Samaritan's Purse provided two horses and a mule to a North Carolina family that lost animals in a tragic February accident.
A February storm had softened the ground considerably and loosened the roots on an old poplar tree. Wind gusts finished it off.
Mike and Michele Toberer were hours out of town when the timber fell and broke a large opening into a fence holding their mules. Three of them escaped into the highway.
Frank Parrish, a member of our DART, presents a special Bible to the family during a special time of dedication.
“That was a third of my workforce,” Mike said.
Kev, Vader, and Amigo were killed by an approaching truck. Gone in seconds, those three highly trained animals had carried supplies months before into the mountains—into Helene-ravaged communities of North Carolina and Tennessee.
“It was a great loss. It would have taken five years to get untrained mules to that point again,” Mike said.
When Samaritan’s Purse heard of this tragedy, we began the search for replacements. Mission Mules, the Toberers’ non-profit, had assisted our disaster assistance response team (DART) last fall with transporting relief supplies deep into the hills and hollers where no airborne or land vehicles could travel.
Faith Toberer with the new pack animals.
On March 3, we gave three new pack-trained equines to the Toberers. One horse and a mule were purchased and transported from Kentucky, and an additional horse came from South Dakota. Not one of them was skittish after the long-haul road trip.
Mike noted how calm and disciplined the new animals were. “I can tell someone did a great job training the horses and that mule,” he said.
This gift from Samaritan’s Purse will help Mission Mules’ relief efforts, which continue in the mountains as they follow up with families they’ve met and with other needs up in the Appalachians of North Carolina and Tennessee.
Military-Grade Relief Transport
These new animals also assist the family in getting their separate, for-profit business back online. Mike’s business, Mountain Mule Packers, is to train specialized military units—SEALs, Special Forces, Marine Raiders, and Air Force teams—in the use of pack mules, a skill set often used in unconventional mountain warfare. The animals are conditioned for battle sounds and smells and for transporting equipment and supplies over long miles through impassable terrain.
The Toberers help train special operations teams in the effective use of mules for transporting weaponry and supplies in combat zones.
When Hurricane Helene hit, Mike’s pack animals were a solution ready to go.
“When the power came back on, we saw in the news that they couldn’t get into all these different areas,” he said. “And so we left that next day.”
For weeks, Mission Mules carried relief in western North Carolina, to places like Swannanoa, Black Mountain, and Burnsville. Then they shifted to areas surrounding Roan Mountain, Tennessee. They carried in food, medical supplies, shelter materials—hundreds of pounds of which came from stockpiles airlifted to locations by Samaritan’s Purse.
The family’s many years of mule packing, including specialized training of military groups, prepared them for work in the disaster zone after Hurricane Helene.
“If a route was blocked too much by trees, we’d cut a clearing. If it was small enough, we could step right over,” Mike explained. “We can step over things that side-by-sides and four wheelers can’t navigate. Our teams are surefooted and these mules can carry a couple of hundred pounds each. They can go through bogs, up mountains, over logs, through brush. We went through a lot of brush, a lot of cane briar. It was the most direct route. There was no other route that you had there.”
Michele and teenage daughter, Faith, helped run logistics from a central base of operations. They also helped organize supplies, which included shipments of Bibles, many of which they sent with a note enclosed to encourage storm survivors.
Mike loads up the trailer for a mission to the mountains.
“This is when we realized we were doing something more important than just getting supplies to them,” Michele said, recounting the many Bibles that groups had donated. “What if people lost their Bible in the flood or didn’t have one? Before we delivered them, Faith wrote special verses in the front of every Bible. This is one of the most important things we could bring to people in their darkest time and to people that are scared.”
Mission Back Online
As we gathered with this family to pass off the team of pack animals, we encouraged them in the same way—with a special Billy Graham Training Center Bible signed by our DART staff.
“We give all glory to God,” said Frank Parrish, a Samaritan’s Purse program manager. “It’s a blessing to be able to help you in your work. You’re going places we can’t get to without these animals. Being able to get these animals to maneuver up narrow trails to reach people in need is a unique blessing. And there are still needs that Mission Mules can meet in places we can’t go, and there’ll be needs in other places to come.”
The Toberers have been working with pack mules and horses for decades.
Right after leaving our special dedication near their home in Ulla Mountain, Mike loaded the new animals along with his original team. He was heading to a mission already, and planning for others in the near future.
“We’re heading to Roan Mountain to do some work in Cherokee National Forest today, and we’re on standby for the fires in North Carolina and South Carolina,” he said. “Working in the mountains after Helene—it changed my life. I just feel that this is what we’re supposed to do, and I’ve never felt that. I’ve worked with mules my entire life; I feel now this is what I’m supposed to do. And I believe there’s going to be bigger things gonna come with these mules.”
