Ceremony acknowledges Scientology Volunteer Ministers from across the country who responded to the region in its time of need. Hundreds of VMs converged on Houston last summer to help families recover from Hurricane Harvey.

Church of Scientology Mission of Houston organized a concert last month to thank the Scientology Volunteer Ministers (VMs) who helped the city recover from Hurricane Harvey. The concert featured singer Stacey Francis, finalist on the first season of Simon Cowell’s The X Factor. And Harris County Municipal Utilities District 148 (HCMUD148) board of directors president Calvet Shelley presented Scientology Volunteer Ministers with an award for their selfless service.

Within 48 hours of putting out a call for help for the beleaguered northeastern Houston communities it serves, HCMUD148 staff were relieved to see a team of Scientology Volunteer Ministers arrive at their door, ready to work.

In Bellaire where the organization’s offices are located, one-third of the town’s 6,500 homes were flooded and sustained some form of structural damage.

What followed were weeks of arduous cleanup in this district and throughout the storm-ridden county. Volunteer Ministers stripped out damaged carpets, sheetrock and furniture; located and preserved lost valuables; scraped, cleaned, rebuilt and painted—whatever people needed to get their lives back together.

Joining in the work were local Scientologists and those from cities around Texas and across America.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Western U.S. Cavalcade arrived in Houston to participate in the award presentation and concert and introduce the community to other services the VMs offer. While Volunteer Ministers are famous for their disaster response, their mission encompasses far more. It includes technology to address and handle broad-ranging problems and difficulties including conflict resolution, repairing marriages, raising children, helping overcome the barriers to study, and achieving goals.

The Church of Scientology Volunteer Minister program is a religious social service created in the mid 1970s by L. Ron Hubbard. Anyone of any culture or creed may train as a Volunteer Minister and use these tools to help their families and communities. The Church provides free online training on the Volunteer Ministers website.

In creating the Volunteer Ministers program, L. Ron Hubbard wrote, “If one does not like the crime, cruelty, injustice and violence of this society, he can do something about it. He can become a Volunteer Minister and help civilize it, bring it conscience and kindness and love and freedom from travail by instilling into it trust, decency, honesty and tolerance.”