Wow! So, it’s been a crazy couple of weeks! I’ll start this blog at our domestic ministries which we started Monday the 23rd.
For our domestic ministry trip, we went up to Black Mountain, NC. When we arrived Monday evening, we unloaded our stuff into cabins and we went to go play sand volleyball in the rain! The trip started off so fun, and everyone was so ready and excited for a week of ministry. During the week we were split up to work with different ministries. The week was filled with so much fun! We played games, watched movies, and hung out every night after ministry. The group that I was put in did mostly manual labor. Throughout the week we sanded and painted wooden tables and chairs for Excel, the Christian college that we partnered with, and we also did a lot of work at the Black Mountain Children’s Home.
As many of you know while we were in Black Mountain, hurricane Helene swept through Florida and went up into North Carolina. The hurricane hit the Asheville/Black Mountain area pretty hard. God’s hand of protection over us while all of this was happening is mind blowing. On Friday, September 27th we were woken up out of our cabins around 8:00am to move into the dining hall. They were worried about all of the trees by the cabins and didn’t want us to be in there if any trees fell. At this point it was pouring rain and it was pretty windy, but most of us had no clue what was going to happen because it didn’t seem that bad at the time. During all of this our leadership team was great about communicating with the local hosts about the weather and everyone said that the dining hall was the safest place for us to be. At this point flooding began coming in under the doors on the right side of the building. We had a meeting and the leaders told us to stay out of that side because of the flooding. A little after 9:00am a landslide hit the dining hall that we were all staying in. Some leaders and people on my squad yelled to run, and we all ran out the front doors as the landslide destroyed the right half of the building. We ran out to the parking lot and tried to figure out what to do. While all of this was happening, a tree fell on one of the cabins that we were originally staying in and destroyed it. The hosts were able to get to us eventually and told us that we were going to cross the river caused by the landslide to get to the bus on the other side. There was a trained survival specialist on staff at the Black Mountain Children’s Home who helped set up a rope to hold onto to get us across the river. Everyone made it over safe and the bus took us to the children’s home where dry clothes and food were provided. Adventures in Missions staff was able to make it to us and found vehicles to get us out of Black Mountain and to a hotel nearby where we slept on the floor of the conference room. On Saturday, we had a van and bus provided from the grace of God and we drove back to Georgia.
My squad only got through this because of how God protected us. If we hadn’t had moved into the dining hall we would have been in the cabins while a tree fell through it. If the dining hall didn’t start to flood, we wouldn’t have all been on the side that was safe. There was a trained survival specialist who helped us get out of there safely. We had a warm and dry place to go, and God put so many people in our paths who helped provide transportation and helped us in so many other ways. God showed up over and over again through all of this and provided for us. God is so good! He provides and protects!
God. Is. Good. Can’t even begin to describe how thankful we are Lord for your protection and provision for our girl and her squad and all those who helped. Continued prayers for all those affected by Helene.
Yes He is! It is so obvious that His hand of protection was on you and your squad. He worked in mighty ways through people and by holding back the water, mud, trees, and walls until you were all safely out of the way. We are praising the Lord for His goodness and love and for those who listened and responded. We are grateful for all who helped and praying for those who have lost homes, livelihoods, and loved ones.