Every flood we have written about on this site ends the same way. The water goes down, the trucks pull out, the cameras find another story, and a neighbourhood is left asking questions that a dehumidifier can't answer. Why did this happen? Where is God in it? Is there anything left that can't be washed away?
Relief opens those doors. It does not walk through them. Somebody has to be ready to answer the question that comes after the water bottle, and a local church has to be there the week after, and the year after, to keep walking with the person who asked it.
What "plunder hell" actually means
The phrase sounds like a slogan. It is closer to a quotation. When Jesus was accused of working for the enemy, He described exactly what He had come to do:
In fact, no one can enter a strong man's house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man's house.
The strong man is bound. The house is open. Every person who comes to Jesus is someone carried out of a house that was never theirs to live in. Paul says it plainly: God "has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves" (Colossians 1:13). And Jesus promised that the gates of Hades will not overcome the church He is building (Matthew 16:18). Gates are defensive. The church is the one on the move.
Populating heaven is the other half of the same sentence. Jesus said there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine who think they need nothing (Luke 15:7). Heaven throws a party over a single name. That's the scale of what is at stake on an ordinary street, at an ordinary door, after an ordinary disaster.
Why relief alone is never enough
We have said many times that bread and hope belong together, and we mean it. Practical help is real ministry. But a church that only ever hands out supplies has stopped halfway. Paul's questions in Romans still decide whether a door that opened in a crisis leads anywhere:
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?
Someone has to be sent. Someone has to be trained to speak about Jesus with clarity and kindness, so that when a soaked homeowner asks "why are you here?" the answer is a person, not a pamphlet. And a church has to exist close enough to follow up, because a yes that nobody walks with tends to fade. We wrote about that in What Happens After Someone Says Yes.
The people behind this work
Thy Kingdom Response is managed by Daniel and Katie Ziedins, a Hamilton-based ministry couple who have served together since 2014. Their journey began with Love on Hamilton: practical love, prayer and Gospel conversations on the streets of their own city. They tell that story, and what God has grown from it, in Twelve Years on the Streets.
Today Daniel and Katie serve in partnership with e3 Canada, a ministry whose focus is equipping believers to evangelize and establish multiplying, life-changing churches, alongside I Am Second. Their work spans weekly outreach, evangelism training for churches, discipleship, and initiatives like Love on The World and Jesus Festival.
That is the missing half of every relief story. Relief shows up for the emergency. Equipped believers and multiplying churches are what is still standing, still praying, and still sharing Jesus when the emergency is long gone.
Multiplication, not heroics
The goal was never a few gifted evangelists doing everything. Paul told Timothy to hand what he had learned to "reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others" (2 Timothy 2:2). That's four generations in one verse. A trained believer trains a church. A church plants a church. A neighbourhood that once had no witness ends up with one on every street.
Jesus named the bottleneck long before any of us did: "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field" (Matthew 9:37–38). Equipping is how that prayer gets answered in practice. If your own church wants to grow here, Daniel and Katie lay out a practical path in Equipping Your Church to Make Evangelism Normal.
Partnership is a biblical word
Paul never treated the people who supported him as donors. He called them partners, and he thanked God for them every time they came to mind:
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
He even said the fruit of the work is credited to the partner's account (Philippians 4:17). The person who gives so someone else can go shares in what happens when they get there. John said the same about those who send workers on their way: "We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth" (3 John 1:8). Work together. Not watch. Not cheer. Work together.
Five ways to stand with them
- Pray by name. Pray for Daniel, Katie and their family, for the teams they train, and for the people who will hear about Jesus because someone was ready.
- Become a monthly partner. Ongoing support is what lets a missionary family plan for years instead of weeks. Give through their official e3 Canada partner page.
- Get the updates. Follow what God is doing through Love Overflow at KD-Ziedins.com and subscribe there for ministry news.
- Invite them to equip your church. If your congregation wants evangelism to feel normal instead of terrifying, ask about training.
- Share this. Send it to one person who has been asking how to be part of something that outlasts them.
The same mission, from two directions
Thy Kingdom Response helps the local church carry its neighbours through a disaster. Daniel and Katie's work with e3 Canada helps raise up the believers and churches that will be there to carry them toward Jesus. One opens the door. The other walks through it and stays.
Hell does not get the last word over a flooded street, a grieving family, or a city that forgot it needed God. The strong man is bound. The harvest is ready. The only question left is who will go, and who will stand with the ones who do.
Want to see what that partnership is already producing? Read The Harvest Is Real: Twelve Years of Fruit and the Mission Ahead.
Here am I. Send me!