CRC Work Crews from Michigan Help With Post-hurricane Repair in N.C.

A team of 12 volunteers from Messiah Christian Reformed Church in Hudsonville, Mich., recently spent a week in western North Carolina repairing homes that were significantly damaged when Hurricane Helene ravaged the region in September of last year. That trip followed work by two other Hudsonville congregation youth groups earlier in the summer.

“We saw God’s hand working in ways that we didn’t think were possible,” said Kim Bosscher, who organized the Messiah CRC trip.

The team, whose members ranged in age from 13 to 67, traveled close to 750 miles (1,200 km) to Hendersonville, one of the communities hardest hit by the hurricane, in the first week of August.

Bosscher said she wanted to help aid in the recovery of the region after seeing news reports in February about the damage that remained months after the hurricane. After talking to the youth group leader at Messiah about what she wanted to do, she was asked if she would organize a trip.

From there, Bosscher reached out to World Renew, the CRC agency that has conducted countless disaster relief missions over the years. World Renew connected Bosscher with Baptists On Mission, which was already on the ground in Hendersonville and other western North Carolina communities, helping residents rebuild from the hurricane.

The work team from Messiah worked on one 102-year-old home during the week, repairing trim, painting, wiring outlets, building a deck, and installing new flooring. They ran into some early challenges, most notably an unexpected basement flood shortly after the first day of repairs—the result of a leak from the spout in the basement wall, Bosscher said.

Bosscher said the team felt warmly welcomed, both by Hendersonville residents and by Baptists on Mission. At the worship service the team attended at the First Baptist church in Henderson the day before they began their work, “They couldn’t thank us enough for what we were there to do,” Bosscher said. “We said you don’t need to thank us, because this is what the Lord wanted us to do.”

Bosscher is already making plans to have a team from Messiah CRC return to Hendersonville next year. Until then, she says, she encourages people to pray for the region and for those working to help residents rebuild.

Adventures in Missions is another organization working in western North Carolina. The youth groups from Bauer CRC and Immanuel CRC in Hudsonville sent a team of 40—20 adults and 20 youth—to Asheville, N.C., through that organization in June.