Scientology Volunteer Minister, David Dempster, Makes Helping People his Priority

Clearwater, Florida—David Dempster is a Scientology Volunteer Minister, recently returned from the Church of Scientology Haiti Disaster Response. David operates a community hotline in the Tampa Bay area. Based on his extensive experience as a Volunteer Minister he was asked to carry out a series of seminars in Kenya, Africa last year. Here is his story.

I come from Perth, a beautiful ancient seaport on the east coast of Scotland. I’ve been in the US for 20 years. Most of that time I have been in Los Angeles and for the past four years in Clearwater, Florida.

I have the view that we should all help each other. On a small scale that means helping your friends and family—and on a larger scale it includes reaching out to people in the community and those in need anywhere else on Earth.

When I got to Clearwater I became aware of people who had fallen on hard times and needed a helping hand, and I started running a group called the Tampa Bay Volunteer Minister Hotline. People call in looking for help with their marriage, career, study problems and so on. We help them, using technology developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard.

A few months ago, at the end of August, I got a phone call asking me if I would go to Kenya to deliver Volunteer Minister seminars to various groups. I accepted eagerly. As a self-employed computer consultant I was able to take off time from work. I delivered seminars in communication skills, the basics of organization, drug prevention and conflict resolution. I covered Scientology Assists—procedures that help orient the individual to the environment, improve emotional tone and enable a person to recover more quickly from accidents, loss, trauma and illness.

I returned to Kenya shortly afterwards and delivered more extensive Volunteer Ministers training to a group of scout leaders from the Kenya Scout Association.

Then this year I traveled to Haiti as part of the earthquake disaster relief mission.

There were patients in the hospitals in Haiti who weren’t responding to medical treatment until they received Scientology Assists. By handling the spiritual and emotional aspects of the trauma, they began to recover.

My Volunteer Minister training made a big difference in my ability to help people there. It is because of that training and the Volunteer Ministers’ skill, that the motto of the program is “Something can be done about it.”

For more information on the work of Scientology Volunteer Ministers visit the Volunteer Ministers blog.