Hey y’all! Here is the long procrastinated post about my mission trip to Swannanoa, North Carolina! And there are pictures!

So first off: thank you for the prayers!! We all had an amazing time and it was so special.

I became really awesome friends with two guys named Connor and Wyatt (that’s what happens when you share embarrassing poop and fart stories with your youth pastor and two highschool boys!) and many of the other kids on the trip!

To start off the week, we went to this place called the Biltmore Estate which had beautiful gardens and we got to take a tour of the manor. (Picture of our group below!)

Then, from Monday-Thursday, did work at four different homes doing priming, tearing up floors, painting, breaking pipes, and lots more!

We were able to serve a 90-year-old woman named Jackie who had lost everything, a man named Chip who won a Bronze medal from the Vietnam war, and a woman named Abigail who bought a bakery at 17 and now works at Mercy Chefs where they serve food to people who need it.

Then my team served in the Mercy Chefs kitchen for two days (because everybody else wanted to work in homes) where we chopped hundreds of pounds of vegetables, bread, and fruits that was going to be cooked and delivered to people who needed food.

It was really special to see the reactions from the locals when they asked where we were from.

“You’re from Washington? Like, across the country? Why did you come all the way out here?!”

They were so touched by the fact that a bunch of teenagers came to help them out, and it was very moving to hear their testimonies from the flooding and hurricane.

One man, (I’ll call him Jim), told us his story from the floods. Him had been on his porch and he watched as his neighbor and his neighbor’s father get swept away in the storms. His neighbor was able to hold onto a branch, but the father–who had dementia and was very old–was unable to hold on. A few days later, Jim went to the father’s funeral.

Attention: the following two stories are slightly disturbing , just a heads up.

Another woman, Pat, (she was the leader at the base of operations for the mission trip), said that the Swannanoa River ran past a gas station. The gas station was destroyed and leaked into the river–gasoline and diesel. People got swept into the river that was contaminated with the damaging chemicals, and one woman, after she was finally brought to land, laid there buried with just her head sticking out of the ground, screaming for help for five days.

Another woman, who lived by the river, went crazy after hearing the screams of people in the water. Now, every time it rains, she hides in her room and won’t come out. She’s been like this since November.

Alright, those two stories are done. :)

On a happier note, we were all able to make valuable connections and grow closer to each other and to God!

Throughout the trip, we were able to share our testimonies with each other, with strangers, with the homeowners of the houses we were working in, and with people in the airport too! One of the youth pastors, Matthew, said that on one of our flights, he talked the whole time with a man who was on fire for Jesus and he got to pray with him as well.

On the last flight, I talked with one of the boys, Wyatt, and the other youth pastor, David, about faith and human existence. (There were a lot of rabbit trails…we got super sidetracked and ended up taking about something totally different by the end of the flight.)

Some of the most moving moments were when our whole group placed their hands on David, the high school pastor, who was ‘retiring’ from his position to transition to a new position in the church. We all prayed for him and basically everyone was crying, so that was great.

On one of the flights, I was also able to talk to Matthew about how he preps his sermons and I learned so many techniques and tips for it–and he said he’d put me on the calendar to preach!

So all in all, the mission trip was amazing. Thank you all for the prayers! And please keep the prayers coming for people hit by Hurricane Helene and the floods.

Thanks for reading. :)
~Willow