This is Liz Fransell with Crawford Media Group and today I’m talking with Ed Henderson, one of our commentators on 560 KLZ radio and Luther Harrison, the vice president of the North American Ministries with Samaritans Purse. We’ll be talking about the relief efforts going on in North Carolina and the surrounding areas affected by Hurricane’s Helene and Milton. Welcome to our program, Luther. Oh, thank you for having me, Liz and Ed. It’s a pleasure to meet you by the radio and I appreciate you getting the word out to donors and listeners that would see what the needs are and how they can get involved. Luther, tell us about your role at Samaritans Purse and how Samaritans Purse operates. Well, first of all, I’d like to say I’m a native of Boone North Carolina where this storm really hit hard, but Samaritans Purse has always been here in this community. I was in law enforcement prior to this career and just started seeing all the works that Samaritans Purse continued to do in this community. My next door neighbor was actually the first vice president of Samaritans Purse. He was a widower living in an apartment. I would start giving his cars away, going out and buying groceries and building materials for people. And truly, I grew up in a Christian home and he was my example of the good Samaritan. But got to know many people as Samaritans Purse and it’s like, God, put on my heart a new calling and I stepped out on faith and I’ve been here 28 years now. This has really become a part of life that I’m not the preacher that could be the Billy Graham standing in the pulpit preaching to the masses, but he’s allowed us to go out to the ditch of life to people when the storms hit. Both men made and natural disasters are people suffering and to go meet their needs and take the mobile church as I call it. People from all different denominations of Christians that have come out and just become one body going out to minister these families not only physically, but I also get to serve at the Billy Graham Evangelist Association. We have a chaplain team, the rapid response team, they go out to disasters and shootings and different civil unrest opportunities. But we have about 2000 trained chaplains that come alongside with the families and just our journey is to go meet their physical spiritual and emotional needs after these storms. And Hurricane Helene, is it caused damage in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee. It’s just been a tremendous outpouring from our volunteers that want to come out. I mean, prior to this storm, I mean we’ve responded to 22 disasters this year and had about 7,000 volunteers. Well, in the last two weeks we’ve had over 16,000 volunteers come out. To see families come out, we’ve gone to Samaritan’s first travels around the world in about 110 different countries where we work meeting the needs, whether it’s famine or war disasters, all these different places you crane, Sudan, even in Israel and Gaza. Our ministry has a big footprint, but we’re based here in the mountains of Boone, North Carolina where Franklin Graham went to school with Appalachian State and his wife Jane, they’ve had their family here and raised them. They’re part of the community. So, you know, how do you go minister to people internationally when you have a storm at home? This is where we need to stand and be that good Samaritan like Galatian 62 says and help carry that burden and share that and fulfill the law of Christ. Luther, your organization has been on the ground in Western North Carolina since Hurricane Helene. Can you give us an update on the status of the relief efforts underway there? Well, it’s, there are a lot of organizations and groups and churches that, you know, always see the first responders are my heroes, the police fire and medics, but also feel ed that the church is the first responder to. They were there before the storm. They’re going to be there after the storm and many of these churches open their doors to become a shelter or a distribution center. I mean, Boone is a small town. We have a large university here at Appalachian State, but we’re a one Walmart city and our Walmart flooded and it’s closed for the next several months. So, you see churches, I think they’re looking like a Walmart in the Sam’s Club. There’s so much distribution of goods, food, hygiene items, cleaning supplies. Samaritan’s Purse has really been focused on generators, it’s called so many people are cut out, cut out from the power and they haven’t gotten their power back in about 17 different counties around our area here. So generators, heaters, we’re right now this week is going to be in the low, I think, upper 20s to low 30s. And a lot of these homes have no heat, so we’re providing propane and Mr. Buddy, heaters and with these generators we can provide other electric heat, but many other goods and supplies that they need, water, a lot of the communities that are city waters no longer potable and the systems are broken. This is the first time in my history here at this ministry where a county has actually approved for Samaritan’s Purse to distribute potable water. So our water filtration teams that go around the world are actually, we have three distribution points here in the mountains of North Carolina where they’re providing clean drinking water. But we’ve also with the communities cut off with our interstate 40 from Asheville to Tennessee will not be repaired until 2028. So we’ve had helicopters coming in the military provided three shinnooks. We’ve got black hawks and private helicopters, they’ve already flown over 268 missions of supplies and goods and food bags that are being distributed. And most of these are being distributed through the local fire departments and churches, which always turn into that release center. So you know, this is a great ministry opportunity that we’ve had, but to see the volunteers that keep coming out to be the hands and feet of Jesus, where there’s tarping a roof, cutting a tree, mucking out a home that’s filled with mud now from the river overflowing the banks. But as I mentioned the chaplains at the Billy Graham side, there’ve been 260 deaths in this storm and there are several people still unaccounted for. So we want to walk beside these families as not only they’ve lost their homes and their physical belongings that they own, but they’re also grieving the loss of loved ones. And some of the stories, I mean one person seeing 10 members of their family swept away, you know, that’s a big weight on their shoulders. And we just want to come up beside them and just show them God loves them. He’s not forgotten them and he’s going to walk with them every step of the way. You know, Luther, that’s good to hear about the helicopters bringing in relief. But some of the national media has reported that the Biden administration, specifically FEMA, were extremely slow to respond in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. What do you see on the ground based on those reports? You know, through the years we’ve worked, we don’t partner with FEMA. I mean we respect their the government relief and not a lot of countries have relief that FEMA does provide to homeowners, whether it’s temporary housing or max grant for the damage to their property. FEMA usually has that 72 hour waiver to get into the community and you know that has to be a presidential declaration to get them to move and then our governor has to sign the letter to get the National Guard mobilized. Both of those agencies are here on the ground and I always say, Frank and Graham has always had him sort of challenge me. He said, “I want you to be there before seeing in, finds out about it.” Well, we want to be there first and the church has always been that first responder for us and we have great relationships, Operation Christmas Childs Part of Our Ministry and that gives us a relationship over 90,000 churches in the United States and these churches call out and say, “Hey, we need your help.” So we’re going to come in immediately and this one hitting in our backyard, I mean we were on the scene quickly on this one. So FEMA is here and I hope and pray I’ve heard they’ve added on roads and bridges to the assistance that they can offer because we’re in a rural farming community. This used to be all farms and a lot of their driveways are cut off that water. These folks never lived in a floodplain but this, as they said, trillions of gallons of water came out of the sky and it just calls flooding and landslides like we’ve never seen in this community before. Luther, do you have any estimate for how long your teams will be on the ground assisting in the recovery from both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton? Well, Hurricane Milton, you know, as it just hit, I was glad it went across Florida with a little quick speed but we set up in Charlotte County Florida there because there’s about 4,000 homes in that area near Puntagorta that had flooded as well. So, you know, we’re on bandwidth, we’re able to set up and we actually in Tampa St. Pete brought one of our Canadian disaster relief teams across the help service in that area. So, in Tampa St. Pete, Perry, they’ve been hit, Perry is three times now in the last year and a half. So, you know, that whole parable of the good Samaritan, he met the immediate needs which we’re trying to do now but as the Samaritan said, and I’ll be back and check on these folks, we will have a rebuild program that we will come up and try to help the families that are non-insured, underinsured, the elderly, the handicapped, the single moms, people that are just not able to get back into their home. So, we have volunteers that will help put them back into a nice safe home and a lot of contractors listening to this may think we’re competing against them. Well, we’re helping the families that can’t afford to pay the contractor but we are a licensed general contractor in the state of North Carolina and we’re looking forward to the next steps of winter will be here soon. How do we help these families get into a nice warm home and have a place that they feel safe and secure. You know, Luther, people always wonder how much of the money donated to an organization actually gets to the people needing the assistance. Tell our listeners how that is determined with Samaritan’s purse and also if someone wants to donate or volunteer with Samaritan’s purse, how they would go about doing that. Well, first of all, I mean being the ex law enforcement, I not only work at Samaritan’s purse but I’m a donor here too because I would hate to ask someone to give to something I don’t support myself. The best example I can give you is like Hurricane Katrina where our administrative assessment overheads met and Franklin Graham turns a dollar in the front doors, a dollar out the back door. Or when I get to go visit with Governor Greg Abbott down in Texas after Hurricane Harvey and Franklin drops our administrative assessment fee to 3%. And that’s, you know, to keep our staff paid, keep them going, keep things moving but more opportunities to help the families in need. So that’s where we see the need and always feel that God does not put money in our bank account without a plan. He doesn’t put it there, locked the pair, well the town is to be sitting on them so when he returns we’re not holding it. But he’s got a plan for this one and you know, we’re going to need people to come alongside of us and be the volunteers to help get families back into their homes. We’re going to, the biggest thing we ask for is being prayer for the families that are going through this. And as here it is October Thanksgiving will be here, Christmas will be here. You know, we’ve seen this where there’s may feel Kentucky or other places that got hit by the tornadoes right before Christmas. You know, this is going to be a different holiday for the families but their children lost their gifts and their possessions too. So you know, it’s a sad time but you just see their, I guess the heart they serve with and the people are the wherewithal to get back on their feet. These North Carolina mountain folks are tough and you know, they’ll rebound and the folks in Florida they’ve been hit before but just being prayer. We ask for prayer support. You know, you can go on our website and continue to monitor us on Samaritan’sPers.org website or you can watch us on social media and some of the volunteers are sharing their stories of why they do what they do. So you raise the hood of our car and there’s a bunch of volunteers and our insurance there that make this ministry take traction and you make progress. We’ve been visiting with Ed Henderson, one of our commentators on 560 KLC radio and Luther Harrison, the vice president of the North American Ministries with Samaritan’s Purse. And we’ve been talking about the relief efforts going on in North Carolina and the surrounding areas due to Hurricane Helene. Would you tell us again, Luther, where our listeners can go to donate or volunteer? Yes, Liz. Go to Samaritan’sPers.org and they can see what we’re doing, watch the videos from our volunteers, our homeowners, our leadership and people that are out there on the ground. And really a lot of our donors are giving $10, $20 to allow us to do the work, these call us to do. And we want to be good stewards of every gift, whether it’s your sweat equity or your financial donation. Go to that website and just look and see what Samaritan’s Purse is doing and leave it between them and the Lord to see how they, he wants them to get involved. Well, Luther, we sure appreciate you spending your time with us today and for what you’re doing out in the field. Luther, thank you. We sincerely appreciate it. And one last time, if somebody’s driving along today and they’re thinking, what is that number I can call to make a donation to Samaritan’s Purse? Give us that number one more time if you would please. All right, it’s 1-800-528-1980. 1-800-528-1980. We appreciate that. Thank you so much, Luther. All right, Ed. Liz, thank you both. God bless you. And again, we can’t do this work without the media getting the word out to people and letting them see what the true needs are.
