Pastor Charles English and his wife, Sadie, will use their new car to continue to serve others in their community for God’s glory.
Pastor Charles English was at home with one of his daughters when Ivy Creek became a torrent of boulders, trees, and exploding propane tanks—common elements for most stories about Hurricane Helene’s destructive path through the mountains.
Charles and Sadie sit in their new car provided by Samaritan’s Purse.
Charles and his wife, Sadie, have lived five decades in Barnardsville, North Carolina, along a normally idyllic branch of the French Broad. The situation changed forever on Sept. 27.
We’re just overwhelmed with joy and love. We’re going to use this for the Lord, because the Lord gave it to us.
“We’ve lived here 50 years. We have a lot of memories here,” Charles said. “The flood took about everything we had, except the clothes on my back and the shoes I put on my feet to walk out of here,” he said, recounting how he and his daughter walked through a flooded cow pasture to get to safety.
They Lost Everything
Pastor Charles and Sadie said one of their greatest storm losses was their sedan, which had previously allowed them to minister to their church family and neighbors. The car floated away in the Helene flooding.
A Samaritan’s Purse chaplain shares from the new Bible we provided to the Englishes.
In January, they received a brand-new car from Samaritan’s Purse, a big step in recovery.
“I’ll use it for the Lord,” Charles told our staff as they gathered with the couple’s three adult daughters to dedicate the Honda Accord given to them.
“Now I’ll be able to drive so we can take people to the doctors and visit at the hospital and hospice and help people in need again,” he said. “It’ll come in handy.”
Charles and Sadie have served 37 years in the church and in the Barnardsville community as loving neighbors and ministers. They are known for their hospitality and desire to help others “even at the midnight hour.”
They Serve for God’s Glory
Charles still preaches on Sundays, despite a severe stroke that left him unable to talk until he learned how to do it all over again. He also had to relearn to walk.
Charles English stood in the pulpit of his church, reopened for the first time months after the storm.
“But Jesus has never left me,” he said. “He’s been right by my side. You know, maybe I’ll do more than I ever have for the Lord. Even though my age is getting on me, I know God’s able to strengthen me to be the best husband and father and grandfather I can be and to preach the Gospel and carry on that.”
Now I’ll be able to drive so we can take people to the doctors and visit at the hospital and hospice and help people in need again.
Tears were settling in both their eyes as Charles and Sadie received a special Billy Graham Training Center Bible and turned to the inside cover filled with signatures from our staff working in Buncombe County.
The group gathered in closer to pray over the Englishes, their property, and for the community of Barnardsville—one of many such communities in western North Carolina who are still remembering the catastrophic storm like it was yesterday.
“He had nightmares for a long time,” Sadie said. “He’d wake up a lot of nights, and he couldn’t sleep and he could see everything floating down.”
They’re Taking Steps to Recovery
“And it’s still hard to talk about,” Charles said. “Jesus said I’ll never forsake you. And He has seen us through this and it took the Lord to do it because we couldn’t have made it without Him. But I just don’t know what to say. We’re just overwhelmed with joy. We’re going to use this for the Lord, because the Lord gave it to us.”
Charles and Sadie English received a new car from Samaritan’s Purse to replace the vehicles swept away in the flood.
The couple climbed into their new car, the first car Charles has ever driven that can be turned on with the push of a button. Now the couple could drive to church the coming Sunday, the first time since the storm that the building was not a mess with flooded out rooms. It was the first Sunday since September that services could be held there.
But at that moment on a Wednesday afternoon, he was pretty sure he knew exactly where he’d drive to first.
“I think I’ll take my wife out for dinner,” he said.
Charles says the first place he’ll drive in the new car is to take his wife, Sadie, to dinner.
