After Helene: What Now? It’s Time to #RebuildWNC

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“While the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.”

Cultural historians have long marveled at the explosive growth of the Jesus movement in the early centuries after his death and resurrection. How did this small group of scared, uneducated, and politically powerless followers become a movement that would outlast the Roman empire (in spite of often fierce persecution) and grow to fill up the entire known world?

Today, many place their finger on one unique characteristic: sacrificial love.

Throughout the first centuries, there were multiple catastrophic plagues that decimated the Roman Empire, specifically in the crowded, congested cities that didn’t benefit from modern sanitation practices. While the wealthy, the pagan, and the influential moved to the countryside to escape harm, Christians moved into harm's way to care for the sick and needy. Many gave their lives doing so, but many more came to know the love of Jesus because of the sacrificial love of His people. 

In most places around the world, God’s people are still known for this kind of love in action. Here at Excel, we’ve been recipients of it, givers of it, and witnesses to it all over our region. The subsiding flood waters and settling dust have left many many homes, hearts, and lives now needing to be rebuilt in our region. 

The FEMA gift cards that have kept people that lost their homes in lodging expire at the end of November. The wet mountain winter is beginning to set in. Many families will walk through the holidays without loved ones or with forever-changed lives for the first time. Tourism is the lifeblood of our economy, and while some businesses lost everything, the ones that were fortunate enough to survive the flood now have to survive the typical tourism drought that comes in winter - without the benefit of the busy fall season. 

Now that the dust has settled and the news cycle has shifted to other storms, elections, sporting events, and interest rate decisions, Western North Carolina still needs to be rebuilt. The 90%+ of people who’s insurance won’t cover the damages left by Helene need help. The 6,000+ miles of road that were damaged need to be rebuilt. The over 100,000+ homes in WNC alone that were damaged or destroyed by the winds and the waves need to be repaired. 

And many hearts need to be made whole.

It is in these types of situations that only sacrificial love will do.

Over the last few weeks since the storm, we’ve been overwhelmed by the NGO’s, ministries, and individuals who have committed to being here for the long haul, or, as Chris Horvath from Adventures Relief says “until the job is done”. In Ft. Myers, Florida, after Hurricane Ian, that looked like rebuilding 174 homes in 19 months while bringing a forgotten community together with the rest of the city.

Here, it looks like Operation Blessing rolling up to campus and saying “we provide resources, logistical support, and volunteers to the locals on the ground who will be here for the long haul. We’re with you.” It looks like World Vision, on the same day, in the same conversation, committing to providing enough home rebuilding materials to stuff warehouses full. It looks like Adventures Relief managing volunteers, work projects, and ministry for hundreds of homeowners from East Asheville to Old Fort and Highway 9 to Beetree. For us at Excel? It looks like hosting this wonderful coalition and connecting the community with the resources it needs. We’re building a 12,000 sq foot warehouse to host supplies and hosting volunteer teams right on location. Who knew that the years of sending college students to work in local businesses, worship in local churches, and serve with local ministries would provide such an important network for “such a time as this”?

But God is faithful, and we want to be as well. Together with Operation Blessing, Adventures Relief, World Vision, Mercury One, United Cajun Navy, and others, we’ve committed to being here until the job is done. And after it’s done, our faculty, staff, and students will be here like we always have, not just volunteering, but being faithful and helpful community members, great employees, and loving neighbors. 

We’d love to have you come along on the journey with us. Register to volunteer with our coalition of ministries by clicking here. You can also give by clicking here (it turns out relief work is quite expensive! But we’re here for it, and every little bit helps!)