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Episode-884- Brandon Shelton of Bella Medical Ministries

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Brandon on Relief Work in Haiti

BELLA Ministries on Relief Work in Haiti

Brandon Shelton founded BELLA Medical Ministries after his first medical relief trip to Haiti immediately following the earthquake in Jan. 2010 that killed over 250,000+ men, women and children as well as left over 1 million homeless. BELLA’s core team is made up experienced Paramedics and Critical Care Paramedics who have either a prior military or LEO background. These prior life experiences enable them to adapt to the austere living/working conditions and unstable security situations that make up the disaster zones and areas of extreme poverty to which they deploy.

The BELLA teams (both in disaster deployments and larger follow up support missions) arrive in the operational area with the ability to be 100% self-sufficient (for 2 weeks) in the areas of food, water purification equipment, shelter, security & a large inventory of medicines/supplies. They do this so as not to be a burden on the already overwhelmed support systems and/or to their hosts. This self-sufficient model dovetails into the preparedness lifestyle very well.

BELLA’s founding members are all preppers and each deployment or follow up mission trip they do gives them the opportunity to test gear and skills that we have in their personal preparedness plans. Following an initial disaster deployment they return home with detailed reports that they deliver to local churches and other groups so that they can become involved in ongoing relief efforts by either sending supplies/funds that are needed or by having BELLA lead a team of their members back to the effected region.

Additional Resources for Today’s Show

Brandon’s Links

Special Note – I donated 100 dollars to Bella while doing this interview, I will donate 100 dollars more up for each 1000 dollars donated by TSP, Branden will let me know as the donations come in.  All in all if the community donates a total of 4,000 dollars I will add 500 to it making it a 4,500 dollar contribution.  If you guys will “like” their facebook page I will chip in another 100 dollars just for that.

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.

Comments

Episode-884- Brandon Shelton of Bella Medical Ministries — 25 Comments

  2. Today’s discussion reminds me of how naive we are. We think we know stuff, but you know what? We don’t have a real clue. I was leaving in Korea during the Bay of Pigs, on the economy, as missionaries, and the US Army radio notified us that we might be evacuated with a five minutes notice, so we should have one bag per family ready to go. I had four children, and you can’t imagine what stupid stuff I packed at first…including a wig. lol But, within about an hour, after repacking, and repacking, I realized that if we got out alive, it would be enough. I ended up with one change of clothes for each, a washcloth and towel, a dozen cloth diapers, a small pan,a spoon , a knife, a can opener, a cup, and matches, mainly. I thought we could eat one at a time from the pan, with the spoon. That day I learned what is truly important for my family….survival by any means. Everything else is junk. It only takes one major crisis to change your outlook on life, for life.

  3. The lightweight backpacking industry has come a long way. This is a link to one of the ‘founders’ – Ray Jardine. (http://rayjardine.com/index.shtml)

    He’s hike the AT / PCT / CDT with a 7 pound pack minus food and water. Great skills to own.

  5. Great interview.

    I want to add a little to Brandon’s reports of creating chaos and potentially dangerous conditions while trying to help. Weeks after the Gulf War (’91) our Lieutenant (Platoon leader) decided to setup an impromptu food and water distribution point on the side on a hi-way in southern Iraq. We loaded up four M113 armored Personal carriers with as much canned food and bottled water we could carry and started giving it away. This quickly grew out of hand and turned into a mini riot. Calm was restored only after our vehicle mounted .50 cal (M2) machine guns were loaded and pointed into the crowd.

    After that we proceeded to feed as many women and children that we could safely reach. We let the men have the rest only after the women and children were all given something.

    Incidentally that was the day I became a “prepper”. I did not know the term then, but I did know that I never wanted to be that hungry rioting Iraqi.

  6. Just donated $20 (not sure how you are tracking what comes from your listeners). Thanks for bringing this opportunity and cause to us and thank you, Brandon, for taking action!

  7. Thank you Jack for having Brandon share his experiences! I too went through the same experiences as Brandon and he was spot on. My experience with the relief efforts in Sri Lanka immediately after the tsunami was life changing and the people there ALSO had the same fungal infections that Brandon ran into in Joplin. We were dispensing single doses of fungal cream and medications in the fingers of latex gloves because we didn’t have vials, bottles or bags to give out. We coordinated our efforts with the local medical system, Rotary Clubs and had weekly meetings with the Red Crosses , Red Crescents from around the world along with the UN. One of our biggest concerns was the very tentative ceasefire between the Tamil Tigers and the majority Singhalese Govt….along with the minefields that surrounded the military outposts that got washed away by the tsunami…only the locals knew where the mines were generally located. I am currently an EMT for a federal disaster medical team (Haiti, Hurricanes Katrina and Ike) and have been prepping since the 1980s. Again, thank you and God bless!

  8. This was a great interview and I will start donating to Bella.
    Really amazing what they do and why they do it.
    I was inspired and they are really close to where I live so hopefully in the future I can get down there and volunteer.

  9. Listening to the interview at about 54 minutes in you talk about the documentation kit and how do you prove you are who you say you are.

    How effective is it to have all your documentation in an internet cloud account. If my home in Joplin is demolished, would going to the bank, logging into my private yahoo email account and printing scanned documents that I have emailed to myself be a reliable solution to a documentation kit?

  10. I was a volunteer EMT with an ambulance squad in my younger days, and I can truly appreciate the work Brandon and his team are taking on. Am sending a contribution today.

    The radio program (also podcast) “Health Talk with Dr Ronald Hoffman” discussed not long ago a fungus that sounds like what was encountered in Joplin. It often affects gardiners and gets into the fingernail beds.

  11. Great interview, went and donated $20 after hearing the show. I also put a like through facebook.

  13. ALso do a post on their facebook- so that they show up on your page & on your friends’ pages more than just the Like [but of course hit like too]

  14. As I have told Jack repeatably, this community is AMAZING! We broke $1,000 in donations today, I shot Jack an email and he immeadiately donated another $100!! Thank you all so much for your comments and support. I (Brandon) have also had an inbox full of emails from people wanting to volunteer and assist during deployments. That (as well as the financial support) is a BIG deal. We have spoken at BIG churches and civic organizations and not recieved 10% of the support (financial and volunteer) that TSP has shown in just 24 hours!! Thank you all and God bless you and yours.

    P.S.
    If you have emailed, messaged, donated, etc. keep an eye on your inbox. I will be contacting everyone to answer questions and give personal thanks ASAP. Thank you all again!

    • @Branden, sending you another 100 right now, a listener who is an amazing guy I will call Bill unless he tells me he want me to use his last name just donated 1,000 bucks and told me he did so to spend 100 of mine. Bill is friken awesome he gave a huge donation to Jan Cline as well.

      I am so proud of the TSP community.

  15. I will be donating $50 per month. Another great effort that I can support. The Urban Farming guys also were introduced to me via The Survival Podcast.

  17. I was/am still stunned. The donation from Bill came through then your match right behind it (along with several more donations). All I can say is thank you all so very much. I look forward to reporting back on another project/deployment that was made possible by TSP. I cannot say it enough, this community is absolutely amazing! What a blessing you all are to BELLA and to all those that have and will be impacted by your generosity! Thank you.

    Brandon Shelton

  19. Howdy Brandon,
    You are most welcome, I support what your are doing.
    I have some resources available in S.W. Ohio as well as
    Eastern Pa. Resources consist of shelter equipment and
    other stuff we all need.
    If I can be of assistance please advise on same.

    Best Regards,
    Bill Sutter

  21. @all,

    Well another big donation just went in. A guy named John just went in for 2,000 dollars, that has pushed TSP well over 4K so I just put in my last 200 in matches. Keep it coming guys but if you want to tap me out for 250 more make sure to like their Facebook page.

    This type of thing tells me I am right when I say, while politicians can not and will not fix this country, our people can and will do so.

  22. Just to say it again, thank you all so much for the support!! This community continues to blow us away! Jack, once again you’ve put something out to the audience & watched them run with it with amazing result! On a side note, I’ve been having a blast on the Zello app (The Survival Podcast Network) chatting with other listeners and picking up tons of new tips/ideas! It’s like the forum, but live with voice. Thanks again everyone! God bless!

  23. Jack,
    Good on you for dogging us all out. Sometimes we need action steps… sometimes we need a swift kick in the rear. I didn’t hear the episode until last night and I felt bad I wasn’t liking their FB page and donating immediately while driving.

    Sometimes I feel like your Manchurian Candidate. 🙂

    Branden – AWESOME work y’all are doing. I hope I can help in a way other than money in the next couple of years.

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