Michael and Willi lost everything during Hurricane Helene but received so much more through Jesus Christ and His people.
Nearly two years after Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc throughout western North Carolina, Willi Baldwin stepped into the creek that had washed away her home in September 2024.
Willi Baldwin was baptized in the creek that had taken the home where she and her husband, Michael, had lived for decades.
The same stream that had brought peace for years had, she thought, taken it from her forever. But in this moment, as she stood in the chilly mountain water, the creek symbolized true peace that no storm could steal.
Michael, her husband, was baptized on a Sunday morning just a few months ago. Willi decided the creek she loved was a meaningful location to make this profession of her new life with God. They both welcomed Jesus Christ into their lives in recent months.
Members of their church, along with Samaritan’s Purse staff and volunteers, watched from the side of the creek as Willi’s pastor baptized her. As she emerged from the water of that Burnsville creek, she was rejoicing.
“There’s just been a huge transformation,” Willi said. “When I was young and went to Catholic church, it was just a matter of going to church. Now I have the feeling that I’m walking with God.”
Just a few dozen feet away from that same creek, the couple had just moments before celebrated returning to the land they loved so much.
Hope for a Future
Through Samaritan’s Purse, God had provided them with a new camper in the exact spot where the old home sat before the storm. This was not the first time Samaritan’s Purse had helped them.
Earlier on the same day of Willi’s baptism, the Baldwins celebrated the gift of a new home provided by Samaritan’s Purse.
Their home of 25 years had been destroyed while they were out of town for their daughter’s wedding. A neighbor texted them. Everything was gone.
“Gone?” Willi wondered as they made their way back to their hometown of Burnsville, North Carolina. “What does ‘gone’ mean? Was there anything left?”
For most of three decades, the retired couple’s park model camper had become a peaceful haven, nestled near a creek and surrounded by lush forest at the feet of North Carolina’s Black Mountains.
The dayslong downpour as Helene passed through turned the quiet nearby stream into a raging river that crested more than 15 feet high, uprooting trees and filling homes with debris.
When they returned, the couple walked along the bank collecting what belongings they could find, including cooking utensils and remnants of Willi’s precious artwork. The only other possessions left were what they’d packed in their suitcases for what they thought would be a weekend trip away from home.
“There was a shed out back, there was an outdoor shower, there was a guest house barn, there was a carport. It’s all gone,” Michael said. “That was just blown away, up against the bridge down at the end of the road. The house was totally crumbled.”
Samaritan’s Purse volunteers helped them clean up the property and salvage any recoverable belongings. The Bible that Michael still carries to this day is the Bible Samaritan’s Purse volunteers had gifted them after completing the work.
In addition to a journal and Bible filled with encouraging messages, volunteers also wrote notes and Bible verses on stones on the property.
“We had a group from Samaritan’s Purse, about 10 people, come,” Michael said. “They gave us a Bible and signed it. Now that is the Bible I started taking to church.”
Homeless after the storm, the Baldwins were invited by close friends, Sam and Debbie, to stay in their cabin. It was through these friends that they began attending Brookstone Church and began learning more about Jesus and His great love for them.
Through their neighbors, their new church friends, Sunday morning services, and many pickleball games with that same group, which Michael, a retired tennis coach, especially enjoyed, they began to gain a deeper understanding of the Gospel and of Christian community. They were also impacted by Samaritan’s Purse staff and volunteers and the many months that teams served in the area and at their home.
During their many months of waiting, God had opened Baldwins’ hearts, and they decided to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
“The Holy Spirit has filled my body,” Willi said. “I feel like a softer person, more gentle, more caring, and more forgiving to everyone.”
Then, early this year, they heard some good news from Samaritan’s Purse. Returning to live by that beloved creek was not the impossibility they thought it was. They’d been searching for new land believing their forest cove was damaged beyond repair.
“We looked at so many different properties, but nothing really hit home like this does,” Willi said, looking at the rushing creek and surrounding trees. “And when Samaritan’s Purse said they could fix the land up, we were just overwhelmed with joy.”
More Than an Earthly Home
Samaritan’s Purse volunteers were an overwhelming force for hope in the Helene-devastated hills of western North Carolina and elsewhere as tens of thousands of people arrived to join our response in the southern Appalachians.
Friends, fellow church members, and Samaritan’s Purse staff and volunteers gathered to celebrate the new home and the couple’s new journey with Jesus Christ.
For weeks they cleared debris, mudded out homes, and tarped roofs while sharing the hope of Jesus Christ with homeowners blindsided by grief and loss in communities with suddenly uncertain futures. Our relief efforts have continued through an ongoing rebuild program, providing residents with new construction homes, mobile homes, and campers.
At the Baldwin property, our teams prepared the land with loads of gravel and grading to provide the home proper footing and distance from the creek. We also ensured that it was fully functional, which included installation of a water purification system that enabled them to draw drinking water from the creek. Then the brand new camper was placed exactly where the old one had stood. We handed them the keys at a special dedication ceremony on Tuesday, Aug 11.
“For Michael and Willi, we were here from beginning to end,” said Isaac Watson, a Samaritan’s Purse U.S. Rebuilds staffer, during the creekside home dedication. “We want people to feel better after disasters, but it really all comes down to sharing the Gospel so they can have an eternal home, not only an earthly home.”
Before gathering with attendees to pray around the home, Michael expressed his gratitude for the teams who’d been part of their journey since the storm.
“It’s like amazing. These volunteers are from all over. New Jersey, Delaware, Idaho, Texas, Kentucky,” he said, encouraged that they would travel from so far to help. “My whole purpose now is to really try and live and love like Jesus did.”
“He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:6).
Please pray for our teams as they continue helping families throughout western North Carolina get back home, and that more will come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
