ELBERTA, Fla. (WKRG) — A lot of us are looking for a little comfort after the stress and losses from Hurricane Sally. Friday, “comfort” came to Redeemer Lutheran School in Warrington, in the form of three sweet Golden Retrievers named Luke, Lizzie and Peace.

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Elberta worked with the Lutheran Church Charities, based in Chicago, to bring the organization’s “Comfort Dog Ministry” to our area.

Judy Adams is a handler for Luke. She says Luke, and all the dogs in the program, receive 2000 hours of training to provide comfort to humans in times of distress. “Anytime there’s a disaster or something that happens tragically, our dogs are brought in to just be there to love on people,” says Adams.

St. Mark’s Pastor Keith Ringers adds, “Any place in the country where the people need comfort, they like to come in with the dogs and let people handle them. It’s a really comforting thing.”

The comfort dogs’ first stop on their three-day Gulf Coast Tour was Redeemer Lutheran School. Starting with the children just made sense, says Ringers. “Kids don’t always show their emotions on the outside. If they’re troubled, they sometimes like to play it out and with these dogs they get a chance to do that. It’s a hands-on little bit of play time with a living thing that loves them back and I don’t think it gest any better than that.”

Judy Adams says the dogs seem to know what they are giving to humans. “The dogs can work about 6 hours a day, 6 days a week and are always there to bring the mercy and compassion of Jesus to those suffering in need.”

The Comfort Dogs will be in Elberta Saturday. They will be at Elberta Town Park from 9:-11:30

And at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church from 2-4.

Luke, Lizzie and Peace all have their own Facebook pages. Here are the links as follow:

https://www.facebook.com/lukecomfortdog

https://www.facebook.com/lizzieElizabethcomfortdog

https://www.facebook.com/PeaceComfortDog

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