HAMPDEN – In the wake of September’s Hurricane Florence, a group of 10 members of Bethlehem Church spent four days in New Bern, North Carolina clearing out homes that were flooded.

The 10 volunteers ranged in ages from 16 to 66 and set out to partner with Samaritan’s Purse, which is a Christian humanitarian aid organization.

Connection and Outreach Director at Bethlehem Lori Cooney explained to Reminder Publishing the church’s partnership with Samaritan’s Purse.

“They are a Christian organization that we receive emails from. They need obviously a lot of financial support so we support them that way, but whenever there’s a national disaster we hear from them and the lists of needs they have, whether it’s financial and in this case, they needed arms and feet,” she said. “They are in the business of doing this, they have all their systems in place and they know the tools, the protective equipment, they have teams that just move into these communities and they are the liaison between the sending organization that sends people in.”

While Bethlehem provided financial support to this cause, quickly the church realized that there might be members of the church who wanted to volunteer their time and travel down to the site.

“I think as individuals and as a community you hear about things like this and I think most people want to help, so whether they send donations through the Red Cross or whatever. Our church did provide financial support, we realized that there were people who might be willing to actually go,” Cooney explained. “We made a phone call to Samaritans Purse and they immediately said yes, come, and they gave us a window of a time frame that they still need people to fill slots.”

The team of Bethlehem volunteers joined volunteers from around the country to remove household contents from a flooded home as well as tearing out sheetrock, insulation and air system duct work. The volunteers also pretreated mildew and mold at two homes.

Volunteers were able to stay at a church in New Burn, which served as a home–base location where volunteers could eat, sleep and shower.

“This team was so excited to go, I’m sure they were a little nervous, but when they came back they were so knit together as a team and it was just an awesome experience,” she said. “It was a great opportunity and they were thrilled to be able to meet the resident of one of the homes. Lives are changed forever when something like that happens.”