The Floods of Disaster Meet the Floods of Grace

Emotional day today on Truth Talk Live. Friends, you're going to hear some powerful testimonies, some stories of folks who are on the ground, a car from literally driving into the storm in western North Carolina, another one going up on the 421 side to end a boon, and some other cupcake place that just, they're serving treats and giving back, and they went up there with a big load, a pastor, what his local church is doing, and some great testimonies. But it's all because people have hearts of generosity. When the floods of disaster are met by the floods of grace, I want to say thank you to Le Blue Ultra Pure Bottled Water and other businesses, Mighty Muscatine included, that are donating all kinds of water and goods and gifts to help these people who are desperate for anything. Get involved, give, hashtag, pray, hashtag, go, and get involved and be the hands and feet of Jesus.

And by all means, use this opportunity to serve folks that are down and out, that are devastated by the flood, to share the good news of Jesus Christ and his grace. So here you go, a whole hour of encouragement on Truth Talk Live, and pray how you can play a part in this key time and this opportunity to show the love of Christ, to be the hands and feet of the Lord to so many. Thank you, here we go, Truth Talk Live. Welcome to Truth Talk Live. All right, let's talk. Let's talk. A daily program powered by the Truth Network.

This is kind of a great thing, and I'll tell you why. Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together. Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. Hurricane Helena has struck, and it is an absolute disaster zone. I am getting reports, I've been on the phone, I've been in prayer. My heart is absolutely broken.

Those of you who are from North Carolina, so many of you, your happy place is Asheville, your happy place is Boone, Banner Elk, Little Switzerland, Chimney Rock, wiped off, wiped out. There's someone sitting on a concrete slab right now with no home, no carport, nothing, and we're praying to our Father in Heaven that the Baptist men, that the warriors, the heroes, the heroes from Samaritan's Purse, that someone, the hands and feet of Jesus, would get to these dear souls. Now, some of you can't even hear me talk right now, because we have Truth Network, Truth Talk Live affiliates off the air right now.

No power, no internet, no connection. St. Nick, my producer, is keeping me online. As stations come back, St. Nick, we're going to let our listeners know, okay?

We're going to let them know. We are grateful for your prayers. You can try to call in. We have phone problems. We have missionaries and warriors and awesome listeners who are trying to call in and give roving reports. If you can get through, God bless you. We want you to call in. We want to pray for you. We have bower socks on the line. We can call out, but apparently we can't get calls in.

The phone number nationwide is 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884. I'm Stu Epperson, the host of Truth Talk Live, and my heart is full. And I'm extremely, extremely overwhelmed and overburdened right now, because I'm just seeing things and I'm hearing things. I just hung up with a gentleman who gave me a report from a rescue team who saw dozens of dead bodies, and they had to get pulled back because they couldn't go in because it was getting dark, and they didn't want to run over a dead body to try to retrieve dead bodies. It's awful.

We could go negative. Where's the national press? Where's politician X and politician blank? Not wanting to focus on that right now.

What I want to focus on is how can you and how can I do something right now? And how can my buddy at Honda Powersports, Kan Am, Sidhu, put out a bend and now people are going by his place in Clemens, North Carolina, and they're dropping stuff. And how about Cupcake Cuties? How about those guys? I went in there for coffee with a pastor not an hour ago, and a lady came in with container after container of much-needed bottled water and all kinds of stuff. How about my buddy Jerry and Candy and Judy and Brock and the amazing people at Le Bleu Ultra Pure Bottled Water? They're giving pallet after pallet away. They've given so much water. They've been so generous. And now I just talked to Jerry, he said we're going to give some muscadine juice.

I mean, why not give them something that's got the Le Bleu water in it, but it's got all the antioxidants of the muscadine? They've been great partners of Truth Talk Live, and they're giving back. And there's this generosity.

It's like this flood of disaster has been met with a flood of generosity. I mean, church after church after church. So here's my quick philosophy, and then I'm going to put Bowersocks on. St. Nick, we've got Bowersocks on the line. It looks like we got other people trying to call in. We're trying to reach my buddy Jim with the Billy Graham organization. His studio is in the Cove, but we do have Bowersocks, or we don't have Bowersocks. Okay, it's lit up, but we're trying to get him. We're trying to get him on the line. I've got roving reporters everywhere. Is this you, Andy?

Bowersocks? Hello? I'm here. Okay, now you are just up. Okay, now where are you? And you were just up in Boone yesterday.

You are hunting for churches and pastors to love. Give us the story. Give us the Man on the Street report from yesterday. You went right into the—you headed right toward the danger zone. Right there, and we didn't have to hunt too far. I actually tried to call in yesterday.

Like you said, couldn't get through. The infrastructure is down, but you mentioned some great organizations for people to support, and I would say in the echo the same thing. You know, our ministry is there to serve pastors, and so when you said we went hunting, we specifically went to look for a church and a pastor that was underwater. We found that right off the bat, and so we'll be headed up with some work teams tomorrow to get the pastor's house cleaned out, get the church cleaned out, because the churches need to be able to distribute, you know, the products and all these relief supplies that are coming in.

So we're glad to be able to do it, and you know, you already covered a lot of the damage. It's heartbreaking. They need tons and tons of help, support, body supplies, you name it. There'll never be enough here right now.

Okay, we want you to stand with us. Andy Bowersocks, Energized Ministries, Loving the Pastors, Helping Them Rebuild, Pastors and Summoned Sanctuaries are Flooded, Gone. They need help. They need structural help. They need just basic supplies.

They need someone to bring them a hamburger. So you wouldn't believe the needs, but we got Mark. Now, Andy went up 421 pretty much unscathed, but there was a lot of mess when you got up higher, but now Mark, you're up. You went up I-40 just like just a few minutes ago. Give us a quick roving report. Were there trees down?

Talk to us. Yeah, there's trees down. Once we got over here closer to Marion, and pretty much every quarter mile there's trees down all along I-40.

They've got them cleared off, but it's just a big tree, small trees, every kind of tree you can imagine. We've just gotten off at the Sugar Hill exit here in Marion. We're headed over to a couple different places. There's a YMCA and the shelter across the street. We're going to go and got a truck and a trailer load full of stuff from Emanuel of Winston-Salem.

Wow. And headed over here, and then they're taking it from the shelters, and they're taking it to distribute it up further into the mountains. But as you go across these valleys, you can see the flood line, and it just is like you just can't believe that the flood line's that high. Okay, now he mentioned a local church in Winston-Salem. Bowersox is going to minister into pastors that are in harm's way. Literally, church is devastated. And now Pastor Andrew Hopper, a favorite of the Truth Network, a powerful preacher.

Somehow we got him on the line. Pastor Hopper, Mercy Hill, you guys are doing the Lord's work, man. Man, we are just devastated at what's going on in western North Carolina, doing anything we can do to bring hope, man. I've seen just an unbelievable amount of coordination and outpouring from the Christian community, doing everything we can do. You guys stay with us. Wait until you hear some miracle stories and how you, my friend, can get involved on Truth Talk Live. Don't touch that dial. Help is on its way for our dear friends across the Carolinas, Tennessee, Georgia.

More coming up. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. One of the most catastrophic events to ever hit western North Carolina, also affected are parts of Georgia, parts of Tennessee, parts of South Carolina. A couple of Truth Network stations are down, parts of Florida devastated.

People have lost just the Biltmore Village underwater. Chimney Rock just wiped out, and there's so much devastation, but there's so many good things happening. God is working. It's like this flood of disaster has met a flood of mercy and grace as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are stepping up.

And so here's the bottom line, friends. I've got a pastor on the line. His church is doing some big things. I've got Energized Ministries on the line. They're loving and encouraging pastors.

They're taking a crew up to Boone tomorrow in that whole area. The bottom line is this. Everyone says, oh my, you know, my drop-off point, and my drop-off point, and come to my drop-off point, and come to my church parking lot, and come to my radio station.

Here's what I'm going to say. If you have a tiny one-person apartment and you put a tiny little shoebox out and write drop-off point, I'm going to praise God for you, and I'm going to celebrate you till the cows come home, because anyone and everyone can participate in loving and serving. Right, Pastor Andrew Hopper? This is about the big C church coming together. Don't you agree, brother?

Yeah, absolutely. In our community, I mean, we're just seeing churches rise up, really from all corners of the community, and, you know, just coming together. Big churches working with smaller churches. Some of the smaller churches can gather things, but they don't have the infrastructure to get them out west, and so it's like, hey, you got other churches that are saying, man, bring your stuff here, and we'll take it. Anything we can do to work together. I love it.

You had a bunch of campuses. Andy, what's it like to see a pastor with all these campuses saying, hey, bring water, bring Clorox wipes, bring food, bring packaged goods. Andy, isn't that encouraging?

Listen, I think you both called it. Everybody can do something, and, you know, you can go to Walmart, you can get your part, drop it off, take it to one of the distribution sites, and pray all along the way. I'm telling you, now Pastor Hopper and Andy, you know, two Andrews on the phone, Andrew Bowersox, Andrew Hopper, Andrew the Bringer, you know, he brought everyone to Christ. You know, you guys are unbelievable.

Two of my favorite people. I was trying to have coffee with another pastor at Cupcake Cuties, and it got uncomfortable, because people opened the door while we were having coffee and prayer and eating our sweet treats, the ooey-gooey pumpkin bar, which I won't talk about anymore on the air. But Pastor Hopper, people are bringing in water, cases of water, and they're bringing in diapers and all this stuff, and Brad Davis, that's your outfit out there. What are you guys doing, trekking up to a Boone and up to Banner Elk today, man? What's going on out there at Cupcake Cuties? Well, we just felt like having a small business that, you know, we had an outlet, and I think people are looking for some way.

How can I help? You know, and so we have this place, and we have a place we can store the things, and we just thought, what can we do? You know, that was the easiest thing for us to do, to fill our cars and just head up the mountain. Wow. And so, and people are bringing stuff in. Andrew Hopper, when you see your members come to church, and I saw videos of your members and a bunch of members of a bunch of other churches too I've seen all over social. What's it like for you as a pastor to hear, like, Brad doing that, and just to see your people coming and loading trailers? I mean, they were supposed to come sit down, hear a message, and leave, but they're loading trailers, and they're bringing stuff, and they're bringing money and stuff like that. Pastor Hopper, what's that like for you?

Well, you know, we try to preach every member of missionary. I mean, we all have Ephesians 2-10 works that we're called to do, and they happen in everyday life, and then they happen in big moments like this, and so it was awesome not just to see people bring things, but I mean, we probably still, I bet there was 200 volunteers all day packing trailers and getting things ready, and I mean, the drivers, the trailers, that's all donated as well. It's just everyday believers taking up the flag here, man, and trying to be a light for Christ.

Wow. And when other churches up there that you reach out and help tangibly, when they see that trailer pull in, what's it like seeing that other pastor just like, it's got to be a great feeling? Well, I talked to one of the pastors from Biltmore Church in Asheville that I'm friends with yesterday, and he just told me, you just can't believe the need, and I know we all know that, but he said that every time they see another trailer come, it's just tears, you know, tears of joy that there's relief on the way. Is there anything greater in the body of Christ than being the body?

I mean, I'm seeing this all over the place, to the point where, like, people are helping other people. Hey, you're drop-off points, not getting traffic, I'll bring some stuff over to you. Brad, you were in Boone today. You were at Ground Zero, Bowersox, you were there yesterday. Pastor Hopper, you just took a bunch of stuff up there this weekend. Brad, what was it like? Tell us, I mean, it's a ghost town, and also people are saying, don't go near this place, but you got right up there, didn't you, Brad?

Yeah, we sure did. I mean, it was very humbling to pull up to Alliance Fellowship Church up there and drop off. The volunteers were out there.

We had someone actually stop at our vehicle and pray with us. It's just an amazing thing going on up there. And as far as the businesses go, we did drive into Boone a little bit, and we drove on up to Blowing Rock. And, you know, as being a small business owner, our heart goes out to the small businesses in the area. And this is their peak season. So they need income, they need sales, they need business.

So, and support and love. You know, a lot of them were working, and their homes were, you know, had no power. They hadn't had a shower in a couple days or whatever. They're trying to figure it out. One shop owner was living in an apartment above her shop that her landlord allowed her to live in, because her road is cut off.

She's up in Ash County, but she wanted to come in so she could run her shop. So it's just amazing. Wow. Now, Bowersox, you've had many a cupcake at Cupcake Cuties.

Pastor Hopper, we're going to have to treat you next time, okay? There's a Cupcake Cuties cupcake coming your way, okay? I need it.

I need it. And I'm going to pay for it, and Brad, tell them what you and Christy are doing for anyone that gets a cupcake at Cupcake Cuties. This is a pretty cool thing. I just posted this on social media. I hope I didn't jump the gun, but Brad, tell everyone.

That's fine. No, we, so we partnered with Simply Delicious Bakery, which is down in Lexington, which is really cool. Two similar businesses coming together for one cause.

You know, we made a special cupcake with the, with the blue and green sprinkles with a little heart, kind of the North Carolina strong symbol that you're seeing all over Facebook. And so, you know, every time you buy one of those, we're all, we're giving back a dollar. So, and we've already sold, I mean, yeah, over 200 we're at now. So it's just amazing. Just trying, just trying to do what, whatever we can do. And then partnering with other businesses, I think, it just shows unity at this time when we all, when we need to be unified. This is a great picture of the gospel work, and Andy Bowersox, what do you say to Brad and to Pastor Hopper for what they're doing just to, just to pour back in, to give and to serve?

And how does this, how does this embody what Jesus' message is to us? Well, you got two great leaders on the phone, so I say thank you. I encourage everybody to, to drop off the goods at Mercy Hill there. Support, support Brad at Cupcake Cuties. And, Stu, you keep doing your thing.

You're, you're the, you're the master networker. You're the master of getting the word out, and we appreciate it. And like, like everyone else, we'll take all the help we can get. Well, I got a bunch of cases of blue water, so I'm coming, I'm coming your way, guys, somewhere.

I may have to take it by Ray's Body Shop. Jerry was here yesterday with Robbie Dilmore. He's been hit hard. He's had friends who've been hit hard, and so he's trying to raise support. Pastor Hopper, as we get out of this break, quickly, your words to Brad, Cupcake Cuties, Andy Bowersox, and to people listening out there. A lot of folks are saying, what can I do?

What can I do? Pastor Hopper, what's your word of exhortation? Well, the first thing, really what I would want to say, and this is what I call, Stu, is just that I think this is a time for Christians to embody that deep truth that, man, something can be simultaneously devastating and heartbreaking, and our souls can groan because of the, really, you know, the brokenness of creation, and yet there is hope in the Gospel, and we can show that as well, and those two things can be true at the same time. I love it. Man, what a blessing. You guys have blessed my soul.

I think Bowersox is going to hang out with us a little bit longer. You guys are amazing. Thanks for calling in. Folks, get involved. Be a part.

Be the hands and feet of Jesus in this time. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. So what can you do? You see these awful graphic images of water.

I saw this. I can't even take it. It's like water, a mudslide, 60 miles an hour. Can you imagine, you're sitting there, you're in your dream retirement home in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina or Tennessee, and you're sitting there, and all of a sudden, whammo, everything's wiped out, and you've got to climb up to the roof so you don't get wiped out, and many people died, a family crawled up on the roof, and there were their grandbabies, and the roof collapsed, they drowned, and the body count's going up. They're saying 600 are missing. Hundreds are dead.

Someone called me earlier, said they ran out of body bags in a certain area. It's just awful, this flood of disaster, but there's a flood of grace. There's a lot of people that are stepping up, and I'm calling out right now to you, whatever you're doing, I'm saying thank you, capital T, thank you. I'm saying thank you to Pastor Andrew Hopper, who just was on. I'm saying all the pastors out there who are doing so many things. Pastor Jay, talk to him. His church did something. Oklahoma Baptist, Calvary Baptist is doing things.

Two cities, all these churches, local and abroad, I can't even name enough, so don't get mad at me, but I'm saying thank you if I don't drop the name of your church. They're out there. You can't miss it. They're on here.

They're on social media. Pinedale, talking about the big drop they're doing this weekend. I'm taking a case of water. I promised Jerry I'd take him some Le Blue water. Jerry of Ray's Body Shop, he says, Stu, the truck's not coming till, it's not coming till, you know, let's say Saturday to take the load. So Bowers Socks, I said, I'll bring it over. He said, just bring it to the to the wrecker shop. Ray's Body Shop and Wrecker Service on South Main Street, Winston. So someone's going to see me in my little mini SUV, trekking a case of Le Blue water over there to give, and Jerry's going to get it to flood victims.

Bowers Socks is loving on pastors. Brad Davis and Christie, they're making cupcakes and selling them as quick as they can and giving money to victims of this thing, and they just went up to boom! They just took a two-hour trip up 421! And then we had a call earlier from Mark, who is on I-40, a corresponding route that has a lot more trees down, but entire towns have been wiped out by Hurricane Helene. I'm Stu Epperson, and we're talking about what can you do.

Hey, what are you doing? Tell us about your drop-off point. No drop-off point, no cup of water in Jesus' name is small enough to not recognize. We're recognizing it today, knowing that most of the recognition is going to be in heaven.

But hey, your testimony of how you're doing, giving back, could help encourage others' generosity. 866-34-TRUTH. If the phone lines work, if you can get through, toll-free, 866-348-7884. We've got a Saint Nick watching those lines.

Who knows if it works out? I don't know how a couple folks called in earlier. You may be calling from right outside our immediate area, but we've had a hard time connecting with folks.

Andy Bowers Socks, I got you and Brad Davis on the line. Tell us your heart with Energize Ministries. Like, Energize Ministries, you guys have stepped it up. I thought we could get coffee and just pray together yesterday, but you had other plans, brother. You went right into the heart of Ground Zero into Boone, North Carolina.

Tell us what happened. Yeah, well, let me tell you why we do this, too. I mean, you mentioned some great organizations that come in to help people get their yards cleaned up, get their roofs tarp, get their houses knocked out, and there is a tremendous amount of need for it, so we praise God for those. There are very few that are going in to help some of these smaller churches where the church has become the distribution points, and there's a number of reasons for that, but that is specifically the mission of our organization is to provide encouragement, support for pastors and their families, and in times of disaster, it's almost indescribable what these pastors go through when their own homes are destroyed, their ministries are suffering, and they are already overrun, and now they have to deal with managing tremendous amounts of volunteers that come in, tremendous amounts of supplies, and this is the kind of thing that there's no blueprint for it, right? When crisis and disaster happens, the term in the industry is sort of organized and managed chaos, but it is a very, very taxing thing to get people that are anxious, they're ecstatic, they're emotional, so you've got all these needs that God's called pastors and ministry leaders to support them and get their teams to support, but it's very, very taxing on them, so we really believe we can help them be as healthy as possible, take some of the pressure off of where they're going to sleep, get their own homes fixed up so that they can more effectively meet the needs of the community. That's why we go in these kind of situations, so that's where our heartbeat is, and listen, we'll take all the help we can get to carry on that mission as well. Well, in Energized Ministries, you know, it's fascinating, you're located in Wahlberg, North Carolina, not too far away from Cupcake Cuties.

Right around the corner from Cupcake Cuties. So when I need a little sweet treat and I need a little sweet fix or something, and they do so, I also have those sugar-free protein little balls, which are really good, the honey balls, you know, protein, low sugar, but Brad, you and Christy have really built a beautiful place there, and but the last couple days you've been absent. I mean, you know, you're normally delivering wedding cakes and, you know, catering and taking stuff all over and, you know, in hot demand and waiting on customers, but you two, you got in your, you packed out two big SUVs this morning, and you went, you like, almost like you were, you were stalking Bowersock, so you went right up into some really rough areas, Brad.

Tell everyone what happened. Yeah, I mean, you know, we were sitting around on Sunday afternoon and we said, you know, we got to do something, you know, and we looked down and said, you know, I've got to, if anything, I can pack my car and I can take supplies up. So Christy and I had a kind of thought, well, hey, we'll just go, we'll just go purchase some stuff and fill it up. And then I said, hey, why don't we just become a drop-off zone and whatever people drop off, where we fit in their car, we'll pick it up there. And so we had another, some friends of ours at Piedmont Steel Company contacted, hey, I've got a big truck.

I want to help too. So whatever you can't take, we'll take. So they went up before us this morning.

We went up behind them and, you know, we're just now getting back into Wahlberg now and we're going to see what else we got and hope that we can do it again. Yeah. More cupcakes. Now, Christy, you got to get busy in that kitchen making those cupcakes because you... Yeah. We were here, we had people dropping off. We were here till about 1030 last night.

People were dropping off through after 9 PM. And then we wanted to make sure before we left, we had enough cupcakes of the special one that we were selling to represent, you know, Western North Carolina. So we left a good supply of those so we could go. And now we're coming back. My sister Shelby's coming in and she's going to help make more of those cupcakes because I think we're about sold out of those.

It's all hands on deck. Well, there was product moving off the shelves. Hey, there was product moving off the shelves when I was there and I definitely contributed. And my son-in-law who ate most of that pumpkin gooey gooey bar, I didn't have Bowersocks.

Bowersocks, you let me down today. You know, I'm there with another pastor. But people, while we're having coffee and cupcakes and sweet treats and that homemade pumpkin cake, pumpkin chocolate chip cake with cream cheese icing. Oh my, you guys got to stop it.

I'm telling you right now. But they also promote Christian Radio. They partner with us and we're grateful for that, but we're grateful for what they're doing to get back while we're eating that stuff.

People are busting in the door with all kinds of cases and boxes to the point where there's nowhere places else to sit in there. And Andy, this is kind of what, like, when communities that are absolutely ravaged by this stuff, when local businesses and local churches step up and give back, like these guys are doing. But, buddy, is there anything more exciting, Andy Bowersocks?

You know, because you're doing it with Energized Ministries. We might have lost him. You there, Andy? We've got a connection issue with Andy. Andy was in Boone yesterday. He's going back tomorrow morning with a crew.

Nick, let's see if we can try to resuscitate him or forget our phone line problem worked out. Brad and Christy, tell us now what your heartfelt as you drove through the war zone. What did you see? And kind of be the eyes and ears for our listeners as they can kind of get a visual because this is the mountain range on the Boone side, Wilkes County, all up in there.

Watauga, I believe. Whereas I-40 on the other side where Asheville and Hendersonville is. This is kind of over a little bit to that side. Tell us what you saw and just for the hearts of our listeners to kind of tune into that. Yeah, I mean, the areas that we went into today, Boone and Blowing Rock, were, you know, they were in a lot better shape than a lot of other areas, which is, you know, why it's such a great drop-off point.

If you can get it up there, they can distribute it. I think the biggest thing we saw was just talking to the local business owners about their personal experiences. And, you know, they're the ones that live through it.

They live through the storm and they're describing us and just so thankful that we're thinking about them and that they're, you know, being thought of. And, you know, just seeing their resiliency of trying to come in, trying to get their shops open. Some of them in Blowing Rock area were just opening back up today for the first time.

And I can just imagine as a small business owner, the economic impact that's going to have. It's just going to be- Most of them didn't have internet. You know, some, most were just taking ads. We were in one boutique and I felt really bad. She was canceling all her shipments coming in because they, they depend on October and the area they were in Blowing Rock for their high sales of the entire year.

So, she was talking to her wholesalers and canceling her orders. And I mean that, you know, we're business owners. So, that would be like us talking to them.

That would be like us at Christmas not being able to open or, you know, Mother's Day. And I could totally, you know, that my heart really went out to them. Yeah. Well, thank you all. Thank you, Brad and Kristi. Cupcake Cuties, they're giving back from their sales of cupcakes to all the victims and to the relief efforts with Samaritan's Purse and so many that are giving back. Thank you. If you want to call in with your testimony of giving back, 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884. Thank you, Energize Ministries, Cupcake Cuties, both in Wahlberg, both serving Christ, be in the hands and feet of Christ in Western North Carolina. More on what we can do, what you can do, coming up. So, what do you do if your heart is broken from all these images, all the victims, so many homes lost. They need your help.

You're a business owner. I'm standing next to one right now in Clemens, North Carolina. Sir, tell us what people can do, what you're doing about it, and how they can come by and bring stuff to go in your bin that's going to go right to the victims and the families in Western North Carolina. Yeah, come see us. We're at Honda, Seadoo, Canama, Winston-Salem. We're on Ramada Drive.

We're at the Clemens exit, Lewisville Clemens Road. We've got a secure drop-off point, and make sure your donations make it to where they need to go. Awesome. So, grab anything from the store. Go get a case like I just did of Le Blue Water. Take it out there.

Put it in the bin. They've got a banner. All donations are welcome, and they will get to the right people in Boone, in Western North Carolina, Asheville, Hendersonville. So many people hurt by this. Thank you, sir, for what you're doing, man, making a difference and for helping all the people.

Find a drop-off point. Get involved with your church. SamaritansPurse.org is a great place to go as well. So, so many folks are saying, what can I do? Well, my church isn't doing anything. Well, go grab a box from your garage. Take it to your church.

It's not that hard. That's what my buddy, the guy I just interviewed, I just grabbed him, and then I followed him back to his shop, and people were dropping stuff in the big bin at his shop. People were coming by. He just put a little social media blurb out there at the big Honda Powersports Seadoo Canama.

You can see him right off I-40, westbound, up there on the left, or coming in eastbound on the right. They got all these big two wheels, three wheels, four wheels, and they're taking donations. So take your stuff.

It will get to people in Western North Carolina. You own a cupcake shop. You own a bakery like Cupcake Cutie's in Wahlberg. These guys, Brad, they're doing something, and he called in earlier. They've got a drop-off spot. If you have a drop-off spot, if you want to shout out a plug, what are you doing?

You want to share? We're going to get Bowersox back on the line. We're going to call him. We're going to get some other folks to report in, but if you can get through, please try toll-free 866-34-TRUTH. That's 866-348-7884.

I'm apologizing ahead of time. We've had some phone issues, so it's about one out of every three people trying to call in can get in. But the question is, what can you do? And the answer is, anything. The answer is, people are desperate. The answer is, you sat down to a nice hearty breakfast this morning that was not the case of somebody in Western North Carolina who's planning their spouse's funeral because she drowned in this horrible deluge and this flood, and they've lost everything. So many folks have lost everything.

So anything you can do. We started the show with a pastor out of Greensboro. He's got multi-campuses, and they had tractor trailers at all these campuses.

We talked to Andy Bowersox of Energized Ministries. Andy, you were in Boone, North Carolina yesterday, but you didn't get enough, brother. You're going back with a whole crew. A bunch of our Wednesday and the Word guys are going, I guess.

Jamal and Bill and Caleb, you're plundering the Wednesday and Word Bible, so you're taking these boys up to Boone. What are y'all going to do? Well, we've got a pastor up there that had about a foot of water through his house, so we're going to help him tear out the floors, the base floor, some of the lower cabinets.

We'll get the shockwave treatment in there, get it dried out, and hopefully help him to start rebuilding on it. And basically, the parsonage there was right next to the church, so we're going to try and do the same thing in the church. You know, a week ago today, we were in the Energized bus, heading up to beautiful mountains of Liberty Mountain, where Thomas Road Baptist Church had their refuel conference. We were just around a bunch of pastors, Jonathan Falwell, some great folks up there, just getting replenished. You were blessing and praying with pastors.

Little did we know that the greatest flood and disaster was on its way to the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, Georgia, parts of Florida, parts of South Carolina, and now we're in a different spot. This is triage, Bowersox, and instead of running the other way, like most folks would say, hey, go take a little vacation, you're going up to minister to the pastors, because when this happens, everyone turns to the church, and they should, but who loves on the church? Who encourages the pastor? When he's answering all the phone calls, enter Energized Ministries. Talk about the critical nature of this, Andy Bowersox, especially for those that just joined the program.

Yeah, we mentioned a few minutes ago in your last segment, it's very taxing. You know, our pastors are a lot more than what people see from 9 to 12 on Sunday anyway, but when it's mass crisis and disaster like this, the church has become the point where literally everyone turns to, and you can see it in any disaster area. There'll be lines of people lined up for food, for diapers, for wives, for clean supplies. The churches are the distribution points to help, and that in itself just creates an enormous burden on our pastors and the staff, so really that's the place that God's called us, is to help support those guys, help them not have to worry, at least not worry so much about getting their own residences fixed up so that they can serve. And the sooner we can help them get back in their own beds, their own sofa to sit on and relax, and it just creates a tremendous amount of support when they feel at least the burden being less of their own refreshment. So it's a big part of what we do in these disaster situations, and it ultimately helps the community when the churches can get up and running and be able to distribute more effectively and efficiently. Andy, for people listening out there that want to do something, they know that they may not even have family and friends in western North Carolina or in Boone or in Tennessee or parts of South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, but they want to help. What would you suggest they do? They just want to be a part of this thing. They want to support you, but they can't hop in the truck with you in the morning to go up to Boone and tell this pastor with his flooded house. What can people do? Well, it's like everything else. Your time, talents, or treasure.

Take your pick if you can give one or all three. You know, we certainly need it, but there's so many good organizations that need physical help, they need resources, dollar bills, they need all three. So time, talents, and treasure. Pray about it, pray where you can get in to best serve and to help out, and just trust that the Lord will lead you to the right spot. Okay, and energized ministries, the folks that want to support what you're doing, talk about that just real quick, kind of the essence of your ministry and how folks give to you, it's going directly to these pastors, effectively.

A hundred percent of it goes directly out. That's exactly right, and you know, I mean, we all year long, year after year, we support pastors and their families, provide encouragement, refreshment. We call it preventive care and prayer support. It's confidential, it's vital, it's building up the leadership of the body of Christ. It's critically important, but in times like this, when it's the disaster areas, and it's, I think I mentioned on your, earlier on your show, it's sort of organized chaos. It's very, very taxing on everyone involved, and many, many pastors and their teams are just slap worn out, and so it's a great way, if you have a heart for it, if you feel like the Lord's asking you to get involved, you can check out our website for ways to serve physically, you can serve financially, you can certainly serve in your prayer support, and we all need it in these kind of situations.

Yeah, amen. Now, Andy Bowersox, you're getting in the morning, you're getting up, and this is why you're one of my heroes, because you're going right to the battle zone, to ground zero, where people have been devastated. You're going to drive through a neighborhood that used to be a bunch of houses and carports and really nice mountain getaways that have been just crushed by these floods and mudslides and storms. Tell everyone what you saw when you went to Boone, and what shocked you the most.

After hearing the chatter, seeing some of the social media stuff in the news, what is it that kind of got your heart, that tore your heart out when you were there yesterday? Well, you might think this is kind of, kind of, maybe crazy, I don't know, Stuart, but I believe that God created the earth, I believe that God did it in a relatively short amount of time, I'm not somebody that believes it's taken millions of years, I believe pretty much literally what the Bible says, and I've heard the argument made from people that say, you know, there's no way the Grand Canyon could have been formed so quickly, it'd take millions and millions of years. Well, to me, when I see the utter devastation that happens in such an incredibly short amount of time, the power of water and of just what it can do, it's one of the things I think about as evidence that God's Word is true. And I think Andrew Hopper called it earlier, it's mourning, it's grief, it's very, very difficult physical situations, emotional situations, but it's also a time to lean into our Father and recognize He's sovereign over it, He's powerful, His words are true, and so I sort of have mixed emotions when I go through it, right?

But to me, it's evidence of the omnipotent sovereign power of our Creator. Well, and how beautiful did Phil and Pastor Hopper said it earlier and so many other folks that have called today, that floods of disaster are met by floods of grace, and this is where the hands and feet of Christ, you and that truckload of guys, and I want to pray for you right now, everyone pray for Andy right now as we get out of here, I want to pray for the flood victims and so many people that can't even get contact with their family. I just heard a miracle story from another friend who said they had five seconds with their family, God just allowed the phone line to work for five seconds and a helicopter was there within an hour and got them before the whole thing blew up underneath them, you know? So there's miracles, there's more to come out, there's devastation, there's pain, but Andy, can we pray real quick? Why don't you pray for us, Andy, just lift this up, we only got 30 seconds left in the show, pray for us real quick as we get out of here and for what God's going to do tomorrow through your team. Yeah, absolutely, Father, I just ask on behalf of all the, not everyone that's affected, but in our case specifically for the pastors and their families that have been affected by this, that have had lives destroyed, that their calling remains the same, God, you call them to serve no matter what the capacity is, no matter what the disaster is, and so I just ask for an extra measure of your strength, your spirit to fall on them right now in the days, the weeks, the months, and realistically probably the years ahead. This is life-altering stuff, we trust you, we praise you, we ask for more of you, and ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Energize Ministries, meet them online, SamaritansPurse.org is a great place to support, they're going right there, and they're based where the devastation hit. They're on the ground, your local church drop-off zones, get involved, hashtag give, hashtag pray, hashtag go, and let's serve in the name of Jesus. Another program powered by the Truth Network.