Two years ago, Yana, age 25, fled her battle-riven Eastern European homeland with nothing but her cell phone, her passport and her cat. She was frightened and alone and couldn’t predict what would happen to her in the next hour, let alone the next week or month. But with the help of strangers, she made it to America—to New York, then Chicago, then Los Angeles, where she found work as a part-time nanny and pastry chef.
Yana began to remake her life in this new place.
But then, one morning, she looked out the window and saw blackness—a sickening blanket of it covering the city she now called home. Yana was, once again, in a war zone but, this time, the enemy was an inhuman thing—wildfires destroying her city, from one end to another.
“Because so many others helped me to survive when I was in need, I want to help others.”
“I wanted so much to help,” she told Freedom through a translator. “But everywhere I went, I was told no. My language was a barrier. I don’t speak English very well.”
She had all but given up hope when she came across a social media post from the Church of Scientology of Los Angeles, requesting donations for those impacted by the disaster, for distribution by Volunteer Ministers.
The Scientology Volunteer Ministers program, founded by L. Ron Hubbard half a century ago, is the Church’s religious social service, recognized the world over for its rapid and effective response to communities stricken by natural or man-made disasters.
Scientology ecclesiastical leader David Miscavige has inspired the creation of a global force of more than 200,000 Volunteer Ministers who have been active in over 300 of the world’s worst-case disasters—from 9/11 to the recent hurricanes in Florida to wildfires plaguing the City of Angels.
Upon seeing the Facebook post, Yana quickly gathered boxes of supplies, clothing and food and went straight to the Church, where her contributions were gratefully received.
Lingering another moment, Yana ventured, “Do you guys need any help?”
“Yes! Absolutely!” she was told.
Yana was one of dozens and dozens of Angelenos who, hearing of the Volunteer Ministers—their effectiveness and what they were doing to help their community—showed up for the first time to a Church of Scientology wishing to be part of the movement and lend a hand. Having satisfied the one VM requirement—wanting to help—each was rapidly absorbed into the burgeoning ranks of Volunteer Ministers, briefed, trained and sent out—along the way, not only changing the lives of those they helped, but changing their own as well.
“My life is brighter and I’m no longer alone thanks to the Volunteer Ministers.”
Yana was immediately put to work as a Volunteer Minister—delivering supplies to first responders, sorting out donations, cleaning debris-strewn streets, and doing whatever was needed—no matter what and no matter where—once even traveling 70 miles to deliver food to a stricken family.
“Because so many others helped me to survive when I was in need, I want to help others,” Yana said.
Aware that other non-English-speaking Angelenos like her may not know where to go or who to contact for help, she reached out via social media, inviting them to help or be helped. Before long, Yana was leading her own team of Volunteer Ministers—three units, each distributing hot food to the first responders.
The personal stories Yana has heard in the last few weeks alone have taught her much about human nature: “One person loses a cat and is crying bitterly, while another loses his house and everything in it and shrugs it off,” she says.
Yana saw one family—a husband, wife and their four adopted kids—evacuate, along the way stopping to pick up a homeless dog here and a homeless cat there. By the time they reached their destination, they had adopted as many animals as they had kids.
Yana has found a calling. “My life is brighter and I’m no longer alone,” she says, “thanks to the Volunteer Ministers. I realized that if something happens to you, whether it’s a war or a fire, you don’t have to panic or be afraid. You can just be rational, effective and calm.”
The dozens of volunteers Yana recruited to the cause now meet regularly as a unit, and she counts them—as well as the many VMs she has now met and worked alongside—as newfound, life-long friends.
It no longer matters that Yana can’t speak English very well. She’s successfully broken through the language barrier by employing the universal language of help.
It is a language every Volunteer Minister is fluent in.
