From U.S. disaster zones to communities in Iraq and Ukraine, three alumni put their skills and faith to work helping people in need
Becky Haas keeps a bag packed by the door.
Starting later this month, the Grand Canyon University alumna and emergency room nurse will be on call with Samaritan's Purse. If disaster strikes anywhere in the world, she could be on a plane the same day. She won't know where until the phone rings.
"You've given your availability. You make your contingency plan. If you get called, you go," Haas said. “This is being a part of something much bigger outside of ourselves.”
That willingness to go wherever the need is runs through the GCU alumni who serve with Samaritan's Purse. Joshua Hulkkonen has worked in Cambodia, Iraq and across the Middle East. Megan Blood has lived in South Sudan, Liberia and now Kyiv, Ukraine.
On Monday, a piece of that world came to GCU’s campus. Edward Graham, chief operating officer of Samaritan's Purse, spoke at Chapel in front of a full Global Credit Union Arena. For the alumni who work alongside Graham, grandson of renowned evangelist Billy Graham, his visit was a chance to show students where saying yes to service can lead.
After Chapel, representatives from Samaritan’s Pursue hosted a Ministry Connection Table on the Quad Lawn. An information session is scheduled for 2 to 3 p.m. in the Engineering Building, Room 202, followed by a meet and greet from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the Engineering Building, Room 203.
Haas, a nurse of 27 years, earned her bachelor’s and master's degrees in nursing from GCU in 2013 and joined the organization's Disaster Assistance Response Team in 2025 after 15 years volunteering in various roles. She and her children packed shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child before she began volunteering in the field as part of Samaritan’s Purse’s U.S. disaster relief work.
Since 2022, Haas has responded to wildfires, hurricanes and tornadoes. Her volunteer duties in U.S. disaster zones have been clearing debris, cutting trees, hauling branches and patching roofs. But the work also includes praying with homeowners and leaving each one a Bible signed by the team.
“We share the Gospel, and we pray with the homeowners,” Haas said. She described the organization’s approach as providing for “the tangible needs, but also for sharing the love of Christ and responding in Jesus’ name.”
In 2025, Samaritan’s Purse hired her to serve on its international medical emergency field hospital team.
“I definitely didn’t have it planned out like this,” she said. “If you would have ever asked me when your children are 11 and 13, ‘Are you going to jump on a plane to go serve in Venezuela for a month?’ I would say no. But God has different plans for us.”
Hulkkonen first encountered Samaritan’s Purse through a GCU summer trip to Thailand and Cambodia. It changed the course of his life. After finishing his master's degree in business administration with an emphasis in business leadership, he moved to Cambodia for nearly three years. It's where he established roots with the organization.
Today, Hulkkonen’s work is based in northern Iraq, where he manages a team of 12 at a community center focused on livelihoods in a poorer community. Programs include agricultural work and greenhouses, as well as apprenticeships that help people ages 18 to 35 develop vocational skills and learn from local businesses.
He also has traveled to other countries in the Middle East for disaster responses, helping provide food, clean drinking water, warm clothing, blankets and shelter repairs.
Hulkkonen credits his experience as a resident director at GCU’s Camelback Hall for preparing him to manage a team away from home.“Having the opportunity in school to live and work with my staff of students prepared me very well for what life can look like overseas,” he said. “Gaining skills in leadership and managing a team while taking classes have been things I have been able to utilize and fall back on.”
A thousand miles to the north in Kyiv, Ukraine, Blood’s work addresses urgent needs for people living near the front lines of war.
Her team coordinates evacuation kits for vulnerable women, children and older adults in frontline cities, along with winter supplies, such as firewood, blankets, thermoses and power banks. Winterization is especially urgent, she said, with attacks on power grids leaving people without heat in the coldest months.
“Sitting with people and the pain that they’re in, and the suffering that they’re going through, and letting people talk and share their stories goes a long way,” Blood said. “It’s a great way to be the hands and feet of Jesus.”
Before Ukraine, Blood served in South Sudan and Liberia through a roving apprenticeship. She recalled the toll of illness and violence in South Sudan and spending time in prisons in Liberia, where she observed a lack of justice, and the great resilience of those living through hardships.
In each place, she found people holding on to hope.
"I see Christians all around the world just standing so firm for the gospel, and that's been so encouraging to me," she said.
She credits GCU's ministries to refugees and people experiencing homelessness with first stretching her toward this work and shaping her faith.
"I thought GCU had so many ministry opportunities. That really made an impact on me,” she said. “I know I am not the savior of the world, but I know Him, and I want to share the good news that comes from knowing Him.
“The focus on the gospel and evangelism is at the center of everything that we do (at Samaritan’s Purse).”
GCU News senior writer Jason Gonzalez can be reached at [email protected].
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