In partnership with Baptists on Mission (BOM) - North Carolina, Jersey Church prayer warriors and generous donors, a multi-generational team of twenty Jersey men embarked on quite the adventure with God Sunday, December 8 to share the gospel of Christ in word and deed by helping hurting people, however we could in Jesus’ name. The goal was to assist the team on the ground in getting people back in their homes before Christmas. The prayers of our Jersey family were needed and they were sensed as we saw glimpses of God confirming His will and direction for us before departing and throughout the week. Thank you to everyone who petitioned the Father on our behalf and for the souls of those we would encounter!

The kick-off was Pastor Matt anointing our journey with an opening prayer. With gear loaded, five vehicles and a trailer we rolled out of the church parking lot just prior to 8 a.m. bound for Canton, NC. The prayer and worship continued and the fellowship began as we travelled. We left with only an idea of the need and work to be done, not many specifics, so we went as prepared as we could just trying to obey the call with a willingness to serve. It was a step of faith and there was peace knowing that this was God’s work. To trust and go, bearing His name is what we were called to do. How He used us was up to Him, so were the results.

The route and setting were stunning and took us through and into the heart and edge of the Appalachians between the Great Smokey and Blue Ridge Mountains. The Father’s beauty in creation was all around and He quickly revealed that the need for help and hope was too. This became very clear near Erwin, Tennessee where the Nolichucky River flows along I-26 when we saw the first major evidence of the hurricane’s devastation. There was much erosion and strewn debris on one side of the freeway and sediment deposits and more debris on the other side and throughout the low land. It started to bring in focus and personalize this trip with images we had only seen and heard in the media. This great contrast between beauty and destruction is a vivid picture of the gospel of Jesus, and was a present reminder all week as to why we were there entering the lives of people with various levels of hurt and healing. We were bringing encouragement, and were living out the love and hope of Jesus our Lord and Savior who gives beauty from ashes (Isaiah 61:3), for the community and church we visited, and among the brothers our Lord brought together for several days.

We arrived safely at our lodging, it was very much like home, and on to the small but mighty and amazing Crestview Baptist Church (CBC). They are a reflection of our Lord God Almighty, Jehovah, His only son Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit! Pastor Dan and the body of Christ at Crestview are themselves hurting and dealing with the devastating impacts of the storm. They are still processing through this. Yet, there they are steadfastly and sacrificially serving as the host and temporary headquarters for the very busy and impactful BOM ministry operation, one of six locations. It is very apparent and real how God is using the men and women of CBC and BOM together to pour His great love into each other and the hurting lives around them to His Glory. They are a city on a hill, shinning the light of Jesus brightly into Haywood County and Canton, NC!

During the initial in-brief we met the on-site BOM coordinator, Pastor Michael who has been on the ground serving there since October 6th. It was another glimpse of God at work to see the relationship between Pastor Dan, the CBC body and Pastor Michael. The church has opened their doors and grounds for the BOM recovery/rebuild efforts and large volume of volunteers rotating through since the onset of the disaster, including our team. PTL!

The disaster relief work that BOM performs is recovery and rebuild where they take an impacted home from unoccupiable to livable again and share the love of Christ. They limit the work to Essential Rapid Repairs required for owners to regain occupancy and move back in their home as quickly as possible. That work can be new electrical, plumbing, subfloor, drywall, spackling and sanding throughout the house, finish flooring, base cabinets, counter, sinks and faucets for the bathroom and kitchen, toilet, tub, stove, refrigerator, water heater, in-wall HVAC units and some room doors. The process was kept on track by the coordinator, with no assistant, scheduling, purchasing and delivering materials/tools, balancing many moving pieces to keep everything moving forward with the quick rotation of volunteers, supplies, homeowners, permits, and so on.

We gathered at CBC at the start and end of each work day; here the volunteers fed us well and treated us as family. Throughout the week there were times of prayer in our Jersey teams and with our prayer captain. The fellowship grew among our team and beyond through the week (including a brother hailing from Austin, TX that was an outspoken fan who liked that these Buckeyes were wearing BOM hats and shirts closely reassembling a certain team up north’s colors… God even provided humor). We unloaded gear and cleaned-up prior to returning for the evening meal with prayer, debrief (project progress and interaction with home-owners) and a devotion led by Pastor Michael (more glimpses of God at work).

During one devotion Pastor Michael shared about the time that he had written a phone number down and was returning the call and the person who answered was not the person that he thought he was calling. This person had reached out to him some time ago, but she had not heard back and needed assistance. Pastor Michael had missed her in the pace of it all. However, God was using moment where he had written the phone number down incorrectly to bring them back in contact. It was another example of God’s providence and presence in the midst of this work and a reminder that He can even use our mistakes for His glory.

We divided into three Jersey work teams initially assigned to separate houses on the same street within a few miles of the church. These first three homes owned by Miss Maria and Mr. Jose, Mr. Jaun, and Miss Josephine & Mr. Gary. Their road dead-ended about a football field away from the Pigeon River that had catastrophically flooded overnight. We could still see the high-water marks on the windows of cars that were parked in the front yard of a house further uphill from theirs. There was a lot of debris and visible damage to some houses and property there. This was also the case along some of the roads in the area where large debris piles awaited pick-up and along the watersheds where debris remained scattered.

The houses assigned to us were in various stages of repair and unoccupied. Our team picked up where other teams left off performing the rebuild essential rapid repairs with the exception of one house that included recovery and demolition work. In all of the houses we tried to go beyond the minimum requirements to do more than what we were asked; unto the Lord.

When the work was complete in the first home the teams reconfigured to improve our efforts and provide young energetic manpower to start a fourth home. This home was further away and on the opposite side of the Pigeon River. Only it was damaged by a tributary stream that flooded and flowed down the road. This was Miss Robin’s house which was in the initial demolition stage. Another church group had torn-up her carpet and hauled out all that was wet to the street. Our team tore out rotten flooring, joists, and replaced the lumber, subfloor and more for Robin.

There was various skill, experience and energy levels in our group and there was much lateral support, work and ministry in action accomplished between our teams. The camaraderie was sincere and unique to a band of brothers on mission, as was our attention to the work and to home owners when they stopped in. Some did more than others, but each encounter was special. Those God moments developed as uniquely as the people the Lord had brought together for such a time as this. Oh, how Jesus shined through as your church body on mission allowed rivers of living water to flow through them and into the lives of these dear people.

To see the interaction of our men not only with each other, but with the home owners and neighbors was special. God provided these opportunities for conversation and getting to know our home owners some; prayers were lifted up and some neighbors accepted the invitation to join us in prayer. During those visits we shifted our attention from task to relationship, and we saw God working in our midst even further. There were Jersey donated evangelistic wood crafts with Jesus’ name on them in neat bags with scripture that we gave away. What joy it was to share them there, along the way and even back home. Some were left where we stayed with tracts and messages and others were inconspicuously placed for the next guests to discover.

More regarding our home owners:
Miss Maria & Mr. Jose were living in their garage and during the night would sleep in the house due to the cold temperatures for weeks before we arrived. Miss Josephine and Gary told the story of how they discovered their house was in flood water at night when they saw their dog Sneaker’s mat floating by their bed. Miss Josephine is a poet and a published author, and former nurse who volunteers with Kairos Prison Ministry and takes care of her husband Gary who has health issues.

Mr. Jaun is a mason by trade and his work around his property demonstrated his good craftsmanship. When he walked in his house our last day there, he said, you’re going to bring me to tears. He toured the house and was so grateful. He accepted our invitation to pray with him and when asked he shared about his family of three teenagers. It blessed us to talk and pray with him that day. Miss Robin is living in a trailer on her property. The home was 100 years old and has been in her family the last 86 years. She and her siblings grew up in it and it originally was part of a larger farm her parents used to own. It had never seen flood damage before. The water come up to approximately 6’ above ground level on the house and it sat the way it was for several weeks.

Some of what we saw broke our hearts, but we were encouraged to see the hope that Christ was bringing them. The impact will go beyond the owner’s lives whose homes we helped rebuild, but also to the families, neighbors and community. At the time we left two of those owners were ready for a certificate of occupancy and could get their families back in for Christmas. PTL!

Staying in the homes that were arranged for our lodging was an incredible gift and blessing. They were in the foothills of the mountains where we had some great times of prayer, conversation, fellowship, growing, mentoring and rest. Even a quick hike was ventured with what energy some of us could muster our last evening at the cabin. This time together with our brothers was a special gift.

As iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. Proverbs 27:17

And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men. Colossians 3:23

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:16-20

Additional thoughts and take aways from the group:
The devastation was overwhelming. God put together a perfect team. We did not know what we were going to do, but God did. The people we were working for were very thankful, and our group felt we had given them a future. The opportunity to share the gospel with them and pray with them was truly a blessing.

On Thursday when Josephine stopped by the house with coffee, she began to open up about her experience. She said the hardest part was when they were told that they had to get out all their belongings from the house before any work could be done. She said she was distraught because she had no idea how she would be able to get that done and where it would all go. She said neighbors and strangers helped her and she was incredibly blessed. Since going back to her house, she realized that she had lost everything, her special photographs, presents, and all her life’s memories. For her and her community the hardest part was letting all that stuff go, and focusing on the blessings they still had.

Second, watching and listening to our group, from being relatively new to the church and somewhat of an outsider compared to brothers that have known each other and their families for decades, through both the good and the bad… Three generations of men, none of them perfect, some of them not able  to do what once could, all coming together to do His work, and whatever capacity and with humility they could. The true meaning of the body of Christ was able to shine bright.

Meeting Miss Josie & Mr. Gary for the first time; their positive attitudes, courage and hope. Seeing the smile on Juan’s face and feeling him relax when he saw with his own eyes his home was ready to move back. Miss Maria clapping her hands and smiling so big when we brought the stove and refrigerator down her driveway. Walking Miss Josie through Juan’s finished house and seeing her tears of gratitude and hope that she and Gary would be seeing the same thing the following week for themselves. Watching the four youngest men; being assured that through them this effort won’t end with our generation, but is in good, capable hands moving forward. Watching a group of Godly men work hard and push forward to accomplish a goal for the glory of God by simply serving and loving others. Growing closer spiritually with the men of this group, knowing that in the future God will use this experience and the bonds it yielded for more good work.

Reading Romans 12:9-12 for my devotions the last morning; God provided this very fitting reminder of what He expects and what we obediently did. Particularly the last verse (12)
“Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble and keep on praying.”

The team returned home Friday, December 13 and overall, it was a safe and blessed trip with no major incidents or accidents (a few band-aids, ice packs and aspirin may have been used). Please speak to someone on the team personally and ask them to share from their personal experience, a testimony of how God revealed Himself to them. It is with a grateful heart, we thank God and say thank you to our families and church for supporting us.

We may never fully know the difference He made through you and our team. His word and love were shared, as seed was sown in His name. Your work in intercessory prayer and generous giving was appreciated and so crucial. No mission team could effectively go without it, and we are very grateful you invested in us the way you did. You were on mission with us! Your continued prayers are welcome for all homeowners and others in need that Crestview Baptist Church and Baptists on Mission are trying to reach for the Kingdom of God.

Hurricane Helene Disaster Relief Trip