On Sunday, I hugged our granddaughter goodbye and whispered, “I’m going to miss you, Janie.”
“I don’t want you to miss me,” she cried into my shoulder. “I don’t want you to leave!”
As much as we look forward to the promise of eternity, we don’t want to leave our loved ones behind, do we? We do not release this life easily, nor the places that shelter us.
Because so many have asked: Yes, our home still stands, thanks be to God. A retaining wall just a few feet away from our front door collapsed, but the mountainside above our home held!
And yet so many lost their lives, property, and livelihoods in just hours this past weekend when Hurricane Helene devastated our area of Western North Carolina (WNC) after pummeling the Gulf Coast of Florida and moving northward, dumping torrential rain that literally brought rivers and mountainsides down upon unsuspecting communities in WNC and Greenville, SC.
If you’ve been following the news, you know more than our neighbors do who have been without power, internet, or cellular service for days.
Mike and I were not home when it happened. Thanks to an invitation I accepted last year to speak at a women's retreat at Camp Berea in Hebron, NH, we had flown into Boston the Monday before the storm.
By Wednesday, meteorologists warned of a tropical storm and the rains began. By Friday, WNC was experiencing its worst flooding in recorded history. Friends in Hendersonville just adjacent to Asheville live 20 feet above a normally dry creek bed, yet the water burst through their garage doors quickly flooding the first floor of their home. Katie swam through shoulder-high water to try to rescue their animals.
Our neighbors directly across the road from us had a river run directly through their home. Others who live above us cannot reach their homes as the access road has completely washed away. Still other neighbors without power have come to our home to shower or to stay – we are so grateful they knew they would be welcome. What a blessing to us to shelter them.
If you’re wondering how I’m even getting this letter out to you, I’m still in the Northeast at our daughter’s so I can fulfill my commitment to speak at another retreat near Lancaster, PA this weekend.
The official word from NCDOT is that all major roads in WNC are still to be considered closed, but neighbors got word to us Sunday afternoon that access was possible if Mike flew into GSP (Greenville.) He went to nine gas stations last night before he found fuel, although no such luck with food. The stores he passed along the way were closed, boarded up, or had empty shelves.
Yet another blessing – the neighbors who came to shelter with us brought provisions with them.
As the volunteer Care Pastor at our church, Mike is now on the ground and at church helping to mobilize relief efforts. I am seeing literally hundreds of posts offering emergency assistance, but those who need help most are not seeing them nor the emergency alerts from Haywood County.
Our most urgent need is for communications to be restored. Hundreds are still missing. Would you pray to that end?
Even as I write this, I'm aware that many of you have experienced devastation in your lives recently as well – the hurricane-force winds of a cancer diagnosis, a rebellious, destructive child, marriages battered by infidelity, pornography, abuse.
What do we do?
We look for the helpers.
Faith communities in NC are strong and mountain folk are resilient, and those are just the words I’d use to describe many of you reading this letter right now. And though our world has come crashing down, we know that the One who created it is our ever-present help in times of trouble.
I’m so grateful to all those who have been reaching out to us via social media, email and text messages to make sure we are safe.
And I’m thrilled to report that even in the midst of the storm raging at home, the Holy Spirit enabled me to serve 250 wonderful women in Hebron, NH this past weekend.
Friends, what an encouragement you were to me even as I had no way of knowing if our home still stood!
(1) Our road at home (2) Street downtown Waynesville last weekend (3) Camp Berea Retreat, NH
I’ll have more stories to share in the weeks to come. Next Tuesday, please check your inbox for a special guest post by a close friend who has never let life’s challenges stop her, including the first stroke that she experienced at age two.
I love you, friends!
~Maggie
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