Couple a wild notion with two longtime friends and a labradoodle and what do you get? A long road trip.
Add prayer and you have ministry!
“I do construction,” said David Meek, a member of Caribou Bible Church, a Baptist church in Soda Springs, Idaho. “I was just starting my own company. Aaron called me and he’s like, ‘God laid it on my heart today that I have excess and should help these people in North Carolina. What do you have going on the next two weeks?’ I spent a couple days praying about it and called Aaron back, said, ‘Let’s go!’”
It was early October, just days after Hurricane Helene produced thousand-year flood events and ravaged North Carolina’s mountainous western region. People lived miles up what they called “hollows,” wide patches near cascading streams where for hundreds of years people had built their homes and carved out small acreages.
‘Rallied up’
Aaron Garland is a member of the nondenominational Harvest Community Church in Plains, Montana, on the Clark River.
“They were already stacking donations,” Meek said, referring to Harvest Community Church members. “Aaron’s church rallied up, talked with local business owners, and we talked with people here in Idaho. We were able to take food, clothing, shoes, cleaning supplies, water, diapers, construction supplies, tools. We filled Aaron’s trailer to the top and over weight.”
Jules, a 3-month-old labradoodle-Great Pyrenees-mastiff mix, joined the two men Oct. 13 in what became a four-day, cross-country trip aboard a 2013 black Ford F350 pickup hauling a covered trailer that was 22 feet long.
“We took off, not really getting connected with any organization,” Meek said. “We did have a little bit of snow, little bit of treacherous roads, winding roads in North Carolina. We took back roads, looking for places that wanted our donations, and did some dodging where debris was blocking the road or the road was washed out.
“We did work for a few days, helping where we could,” Meek said. “Chain saw work, getting trees off houses. Nobody wanted donations. Aaron says, ‘What are we going to do with all this?’ We prayed and not five minutes later we saw a sign: ‘Donations.’ We drove down back roads until we found Ridgeline Heating and Cooling in Bill’s Creek, southeast of Asheville. Andrew Veigel had emptied his business to be able to pass out donations to people who needed them, and he said he was glad to get more. He had about run out.”
Meek and Garland helped put boxes of essentials together for families. The boxes included toilet paper, baby wipes, food, a Bible, blankets and more.
“It was a pretty neat collaboration of people coming together, helping each other even when they needed help (themselves), people cooking outside,” Meek said. “Somehow, it was a good time for everyone — kind of hope for people in shock from what nature had done.”
Until they found the place where God had sent them, they lost time looking for people who wanted donations, so the men took just a day and a half to get home.
“Thirty-eight hours straight the second day,” Meek said. “And on the way back we had broken leaf springs on the trailer we had to fix.”
Even though the men went without a plan but with the urging of God, they both said they were blessed to have been of use to God.
“I think it was definitely worth going,” Meek said. “We got to help people out, got to talk to people, gave them Bibles. I think it was worthwhile.”
“It was put on my heart during worship one morning,” Garland added. “At first it didn’t seem there was much need for donations or help, but we decided to keep on driving. We decided to follow that sign, and it turned out what we had in the trailer was pretty much what they needed.
“I’d like to return but it would be to help, not to [deliver] donations,” Garland continued. “They’re needing tiny homes now.”
Hope growing
Hope has been growing in western North Carolina. The state gave North Carolina’s Baptists on Mission Disaster Relief $3 million to assist with ongoing rebuilding efforts, Gov. Josh Stein announced Jan. 31.
“The money will help them purchase building materials that their volunteers can then install to help homeowners get back into their properties as quickly as possible in a safe, habitable condition,” Stein said in a Baptist Press article posted Feb. 3.
Baptists on Mission officials have established seven centers across western North Carolina that can house volunteers and will serve as bases of operation for long-term rebuild efforts throughout the region. Baptists on Mission officials have committed to rebuilding 1,000 homes in western North Carolina over the next four to six years.
Licensed trade professionals, experienced construction workers and willing unskilled laborers are needed, Baptists on Mission leaders say.
