USA (MNN) — Over a week after Hurricane Helene devastated the southeast United States, bodies are still being recovered. At least 227 people are confirmed dead, but many more are still missing.
MNN ministry partner Slavic Gospel Association is a member of IFCA International. Many IFCA-partnered churches were severely impacted.
Dr. Richard Bargas, Executive Director of IFCA, says, “We’ve had reports back from some of our pastors, like I’m looking at one from a pastor that’s in Martinez, Georgia, and the picture of their little church has this massive tree that just basically crushed it.”
Flooding from Hurricane Helene in Asheville, North Carolina. (Photo courtesy of Bill McMannis/Flickr: https://shorturl.at/gtou0)
When IFCA asked about the church’s needs, “They actually were asking for prayer for Kingdom opportunities because they’re meeting their neighbors. They need to build relationships. They want to sow seeds of the Gospel. They want to see people saved,” Bargas says.
“Even though their building has been destroyed, the church is still going on. As a matter of fact, on Sunday, I guess they met in the backyard of the church on their property, and they’ve removed all the wood and all the things that have destroyed their building, and they’re looking for where they’re going to go now.”
Christians are actively serving as the hands and feet of Christ. Even individual believers are going out on their own and offering assistance.
Bargas says, “I was [talking with] a young man the other day who’s in North Carolina. He said he’s just going to grab his saw and he’s going to jump in his truck and he’s going to get down and see what he can do to help people.”
IFCA also works with various institutional and military chaplains. These chaplains have gone to hurricane-impacted areas to listen to and spiritually encourage survivors.
“They’re helping them,” says Bargas. “The shelters are providing showers and hot food and supplies and things, but they need spiritual help too, and so the chaplains are praying for people. They’re letting them weep and tell their story. There’s bigger needs than just food and water and clothing. Those are being taken care of, but there’s more needs, and a lot of them are spiritual.
“We would ask that believers would pray for those that are firsthand ministering to those spiritual needs, that they would be able to turn people to Christ and give them the hope that’s only can be found in Jesus.”
Pray for survivors of Hurricane Helene to turn to the Lord for comfort and sense His presence.
We’re also keeping tabs on Hurricane Milton, now Category 5, approaching Florida’s west coast. Pray for those preparations and a weakened impact.
Header photo: Georgia National Guard Soldiers, Airmen, and State Defense Force personnel continue to deliver Hurricane Helene Relief supplies at points of distribution across the state. (Photo courtesy of Staff Sgt. Amari Cooper, The National Guard, Flickr: https://shorturl.at/e6uMw)
