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Where does the time go?  It’s an age old question that rarely needs an answer.  The more important question is what did I/we do with the time that we were given?

Since our last post, life has been a whirlwind of activity. We had spent several days in the Tampa – St. Petersburg area of Florida to determine whether that was the area where our disaster recovery group should deploy.
On October 22nd we returned to the AIM base in Gainesville, GA intent to listen for where God was leading.  Throughout the week, it became increasingly clear that Florida was not our destination but that the recovery effort was to be in North Carolina.  On October 28th our caravan of 2 pickups towing campers, two vans towing equipment trailers and one small suv departed the base in Gainesville and arrived in Swannanoa, North Carolina.  This area of western North Carolina, where the Appalachian Mountains pass through, was severely affected by Hurricane Helene which dropped anywhere from 13-30 inches of rain over a 3 day period September 25-27.  The result was not only major flooding of creeks and rivers but landslides and wind damage which destroyed many homes and left many more uninhabitable.

Over the past few weeks, we have established partnerships with Excel College in Black Mountain, Operation Blessing, World Vision, Mercury One and others.  With these partners, we have established a Phase 1 base of operations to host, feed and house the initial groups of volunteers.  These hearty folks have spent countless hours removing mud and debris from houses and crawl spaces, canvassing neighborhoods and mountain roads to let people know that their needs are not being overlooked, and gathering data which will be used to support our long term recovery efforts of rebuilding homes and lives. We currently expect our mission in this are to be at least 2 years.

We took a break and were home for Thanksgiving and will return to NC on December 14th. Our current schedule has us back and forth between home and NC every 3-4 weeks until mid-January.

The days are long at times but we continue to be amazed at how God shows up and provides exceedingly and abundantly more than we can imagine.  We are so thankful for every prayer offered, every gift given and every heart that says yes to helping in any way.

We are grateful and blessed to be able to be ambassadors for the Kingdom.

May the peace and joy of the Christmas season dwell richly on you and your loved ones.

Jo Ellen & Gail