Suzanne Padilla could only watch.
Hundreds of miles away on vacation in California, Padilla refreshed security camera footage as muddy water rose higher and higher in the first home she had ever owned. Neighbors sent photographs; every update was worse than the last.
"I could actually see furniture in my house floating around," Padilla said, her voice catching. "It was just getting worse and worse."
Padilla had no flood insurance and couldn’t fathom how to recover from such loss.
In the disheartening aftermath, she couldn't yet see that another journey had begun years before hers — one that would quietly meet her in the wreckage of her living room.
Heeding God’s call
Years earlier, Texans on Mission volunteer Leslie Burch almost said “no” to becoming a chaplain.
A TXM teammate saw the way she had connected spiritually with multiple homeowners and survivors and encouraged her to attend a chaplain training.
Sure, she knew how to reach people’s hearts, but she was worried she didn’t know enough Scripture.
“What if I mess it up?” she had thought.
“I had a pull from the Lord to do it, but I lacked the confidence,” Burch said. “Working with Texans on Mission helped me to arrive at what God's purpose has been for me for a really long time. It's such a joy to feel like you're doing what God created you to do.”
That hesitant “yes” eventually brought Burch and a TXM mud out team to Padilla’s doorstep days after the flood in Uvalde.
Chaplaincy in action
Years of guilt and doubt surrounding Padilla’s faith had caused her to drift away from the church — until she met Burch.
Volunteers worked hard to remove wet furniture, drywall and flooring while Burch focused on comforting Padilla.
Assessor Darrell Siems helped to cheer her up, too. Siems encouraged Padilla to imagine the future by rearranging cabinets and making the house her own again.
“She had that twinkle back in her eye,” Siems said.
While the flood’s physical devastation was at the front of Padilla’s mind, a conversation with Burch quickly shifted her focus to something more spiritual.
“We were talking about being guaranteed a way into heaven,” Padilla said. “I had no clue how to get there. I really didn't know.”
Burch sat with Padilla and listened intently as she told her story. Then, Burch offered the best kind of hope.
“I was able to introduce her to who our loving Father actually is and His reasoning for coming to the earth,” Burch said. “She found freedom from the guilt that she had been carrying. She was finally able to let that go.”
After a heartfelt and comforting conversation, Burch invited Padilla and her son to join the rest of her team for worship at Temple Baptist Church, where TXM volunteers were staying during the deployment. When the Sunday sermon echoed many of the conversations the two women had shared privately, Burch was reassured — God was at work in Padilla’s life.
Upon hearing God’s Word during the service, Padilla wept tears of relief.
“It makes me feel at peace,” Padilla said. “I want to share it with my family.”
When she looks to the future, Padilla said she intends to still be active in the church and studying the Bible together with her son.
A brighter future
Years after her initial call to chaplaincy, Burch sees that saying “yes” was about more than knowing Scripture. It was about being willing to stand in someone's hardest moment and trust God to do the rest.
Now, she begins every deployment with the same prayer.
"I always pray that I'm able to lay everything down before each deployment so that the Spirit has space to move and to truly allow God to speak through me," Burch said. "It's such a joy and an honor."
Chaplaincy isn't about having every answer, she said.
"It's talking to people," Burch said. "It's caring about people. It's being God's presence in a time they really need to be heard."
For Padilla, whose house remains under repair, TXM changed more than the future of her home. Volunteers like Burch and Siems shared God’s love with her when she needed it most — changing her life and relationship with the Lord.
"I learned that everything does happen for a reason," she said. "These are just material things. As long as we have our faith, we're still good with God."