On Western North Carolina

We left Tuesday morning at 6am and covered almost 1000 miles making our way carefully west taking alternate routes. I am grateful to Orchard Church in Waynesville for opening there offices to us for sleeping and showers.

Church, it is far worse than what can be imagined. The number of dead being reported will increase significantly in the coming weeks. Hundreds are still missing. I won't go into details, but it is very bad. I was overwhelmed by the devastation and destruction. There are still many people cutoff that live as I was told "in the hills." Water systems will be out of service for weeks, if not months in Asheville, Black Mountain, Swannanoa, West Burnville and other areas where it was destroyed completely. Power will be out in some areas for weeks. Some areas look as if a nuclear bomb went off and are unrecognizable.

We will partner with West Burnville Baptist Church (BOM Distribution Site for the area) in West Burnville, NC and Lakewood Church in Black Mountain, NC (Distribution Site for Black Mountain/Montreat) to start. We are waiting on a detailed list of items from West Burnville Baptist Church to gather in addition to water.

Lakewood Church has requested Water (bottled and 3/5 galloons jugs), buckets to collect water, toiletries (wipes, deodorant, toothpaste, toilet paper, etc.), baby supplies (diapers, wipes, formula), and gift cards/clothing for families that have lost everything.

We have a trailer we will fill over and over again with supplies and make runs to these two distribution sites. You can help by gathering supplies or making a donation to the church and memo Western NC Relief. ***Regarding clothing donation - let's start with gift cards since we do not have sizing information at this time.

The need is great and this will be something we will be partnering with BOM, Disaster Relief and other churches for weeks, months and even years. This area will not be the same for some considerable time to come.

Here is the good news in all of this. The big "C" church is revealing the hands and feet of Jesus in this area. The government has been slow to respond, but the Church has been on the ground since Saturday already feeding, serving, cleaning, clearing, clothing, supplying, etc. There are many who do not know the Lord that will come to know the Lord through the love shared by the church for those in this time of need. To observe this was truly a beautiful thing!