It’s been a roller coaster of a week for many people around the country, none more so than for those living in the Southeastern United States. North and South Carolina, along with Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and Virginia were hit hardest by Hurricane Hellene. North Carolina in particular was devastated with floods and mudslides that swept away homes, roads, and whole communities.
An article by the University of South Carolina gives a solid but grim overview of the scale of destruction, and puts the storm into it’s proper context. Cary Mock, a geography professor who studies hurricane history states that “At least 230 people died” across the 6 states, with millions of homes without power, and thousands of homes damaged and many of those lost entirely. You can read the rest of that article here:
University of SC
A silver lining to this devastation is the unbelievable support that is being generated across the country for people in need. In this midst of this election cycle, it’s easy to think that we are all about at each other’s throats. It’s easy to let the loudest voices of anger and violence make us believe that the other side is about to start a civil war. But the waters of Helene washed all that nonsense away too. Now, people are recognizing their kinship with the destitute, and are stepping up to provide the love of Christ. We wanted to highlight three churches in the CGGC that have put together massive relief efforts to help meet these deep needs.
Lodge Church of God, Lodge, IL
As of October 7th, Lodge church of God had just delivered about 10,000 lbs of supplies to Civilian Crisis Response Team in Indiana, who is flying the supplies into North Carolina. Immediately, they started planning and accepting donations for a second trip, and their list of needed supplies is deep. The organizer, Jerit Murphy, posted the following on Facebook:
“Thank you to each and every one of you who dropped off donations at the Lodge Church of God. In just a five day stretch. You all went above and beyond anything I personally thought possible. It's truly amazing what our little community is capable of doing. Just under 10,000 lbs of supplies were delivered to Civilian Crisis Response Team on Saturday.”
Grandpoint Church, Chambersburg, PA:
Drew, a member of the Grandpoint community, lead a caravan, Friday October 4th, beginning around 8 p.m., taking the supplies to Trinity of Fairview church, in Fletcher NC, just outside of Asheville. It’s a distance of approximately 500 miles and the team drove through the night as the church had rallied people together to help unload the supplies by about 8 a.m. that Saturday morning. In the video link here, Drew shares a little of his testimony and why he was so motivated to take the initiative to help with the recovery.
In a brief conversation with him, Drew said that "It’s been such a blessing to be able to give to this area in great need. The outpouring of the church has been incredibly moving."
In this second video, you can see the multitude of trucks that the team assembled to get the supplies to Asheville. Likewise, you can see the enormity of the supplies that are being gathered at Trinity of Fairview, which is a powerful reminder of just how invested people are to see their neighbors brought to wholeness.
Celina First Church of God, Celina, OH
Celina First Church recently sent a truck load of 40 generators and 87, 5 gallon gas tanks down to Asheville as well. Pastor Craig Flack of Celina wrote a brief account of how this story unfolded:
“By Jesus’ Grace this is just a few of the things that have happened in less than 2 days: drivers lined up, transport vehicles lines up, drop off location and connections on the ground secured, Lowes in Wapakoneta giving us a massive bulk discount (almost 7K off), the sourcing of all the units to Wapak location, and almost $18,000 dollars raised. You read that right almost 18K raised in less than 2 days.
"We estimate this project will cost a total of around $35,000 dollars. We are trusting that God either has provided already and we will use existing funds to cover the shortage OR he will provide through continued love offering funds. Either way God is a God of provision and when you see this trailer, know that is what this is.”
Celina fully intends to raise even more funds to help cover the additional generators that will be needed during this long-term recovery. While 40 generators will make a dent, the more realistic need is somewhere close to 1,000. Pastor Craig is asking for donations directly to the church as they hope to raise approximately $60,000, 100% of which will go toward disaster relief in the Southeast.
The drivers delivered the generators and made it home safe on Wednesday. Now Celina is getting ready for the next delivery. If you want to give to a CGGC ministry that is proven, Celina is accepting donations at the link below.
As always, these three churches aren’t the sum total of all the awesome work that is being done across our body, or across the body of Christ generally. If you have more stories of people making life changing sacrifices to help in the recovery effort, please send them our way at .
Please stay in prayer daily for those who are just now starting to get their feet under them. Hurricane Milton looks to have been weaker than was initially anticipated, but Florida was still hit hard, and some places that were already hit by Helene are now dealing with more flooding, debris, overturned cars, and all manner of disaster once again. At time of writing, there doesn’t seem to be another storm of meaningful impact forming.
Last week we shared some important information about how to pick the right charity to give to that you can trust. If you're someone whose often worried about where the funds are actually going, or what percentage makes the biggest impact, see our helpful tips here:
CGGC eNews—Vol. 18, No. 43
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