Hi friends,
I am thankful to be here today and share my thoughts and experiences, which my team and I lived as we served the Black Mountain, North Carolina community for a week of domestic ministry. On Monday, September 23rd, my squad and I loaded up three fifteen-passenger vans full of eagerness to serve and packed bags, preparing for our first travel day of many to come. Our destination was Black Mountain California and with a quick painless 3-hour road trip we arrived that same evening and were ready to unpack and prepare for our first taste of ministry that next morning. We were all eager to explore our cabins and break in the sand volleyball court, as we ran through the rain, got soaked, and doused in mud it truly felt like a bite right out of summer camp. We slept the night away easily and woke up to the excitement and unknowns of our first day. Our team of 36 was divided into three ministry opportunities sanding tables, landscaping at Excel College, and ATL/evangelism. My team and I were assigned landscaping and although it was hard labor the fulfillment and joy it brought me and the other girls to serve in any way we could was truly exciting and so much fun. We completed things like landscaping a backyard, pulling weeds, and even stopping a house flood. That’s right, after many hours of work, and just as my team and I were warm, dry, and about to leave, due to severe rainstorms, someone’s house began flooding and we were quick to jump into action and reroute this river of water entering their home. Never before have I experienced disaster relief or known what that could look like, so getting to rush into action, dig a trench with our hands, and swiftly build a blockade was truly incredible to see how God used us in a way we could’ve never imagined that day and honestly was so much fun getting to laugh about the crazy situation we got put in. And thankfully we were able to stop the flooding! Exhausted and soaked but feeling accomplished we made our way back to the cabins excited to hear about the other’s day and share the craziness of our day as well. That same night we returned to Excel College, shared a meal with the students, and competed in a game night. The highlight of that night was loading our plates full of delicious salad bar options and pretending we were good at pickleball(even though we only made it through one round). After a long day, we all went to bed exhausted but ready for tomorrow’s challenges. The next morning we headed to the local school and got introduced to the community and learned all about the foster care system and how this ministry has worked hard to give children in the system a better education and give them places to call home. In their community, they run a school, thrift store, coffee shop, and camp(where we got to stay) all as sources of income to give these kids better opportunities. Our ministry for the day consisted of half of us working to restore the school’s garden and the other half breaking down and clearing out an old junkyard. My team and I made our way to the junkyard and began working to restore this yard. This mostly looked like breaking down large pieces of wood to be scrapped and organizing various items. At some point in the breaking down, a friend of mine and I broke a board and I lost grip and unfortunately scraped my leg pretty badly and had to clean my wounds and retire back to the cabins for the day. It was discouraging to leave our ministry early that day and now having to deal with an injury wasn’t fun. On the bright side, I got to spend the afternoon getting to know my friend Ashlyn (the same one who jumped on the board that I lost grip with), watching movies together, and now laughing about the accident of the day while the others worked away. Eventually, the teams finished up and returned to base with lots of stories to tell, I love my team so much, and although I was feeling discouraged, hearing about the way the Lord continued to bear fruit from their labors was so uplifting. That same night I got to venture out to the grocery store to stock up on snacks and in a sense get out of the house. I won’t lie having my friend Lily push me around in a cart because I couldn’t walk was a memory for the books. On Thursday, September 26th, we loaded up and headed back to the school for ministry. On this day a couple of other girls and I got to work designing and creating a bulletin board for the front entrance of the school. We were creating a fall-themed board that had the verse, Psalm 107:1 “Give thanks to the Lord! He is good!”, the point of the board is for students and staff to be able to write what they’re thankful for in this season on a leaf or apple and attach it to the board to display all we have to be thankful for in this season. I personally am so grateful for the community of Christ-centered friends the Lord has granted me with in this season of my life. The board came out so beautifully and I’m super proud of the work we accomplished. After that, we got sent to join the group working in the thrift store to help sort clothes to be sold out front in the store. My teammates and I had a lot of fun laughing and joking about different items of clothing that seemed crazy or funny at the time but little did we know that these same articles of clothing would be later getting donated to us.
On Friday, September 27th, 2024, my team and I were woken up by a knock on our door at around 8 am. The ministry host we’d be serving alongside this past week, Jason, told us due to severe rainstorms we would need to evacuate our cabins and move to the dining hall which was in a more open area and wouldn’t be at risk of trees falling. With little fear or doubt, we packed up our bags for what we assumed would be a morning waiting out the rain and grabbed only a couple of items. That morning I grabbed my phone, bible, pillow, blanket, and backpack to carry these items. I threw my coat on and ran through the rain laughing about getting soaked and into the dining hall we went. For about an hour my team and I shared a meal of cereal, played card games, watched movies, and played the piano that was in the room. There was a smaller room that was attached to the main event hall where many of us were playing cards, eventually, we moved from this room due to the water coming through the window. When we looked outside water started flooding pretty badly but none of us could have ever expected what was to come. Knowing the damage the rainstorms from Hurricane Helene were causing, my team decided to enter a time of prayer. We prayed for the safety of the community around us and our safety as well. After we had finished praying I thought to myself, “There’s no way a building that has been here for at least 6 years would ever come down, buildings don’t just come down, it’s just a bad rainstorm and I have no reason to be afraid.” At 9:10 am a landslide came down Black Mountain picking up trees and debris it crashed into the building my team and I were in. As half the building was crashing down and being swept up we grabbed what we could and ran for our lives to safety. After splashing through mud my team and I made it to an open parking lot to the side of the building that was now half gone. The cabins we were sleeping in just an hour beforehand had been destroyed and were filling with water sweeping away most of our belongings. That morning there were over 700 missed 911 calls in Black Mountain, North Carolina. As we began to get soaked it took about 2 hours of desperately calling those who we loved and praying that we would be saved and taken to safety. This is the first time in my life I have ever experienced a near-death experience and the testimony alone that I have of God’s overpowering protection over me and my team is incredible. Each event that took place this morning was undoubtedly more than a coincidence, we truly had God on our side the whole time. While I was struggling with fear for my life it’s encouraging to look back and see how I was provided for and protected. There were definitely some events that took place that my team and I saw humor in. When the building was crashing down instead of grabbing my backpack, which contained most of my important items, I went for my pillow and blanket. Now after running through mud and water one’s pillow and blanket are pretty much destroyed and useless, I would be lying if some words of anger weren’t passed and maybe some tossing of said pillow and blanket into the landslide after realizing the choice I made. Looking back I regret choosing those items, but knowing I made most of my team laugh at the retelling of said story made it all worth bringing a small piece of joy to such a hard day. After about 2 hours of waiting, two others who were staying on the campsite helped tie a rope across the now slowed-down, but still present, landslide so we could all cross and escape to safety. As soon as I crossed through it all tears filled my eyes at the relief and disbelief that we were safe and that God had protected us so, so well. We then made our way to the school we had previously been doing ministry for the past couple of days. It’s a funny feeling going from ministering to eventually being the ones being ministered to. I will never forget the feeling of finally being able to tell my family I was safe and just crying tears of relief. God showed me in this day how much more I have to be grateful for, while I was thinking of being grateful for my community earlier in the week, which is not to say I am any less grateful for them, I was now being taught that having Him to watch out and protect me was immensely higher deserving of my gratitude. Remember how I said we would eventually get those clothes we thought were so funny before, there might be a small lesson in here about being careful what you make fun of, but all in all putting on dry clean clothes was what we cared about more than how we looked. The rest of the day we just spent sharing different perspectives, taking many naps, and trying to wrap our heads around what we just went through. At one point that day they were able to go back and salvage some of our belongings and Lord willing my backpack containing my wallet and Bible were saved. Another way we saw God provide for us was through fundraising because all of us lost many of our belongings such as clothing, gear, toiletries, shoes, Bibles, and more necessities for our trip, Adventures in Missions was able to raise, over 24 hours, $30,000 to help replace our lost items and that was truly incredible to see God work through the generosity of so many. At around 10 pm when we were all about ready to try and sleep this stressful day away we found out someone at a hotel in a nearby city offered their conference room for us to stay in. Although we were safe, getting off the mountain was still a priority that our leaders were constantly working to figure out. Someone had mentioned to the hotel lobby full of strangers that there was a group of us that needed help and suddenly all these people stepped up and drove multiple cars and trucks out to get us out. This was just another one of the many ways God was working constantly. A team of Adventure in Missions also came up from Gainsville, Georgia to bring us more supplies and help. Another crazy testimony is how none of them had service on their way over and they still found a way to get to us safely and that included driving through a prison to do so. We finally made it to the hotel and after a crazy day called it a night. We were unsure how we would make our way back to Gainsville, Georgia but we should’ve known that God would provide. With no communication and only the location of where we were one of our Racer’s Dads took a buddy of his and ventured the whole night from Tennessee to North Carolina to pick us up and take us back to Gainsville. So we awoke that morning to these two twelve-passenger vans that took us safely back to Gainsville, Georgia to start our week of debriefing and genuine rest. Below are some images from the damage of the landslide to provide an insight into what occurred that morning.
God is so powerful and all the events of the morning truly were just so unexplainable how they all worked perfectly together a part of God’s incredible timing is so perfected and it’s still mind-boggling to think about. I am so grateful for all the people that God provided for me and my team and I am forever grateful that I am here today to retell this testimony of God’s protection over me. I am also so grateful for my squad, Gap K, I could never begin to imagine experiencing something like this alone, and the fact that God gave us all one another to understand how each other is feeling and coping after this day is worth so much of my gratitude and appreciation.
Please continue to keep my team and me in your thoughts and prayers. Some prayer requests I have,
- Pray over all of those who were affected by Hurricane Helene. While my team and I saw first-hand the destruction that it caused it breaks my heart knowing that people lost homes and more while we were able to just return to safety many are affected and have to continue living out their daily lives with the destruction it caused.
- Pray over my team and our healing. While at the time I am writing this my team and I are safe and have been for many weeks, I just ask that you pray for the healing of our minds after experiencing a traumatic event like this.
Forever Grateful, Sophie
