Following Hurricane Helene, the Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove has transformed from a peaceful retreat center to a bustling hub for disaster relief efforts in Western North Carolina.

The Cove is providing hot meals and overnight housing to North Carolina State Highway Patrol, Billy Graham Rapid Response Team (BG-RRT) chaplains, and Samaritan's Purse volunteers. Operating off generators, the facility is hosting these men and women as they care for their neighbors—including the towns of Swannanoa and Fairview, which were hit hard by the storm.

"The mission statement of The Cove is training people in God's Word to win others to Christ. I see this as ... just doing it in a different way: by supporting those who are serving in our community," said Eric Wilkes, The Cove's executive director.

Instead of people attending all-day seminars in the retreat center, this army of volunteers is spending their days outside helping where roads are washed out, houses are flooded or ripped apart, and families are grieving lost loved ones.

In the evenings over dinner in The Cove's dining hall, they swap stories of how God is changing lives and moving hearts amid destruction. For the officers at the end of a long day's work, those moments have brought unexpected joy.

"The [troopers] that are getting to come here, they're seeing positivity, positivity, positivity. Whenever they go out, they're seeing bad things. It's so easy to get a hard heart," highway patrolman Daniel Hall explained. But hearing the stories of faith in the midst of tragedy really affected him. "I'll tell you what, this place right here is softening [my heart] up a little." (Image: BGEA)

The evening before, he had called his wife from The Cove's balcony that overlooks the Blue Ridge Mountains. "I told her, 'Yeah, I'm away from home. I'm away for work, but I'll probably go home a better person."

The experience has helped remind officers like Hall to make God a priority.

"Our jobs are tough, and I hope that we can one day be as happy as [the staff and volunteers] are here," Hall continued. "Tomorrow morning, they said [devotions will be] out here. I told the guys, 'I'm not going to come in in the morning. I'm going to go get a little of Jesus to try to start my day off better.'"

'It Just Feels So Hopeless'

BG-RRT chaplain coordinator Toni New experienced one of those stories of faith firsthand. She was organizing paperwork at The Cove when she heard about a man at the entrance gate who needed to talk with someone.

"He came walking towards me with tears going down his cheeks," New said as she described John,* his hat covering unkempt hair. "He hadn't been able to take a shower."

Inside a conference room, John shared that he'd moved to Asheville from California three years ago to be with his young son but had difficulty finding work as a photographer.

"He said he never felt like he fit in here," New recalled.

During the storm, John tried to get his son and his son's mother out of the area—and while doing so, said "he watched people that looked like they were going to die" in the floodwaters.

"I feel so alone, and it just feels so hopeless to me," John told New after days of surveying the hurricane's massive destruction.

After providing some guidance, New talked to John about the only way to true hope and peace.

"Can I share something with you?" she asked, pulling out a Steps to Peace With God booklet. Together, they read Scripture and John expressed his desire to have a relationship with God.

"Would you like to receive the Lord and turn your life around and let Him bring that peace that you need?" New asked. John agreed, and the two prayed together as he came to Christ in repentance and faith.

"I just feel so much better," John said with a smile.

He is only one of more than 1,000 people chaplains have prayed with since the hurricane—and they will continue their ministry across the Southeast in the days to come.

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