the fires are out. But the devastation is so widespread, and there’s so much to restore and rebuild, I’m sure ours will remain open.”
In addition to providing for the material needs of evacuees, Volunteer Ministers carry out neighborhood cleanups outside the burn zones. They also go door-to-door in regions close to the fires to ensure residents are OK, providing whatever is needed, from food and water to baby supplies and pet food. However, seeing to material necessities is only part of their calling.
Volunteer Ministers are trained in assists—technology developed by L. Ron Hubbard that addresses the emotional and spiritual aspects of stress and trauma. They use these to help alleviate anxiety, suffering, and other unwanted emotions and conditions that can prolong suffering and even leave victims unable to confront their circumstances or plan for the future.
Help is “the woof and warp of association,” said Mr. Hubbard. “A man is alive so long as he can help things and so long as he, himself, can be helped.” Scientology ecclesiastical leader Mr. David Miscavige ensured this technology is broadly available free of charge to anyone wishing to help their families or friends. He saw to the production of a series of introductory videos and 19 free online courses that contain the skills laid out by Mr. Hubbard in the Scientology Handbook, the textbook of the Volunteer Ministers.
Volunteer Ministers live by the motto, “Something can be done about it.” And these courses provide the technology that makes accomplishing the motto possible.
The Scientology Tools for Life are available free of charge in 20 languages through the Scientology website and the Volunteer Ministers website.
For more information on the technology used by the Volunteer Minister, watch Scientology Tools for Life and the documentary Operation: Do Something About It on the Scientology Network on DIRECTV 320 or at www.Scientology.tv.
