It is hard to believe that we arrived in Black Mountain, NC 9 months ago. Serving communities devastated by the effects of Hurricane Helene comes with lots of difficulties and many blessings as we work with individuals affected and volunteers sharing their time, skills and energy to help with restoration.
Our “home” here is our fifth wheel camper which is parked in a gravel lot on the Excel College campus. There are currently 9 RV units housing our staff in a makeshift RV park. Our framily here now includes 12 kids aged 3 months to 12 years. We adults are not outnumbered but it’s pretty close one days.
In the past 7 months, we have made 2 brief trips back to Iowa and then a short trip to Indiana to celebrate our granddaughter Stella’s high school graduation. Sustainability in long term disaster recovery mission work has shown us the need to take breaks away every 6-8 weeks.
It has been a busy June and July with as many as 140+ volunteers serving during any given week. We have coordinated work for around 1800 volunteers. Imagine having over 100 new employees every Monday. The enthusiasm they bring and willingness to do everything from removing silt and debris from crawl spaces, repairing structural problems, installing insulation and drywall, paint and flooring is a blessing. While doing these tasks, they are also building relationships with homeowners and getting to share God’s love and the gospel. We are seeing new light and hope being brought to an area that has a reputation for being one of the spiritually darkest in America.
We appreciate all of your prayers and support as we live out “retirement” in a way which we never could have imagined.
This is a picture we took on our latest weekend break. We stayed at “Miss Jo’s Cabin” near Saluda, NC. The beauty and peacefulness here restored our bodies, minds and spirits as we were reminded of God’s grace and provision in all things.
Blessings to each of you.
Gail & Jo Ellen
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