You Showed Up

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I told you guys last week we were going to show up for Eastern Kentucky and you did.

Between Bridges and Jefferson Christian Church, we collected just shy of 70 cases of water and raised over $3,500 to give towards Flood Relief. I had the privilege to ride up to Kentucky and back on Tuesday with Patrick, Bob Fye and Tom Eckert to drop off the water in Maytown.

While we were there, we got to talk to my friend Nathan who lives in Maytown. Every house on that side of town is built on an above ground basement, the water got up to the very bottom of his floor joists. It has flooded there a lot in his lifetime, but he said this was the highest water has gotten since 1984.

We stood there and listened to him tell story after story, but he said one thing I will never forget. He said he has seen his town flood a lot, but he has never seen people show up afterwards to help clean his house and his town or bring supplies to help the community like this before. He said they just keep coming and coming.  

The water and the money is a drop in the bucket of what is needed to rebuild and restore the region. But just showing up and caring for Eastern Kentucky, that is changing hearts. Nathan noticed. The region is noticing people from all over the country showing up to help. For generations, folks in Eastern Kentucky have grown up thinking that no one outside of Appalachia cares about them. Imagine what this is doing for a generation of young people there who now have some hope, who feel valued and who are seeing the love of Jesus from someone who didn’t grow up near them.

I will stay in touch with CrossRoads and if there are other opportunities down the road to help, I will share those with you.

Thank you again so much for your generosity!