November 24, 2025 • 42 mins
David and they discuss the City of Hope Mision and the success they have achieved and enabled in Barnardsville, North Carolina!
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hi everyone, I'm David Chadwick and this is News Talk eleven,
ten ninety nine three WBT. Welcome to the show. In
case you don't know, this is a faith in values
program that tries to intersect faith and values with what's
going on locally and globally. It's been a pleasure doing
this show now for twenty five plus years here on WBT.
Many many thanks to all of you who listen, and
(00:30):
many thanks to Perry's Find Jewelry. Without you, I could
not do this on a weekly basis. Ed Billick is
my producer. Good morning, Ed. Great to have you here
today as well. I have two guests in studio. One
is d John who's been on the show before, a
former Charlotte Mecklenberg police officer. Also one who heads up
City of Hope, which is a big deal here on
WBT and the church I pastor Moments of Hope Church
(00:52):
as we try to really care for the most vulnerable
community and citizens around us. Also Talbot Davis, who's become
a really good friend over the last months and years.
Talbot is the pastor at Good Shepherd Church here in Charlotte,
a huge, growing church on the southwest side of town
and just a wonderful man of God. He is my
guest as well. Why are they with me today? It
(01:14):
is to celebrate the fact that a year ago we
looked at the hurricane that blew through western North Carolina
and devastated so many people. We said, we've got to
do something. We can't just sit back and do nothing.
We can't do everything, but we can do something. So
D John and I talked about rebuilding an entire community
called Barnardsville, North Carolina. We started raising money on our
(01:38):
annual Christmas time period, a matching gift from Moments of
Hope Church, from you the listeners, and we raised over
five hundred and twenty thousand dollars. I want to make
sure all of you know why that extra one hundred
and twenty plus thousand came in. But we were able
to rebuild an entire community in Barnardsville, North Carolina. D
(01:59):
You've been there and it's been cool to watch what's happened.
But that community is really restored.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Isn't it It is.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I think it's incredible to see where it was and
where it is today in such a short period of time.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, and the homes have been restored the bridges and
it just looks like it's back to somewhat normal. Although
their psychology is not normal. We'll talk about that in
just a little bit. They still have some trauma. Then
Talbot's listening to me on BO and Beth talking about
Barnersville one Thursday morning, and he's driving to work and
he thinks, Wow, that's really cool. I think my church
(02:32):
could be a part of that. So Talbot, what happened.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
What happened was we had decided a good separate church
that on September twenty eighth, the one year anniversary of Helene,
the whole offering was going to be given to hurricane relief,
and we were looking for really good partners. We had
a couple in mind and we just needed one more
partner who would benefit from our generosity. And when I
(02:55):
heard that on the radio that morning, I was like,
it's gonna be City of Hope. We're going to do
this together.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
So you went back to your leadership and you said, hey,
let's see what we can do in cooperation with City
of hopeing you met with D thereafter.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Even better than that, not just meeting with D, we
actually got to take a trip a group of men
went up to Barnardsville under D's leadership, and I personally
was part of a group that worked on a back deck.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
Oh so good, so good, but yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
It was marvelous actually to see the community and it's
raw natural beauty, and then also to kind of have
our hearts broken over what had happened to it and
take just a small part of helping people put their
lives back together. So I'm so glad that I was
able to see it on the ground.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Now you take up your offering, and what was your
hope for offering?
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Yes, we had a typical Sunday we get about one
hundred thousand dollars a week and offering, which is phenomenal.
We had a challenge goal of one hundred and fifty,
a miracle goal of one hundred and seventy five, No,
a victory goal of one seventy five, and a miracle
goal two hundred thousand dollars. And when the actual God
(04:16):
had a different definition of what a miracle was.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
He always does.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
And so that day we received seven hundred and six
thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Wow. Wow. And so you looked at our particular part
of building Barnardsville and how much did you devote to
City of Hope.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
One hundred and twenty thousand dollars went to City of Hope,
and other partners included Convoy of Hope, which is a
national ministry, and of course Samaritan's Purse, which is cream
of the crop in disaster rescue.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
They do it better than anybody, and they do it
in the name of Jesus. Do think is important?
Speaker 6 (04:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yeah, and so d we're sitting around going, okay, last year,
we had a two hundred thousand dollars matching gift from
Moments of Hope Church and we hoped maybe that would
be matched. We knew that was a stretch goal, but
indeed we had four hundred and three thousand that ultimately
came in or so, and then Talbot calls us and
tells us about this particular gift. What you think, you know?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
I was actually really excited because I saw the need
when it came to rebuilding homes, like fully rebuilding homes,
and to receive one hundred and twenty thousand dollars that
allows us to give an extra home to an entire family.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
So we advertised success while we raised four hundred and
three thousand dollars through WBT two hundred thousand for moments,
I hope the matching gift through the listeners, But then
we had this added on and honestly, d if I'm
not mistaken, that really was the boost that allowed us
to complete all the projects there that we needed to
complete in order for Barnards Built to be rebuilt.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yes, I would say definitely.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah. So here we are a year later and we're
sitting here going today's show is to celebrate the victory
of barns Bill being rebuilt. We want to talk about
the people there and what they have said to you
guys who've actually been there. I've not been there. My
wife went one day and spent the whole day there
as well, developing relationships, which is so key because you
(06:11):
can't know the need unless you know the people and
what they tell you is the need, but also the
fact they have given us thanksgiving for the success that
has occurred. Later on, we're going to share Mark Garrison's
seven minute visit to Mark Barnardsville and how he captured
the thought of success there as well. Talbot, what are
you feeling right now at this moment?
Speaker 4 (06:31):
I'm I continue to be stunned at the level of
generosity of the people of Good Shepherd and how they
reached out, and also so grateful that we have that
personal connection not only with Moments of Hope Church, but
with the people in Barnardsville.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Yeah, two churches in this community coming together along with
many others and making a difference in an entire community
in western North Carolina, Barnardsville, North Carolina. That's what we're
celebrating today. When we come back, let's take a deeper
dive to that community. I'm David Chadwick, will be right back.
Speaker 7 (08:29):
Raise a hallelua my up, it is a melody. Arais
a holly Heaven come to fight for me.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
I see.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Well, today we are raising a Hallelujah on this show.
Hallelujah means praise God. We're raising a praise God for
a successful endeavor that we started last year. Hi, everyone,
I'm David Chadwick and this is News Talk eleven, ten
ninety nine to three WBT. Welcome back to the show.
We're raising that Hallelujah because we thank God today for
(09:18):
an endeavor that we started last year, the rebuilding of
a destroyed community after the hurricane in western North Carolina
called Barnardsville, North Carolina. Why Barnardsville D? Why Barnardsville D.
John is one of my guests today, oversaw this whole project.
Why Barnardsville.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Well, you've heard me before say I didn't know what
Barnardsville was before Hurricane Helen.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
I had never visited, never heard even the name. We've
heard of Burnsville, but not Barnardsville.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
So why Barnardsville Because it's such a small community that's unincorporated,
and they were so devastated by the storm. And when
I visited there, I was boots on the ground to
just see what the need was, and the need was
so overwhelming, and I quickly realized there was no mobilization
of resources to be able to help this community recover.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, and it's about two and a half hours from Charlotte.
It's about a half an hour on the other side
of Asheville, as I understand. And again, the emphasis for
us was that they don't have anybody responding. They don't
have access to the county and state and federal money
like others do. So that's where we decided to step in.
And again we said a lot, we can't do everything,
(10:25):
but we can do something, and here is a community
that needs help, so we decided to jump in and help.
Talbot Davis is also with me today, pastor of Good
Shepherd Church, and Talbot with his congregation raised seven hundred
plus thousand dollars for hurricane relief just a couple few
weeks ago gave one hundred and twenty thousand of that
to us in order to complete the Barnersville project. When
(10:47):
you went to Barnersville, Talbot, what was your experience with
the people there.
Speaker 5 (10:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
One of the things that was so interesting was on
the first day of work, because I sense that the
people of Barnardsville had been overpro promised and under delivered,
not by City of Hope, but by other people who
had come in that there was a little bit of suspicion.
And so we were working on the deck and I
was proving one hundred percent my ineptitude with tools. But
(11:15):
as we were doing that work. As we were doing
that work, one of the residents, one of the neighbors
of the home we were working on, came over and
really quite suspicious. What are you doing, who are you
and what came out of the conversation, and fortunately some
of the guys on my team, they were very helpful
and kind, but what came out she just didn't want
(11:35):
this person who owned the home to again suffer the
disappointment of we're going to this will and then nothing happened.
And so the great thing about City of Hope and
the partnership with Good Shepherd is that we were able
not only to make the promise but to deliver on it.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
So d John, overseeing this project, you took a lot
of people there, not just from Charlotte, but from others
as well, not just from Good Shepherd or Moments of
Hope Church, which we had our representation, but you had
to oversee. I'm sure it was like herding cats a
bunch of people who wanted to help, but from all
over the state of North Carolina, even beyond.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
You know, I was able to capture the numbers of
how many people we had. It was incredible to me
to see we had people from Pennsylvania, from Delaware, from Virginia,
from Texas all come in to serve the people of Bernardsville.
And when I look at the numbers, we had to
sheer over eighteen hundred people that came through the last settings.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
That's so impressive. And weren't there a group of Amish
people who came in. I mean, they're known for building
barns and whatever in like a day. Didn't they come
into and help in the rebuilding.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
So they did.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
We had Amish, we had the Mennonites, we had the Methodists,
we had the Baptists. When you think about all the
different people that came through, I did a calculation. I
think we had a little over twenty organizations that came through.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
To help well. And they had mistrust even among themselves.
I understand that their denominational churches kind of had some
mistrust because just differences in theology, but maybe some past
experiences as well. And you were able to bring them
together in Barnardsville as a unit too to recover their community.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
This was a huge opportunity for the representation of neighbor
serving neighbors to set aside our differences or the things
that we can't agree on, but we all agreed that
this community had devastation and they need hope.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
To restore and Talbot. When you were there, you got
to talk to the people. Did you feel they warmed
up the longer you were there by building a relationship
with them, oh for sure.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
And one of the projects, in addition to building the deck,
we moved a chunk of furniture and to move the
furniture from the truck into the barn at the back
of the property. You wouldn't think that moving furniture is
like a source of joy, but there was so much
laughter and engagement and appreciation on the other end.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yeah, and d I understand too that some of these
people aren't people of faith that we actually cared for
and served, but what they saw was the hands and
feet of Jesus in action, and we showed the love
of Jesus without even saying a word.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
I would say quite a bit of them don't have
a relationship with Jesus. And one of the most important
things I communicated to all volunteers is we weren't here
to speak the word, but we were to show people
Jesus's love through our actions. And I think that the
documentary that we just recently created is a testament to
(14:41):
the action. We had volunteers that just showed up.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
But then the people would say, you know, I was.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Never served this way. You just continue to show up
and just love us so well, and then that leads
us to the question of why why do we do that?
And it gives us the opportunity to tell.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Them the why.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Yeah, and we do know that Jesus said to be
a witness in Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, uttermost ends of the earth.
I've always used those as concentric circles. Outward from whatever
your city is, that's your Jerusalem. The next concentric circle
outward is probably the area around your city. The next
concentric circle is maybe the county or state. Then the
(15:19):
next concentric circle is the world. We're supposed to care
for all of those as best we can locally and globally.
So that's what we've tried to do. Talbot, Paint a picture.
You're a pastor, you preach every week, practically, paint a
picture for us of Barnardsville. What was it like post
flood when you went up there.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Post flood almost a year later, the beauty of the place.
I kept asking myself, why is it that mountains are
so pretty? Why does this look so scenic compared to
a flat terrain. And I don't know if it actually
came up with an answer to that question. I just
know the experience it has dropped dead gorgeous Barnardsville is
(15:59):
and to think that there was a time when it
was so devastated and instead of homes there was lumber
and debris, and to see that gone and to know
what people have done to restore the natural beauty was
really quite rewarding.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Well, I know, we did a video that has pictures
of the flood that's occurred, and we've sent that to
all of you. I think it's available through Moments of
Hope video and I'd love to make that available to
our people listeners who want to see it. But d
you were up there right after it happened. Talk about
here's the beauty today, but talk about right after the flood,
what did it look like?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
You know when I went up there. I went up
in early February.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
January was my first time that I went, and there
were piles of debris that were at least fifteen sixteen
feet tall and wide the impact of the hurricane.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
There was a lot that still had not even been touched.
What was incredibly, I think heartbreaking.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
To me is when I went, it was really really
cold and there was no people out to be seen.
And so, like you know, after disaster, a lot of
times you see all kinds of volunteers and help and
things like that, pouring into communities to help restore. Well,
when I went in, there was nobody to be seen
and so and there was a lot of work to
(17:17):
be done.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Did they just retreat into their own little enclaves to
try to protect themselves? Were they in shock and trauma?
You and I've talked about that some just the psychological
devastation from the flood as well.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
You know, when I started talking to some of the
community members just about their experience, and this was this
was day one.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
I had one.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Lady tell me she said, you know, this was one
of the hardest winters we have ever experienced, And she
said it was just hard for me to even get up.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
So we were trying to get to Barnersville and see
if we could do whatever we could do so they
didn't have to go through another winter without homes, without heating,
without those kind of things. And that's what we've been
able to do. Just talk a second. We've got to
take a break in about a minute, but just talk
a second. Those homes have been rebuilt, they have heating,
they have shelter. They're not gonna have to face what
they face last winter.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
This is correct.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Over the last two weeks we have actually had teams
of volunteers in Barnardsville helping those members that are still
living in RVs because building how'ses take a really long time.
We've had about thirty volunteers come in over the last
two weeks to help individuals what we would call winnerize
their spaces so that they can get through the winter.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Tabo, we have thirty seconds your thoughts.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
Yeah, I just love the fact that that teams are
still going up and actually are Our thought behind the
Shelter from the Storm project is it's a year later.
Exactly a year later, the rest of the world wants
to move on and we're going to lean in.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Yeah, and the rest of the world does move on,
but you know, the problems are still there and that's
what we want to continue to talk about when we
come back. Let's do so. Have Mark Garrison's show as
well as a part of this Barnardsville Recovery celebrateation today
on News Talk eleven, ten ninety nine three w BT.
Speaker 6 (21:03):
We are many here, we are one. We are seeing
yet Don in his invo and again we are all
his hands and his feet bringing Percy and peace to
(21:24):
this school for your many and a wan.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Hi everyone. I'm David Chadwick. Welcome back to the show
and have with me in studio Talbot Davis, the pastor
Good Shepherd Church, d John former Charlotte Neckenberg Police Department,
but also more importantly now the head of City of Hope,
and welcome both of y'all again to the show. If
you'd like to hear this program in its entirety, scroll down.
Go to WBT dot com, scroll down to the weekend shows.
(21:48):
Look for the David Chadwick Show. You can hear it
from beginning to end. Because we're celebrating a great success.
D Let's start with you again. How many people have
been organized to go to Barnsville, North Carolina as a
part of our City Hope campaign to rebuild that entire
community destroyed by the hurricane.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
We've had over eighteen hundred people.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Wow, we are many, but we're one, as we just
heard in the song the hands and Feet of Jesus
going there and this success has been remarkable and you
have been a part of seeing all of this happen.
Good Shepherd raised seven hundred thousand dollars for hurricane relief
on one Sunday, Just remarkable gave one hundred and twenty
plus thousand and two. City of Hope raised five hundred
(22:27):
and twenty plus thousand dollars to help rebuild Barnerville and
d Again, is it too much to say that Barnersville
is rebuilt, that they are now moving forward. They still
have some psychological distress because of what happened, but they're
back on their feet.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
They are definitely on a path to full recovery.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Okay, Well, I want to also use this as a
shameless plug for our next fundraiser with City of Hope.
We're going to devote it to our six or so
City of Hope partners in vulnerable communities all throughout Charlotte.
We're going to help with the reading, feeding and healing
in those communities underserved vulnerable citizens in our area. We
have one hundred thousand dollars matching gift from Moments of
(23:05):
Hope Church. We're hoping that by the end of December
two hundred thousand dollars as well. Go to CITYOHOPECLT dot
org and you can give, but also do you remind
me that's where they can find the video about Barnardsville
and the rebuilding of it.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Yes, and they'll be able to see the full impact
of what we accomplished.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
In Barnardsville, CITYOFOPECLT dot org. Guess where we'll go in
this next fundraiser. The video is there. Please go there
if you want to see in eyesight what happened in
that community. Now, Mark Garrison, who is the head of
the news department here at WBT, went to Barnersville with
d and there he did a show that basically tells
(23:43):
what happened. I thought it'd be appropriate if right now
we listen to Mark's assessment of that successful story in Barnersville. Mark,
thank you for what you did.
Speaker 8 (23:53):
But we look back to what happened a year ago,
and I think Beth and Mark Garrison, WBT news director
joins now, part of the reason why people are so
uptight about this is because of how recent western North
Carolina being hit by Helene was.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Yeah, that's the truth.
Speaker 9 (24:10):
So over the weekend I went to the town of Barnardsville.
Have you ever heard of it?
Speaker 10 (24:14):
Oh?
Speaker 11 (24:14):
Yes, through David Chadmick at the work they've done.
Speaker 9 (24:18):
That's exactly right. It is near Asheville, hard hit by Helene.
That is until David Chadwick and his project City of
Hope came along with more than two hundred thousand dollars
contributed by our listeners here on wbt SO. On Saturday,
I was there and learned just how that money was
really put to good use.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
I want to thank you everybody for coming asking place
all the food.
Speaker 9 (24:41):
On Saturday, about two hundred people turned out at the
Barnardsville Volunteer Fire Department.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Do you like ton cole slaw for some barbecue.
Speaker 9 (24:49):
Cooked up by the assistant fire chief. Oh, it looks wonderful.
But most of all, just to enjoy being here.
Speaker 8 (24:56):
Glad to be we law, livelihoods, homes, farms, everything, and
we're still here and that's what we're celebrating.
Speaker 9 (25:02):
Barnardsville is not really a town, though there's a gas
station that sells a few groceries and a little post office,
but basically Barnardsville is a collection of about five hundred
folks who live along the mountain side with Big Ivy
Creek wrapping around their homes. But in September of twenty
twenty four, Hurricane Helene turned Big Ivy Creek into a
(25:26):
raging monster.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
We're in the middle of an Ouncian here, the middle.
Speaker 9 (25:30):
Of an ocean. That's ninety one year old Bob Russell
on a video that night, standing on his porch watching
the water come crashing into his yard. The people here
are constantly reliving that night, like Lisa Bonner.
Speaker 11 (25:43):
Thirty foot waves were hitting the back of the house,
water was coming through the windows.
Speaker 9 (25:47):
Lisa was sitting in the stone house her family built
in nineteen forty five, where she now lives with her sister.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Just when the landslide came. It was like this house
was in the middle of a raging river.
Speaker 9 (26:00):
Waters surging against the house thirty feet high, busted the
back door. Giant boulders crashing down from the mountainside.
Speaker 11 (26:08):
Took the two dogs, went upstairs and just pray, Lord, blease,
don't let me see a river rushing through here.
Speaker 9 (26:14):
The next day, as the water subsided, people here began
to realize just how badly the storm had turned their
lives upside down.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
It was bad.
Speaker 9 (26:23):
People lost their homes, their vehicles, and there wasn't much help.
FEMA came and left. Volunteers showed up, but when they
saw the mess they left too. The water was over
the road even four months after the storm, the mess
was still everywhere. When a former Charlotte cop named d
(26:43):
John showed up in Barnardsville.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Piles and piles and piles of debris everywhere.
Speaker 9 (26:50):
D took the job as project manager for Cities of Hope,
and when she began knocking on doors here offering to help,
people weren't too excited. With no insurance, it's no money
for repairs and no hope.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
So when I came, the people were not hopeful at all,
like how can I help you?
Speaker 10 (27:08):
It was like.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
There's no hope for help, okay, and so.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Please go away.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
But D did not go away.
Speaker 9 (27:14):
Instead, she just started making lists after list of all
the damage and began bringing in work crews, the storing.
That beautiful old stone house where Lisa Bonner rode out
the storm, This house was a rick, It really was.
Her sister Sherry says it took crews two full weeks
just to get nearly ten feet of mud out of
(27:35):
her basement, never mind all the other work needed.
Speaker 11 (27:39):
And I was like, I can't believe you guys did this,
And I mean they did not stop until it looks
just like it does right now in.
Speaker 9 (27:46):
All Cities of Hope has now finished eighty projects around Barnardsville,
from new roofs, to new fences to new houses.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Before City of Hope came, you would not believe this is.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
The same house.
Speaker 9 (27:59):
That's Janets showing us her newly rebuilt four roomhouse has
been in her family for generations. Helene lifted the roof
and dumped a lot of rain inside, ruined the walls
and floors. But thanks to Cities of Hope, the little
house is like news.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
And look at it.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
It's beautiful. Look at the windows.
Speaker 9 (28:17):
The fact that strangers just showed up and said we've
got this still brings Janet to tears.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
What would have happened if they hadn't come along, we.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Would have lost this house. I'm blown away.
Speaker 9 (28:30):
So today when d John stops at homes in Barnardsville,
she's not turned away.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
I'm so grateful for all of your help.
Speaker 6 (28:39):
Thank you, Dean Well.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
I am so thankful that you're still here.
Speaker 9 (28:42):
That's Chris Russell. He was the one shooting video that
night of his ninety one year old dad.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
We're in the middle of an olgion here.
Speaker 9 (28:50):
As Helene brought an ocean into their yard, washing away
their cars. Carving a massive canyon that somehow cut a
path away from their home.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
A lot of miracles happened that day, and many angels
after it showed up here to help.
Speaker 9 (29:03):
He considers Cities of Hope to be one of those angels.
They cleared out debris and made Chris's yard like new again.
His dad is grateful to you.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
I'm just thankful to the Lord. I realized that you
know we're here for a reason.
Speaker 9 (29:19):
So Big Ivy Creek is once again just a gentle,
scenic mountain stream. And even though there is still a
lot of rebuilding left in Barnardsville, a gospel group cheerfully sang,
I'm gonna lay my troubles by the water because thanks
to help from Cities of Hope. D John says, the
(29:41):
people here do have hope.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
And I would say almost everybody in this community has
a path forward.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Are you glad you got involved?
Speaker 3 (29:50):
I am, But just to be able to see people
and know that they've been taken care of is actually
pretty incredible.
Speaker 9 (30:00):
In the coming days, they planned to build a house
for a retired teacher that was trash. They've had some
trouble getting the permits. That's been kind of slow with
the county, they're providing housing for others, so it's been
a little bit of a slow process. But as she said,
the town as a plan. And what's really cool is
BT listeners played a big role in this. This didn't
cost those folks a dime there because so much money
(30:22):
was contributed.
Speaker 11 (30:23):
How beautiful that you spent so much time up there, Mark,
And what a lovely way to tell the story and
to really humanize how the rebuilding effort is impacting these people.
You know, it's not just numbers and figures when you
hear the voices and you hear the stories.
Speaker 9 (30:40):
Yeah, and I tell you, those are the sweetest town people.
I mean everywhere we went. Of course I was with
d and they just hugged her and thought, oh, this
is our angel from Charlotte. But it's a very resilient group.
They're full of faith and very optimistic about the days ahead.
Speaker 8 (30:57):
Well, and what a weekend to be up there and
one year later, I mean that you can feel the
hopeful tone of the community and what you reported right there.
And great job as always painting the pictures so that
we can we can't all be there, but we all
wanted to help and have wanted to help and now you,
as you say, WBT listeners have been able.
Speaker 9 (31:17):
To help absolutely. I mean that's a lot of money
that BT listeners poured in and so the work continues.
Speaker 8 (31:23):
Mark Garrison reporting, Thank you so much, Marky sir.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Thank you Mark Garrison. Thank you Bo and Beth for
allowing him to be on your show. D John real
quickly when you hear that, what do you think?
Speaker 8 (31:33):
You know?
Speaker 2 (31:34):
I am so thankful for the opportunity to impact people.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Yeah, the angel from Charlotte. See John Talbot, you raised
seven hundred plus thousand dollars one offering and you're going
to give that away. And I want to know when
we come back. What did people at Good Shepherd think
when you told them we're going to give a whole
week's offering away. And in church world that's a big deal.
I'm David Shadwick will be right back.
Speaker 10 (32:54):
If you want it. It's sick you're gonna want come.
If you walked ten thou you're gonna walk ow free
by because at the mincher of his name, at the
becher of his day, at the bencher of his day,
(33:16):
the change everything can change.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Well, you listeners along with moments of Hope Church. City
of Hope and also now Good Shepherd Church helped rebuild
a community called Barnersville, North Carolina, completely destroyed by the
hurricane a year plus ago. It's now well. In the
name of Jesus. How everyone, I'm David Chadwick. Welcome back
to the show. D John is with me, who oversees
(33:39):
the City of Hope initiative in Barnersville and some other
things as well. Talbot Davis, the pastor at Good Shepherd Church.
And Talbot, when you heard Bo and Beth and me
talking about Barnersville as success, you went to your leadership
and said, why don't we help as well. You devoted
an entire offering one week, and in church world, that's
a big deal to the hurricane relief. You gave a
(34:01):
lot of it to Samaritan's Purse and a convoy of Hope,
great ministries that help devastated people. But also you gave
one hundred and twenty plus thousand dollars of that offering
to City of Hope. How much was the offering again.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
It was seven hundred and six thousand dollars. In fact,
I remember telling d when we were first getting started
and I was like, you know, if we get this right,
if we reach our miracle goal, you might get forty
thousand dollars. And the miracle goal was two hundred thousand
dollars on one Sunday. And it makes no sense for
a church to give away an entire offering. It's not
(34:38):
the first time we've done this. In years past, we've
had we've had a couple of initiatives around human trafficking,
and one Sunday back in twenty thirteen, for example, we
gave three hundred and eighty nine thousand dollars.
Speaker 5 (34:52):
But it all.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
Started because several several years ago, we realized, why take
up a special offering. You might have heard of church
is doing that. Let's take up a spatial offering. And
I was like, if something's worth giving, to give the
whole thing. And the remarkable truth is that the more
we do this, the more we we we give. You
could call it an ungodly amount of money, except it's
(35:16):
very godly.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Yeah, but yeah, he owns everything he does to God.
It's not a surprise.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
The more we do it, the healthier our own finances become.
As a church. Because the truth is, you never miss
what was never yours to begin with.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Oh I like that. Yeah, that's very good. Well, you
know Jesus said in Luke six thirty eight, give and
it shall be given under you. Now, you don't give
to get, but the reality is if you give, you
get in order to give them more away.
Speaker 4 (35:43):
Yeah, when you commit to giving it, God ensures you
have it, and so we you're right, we don't.
Speaker 5 (35:48):
It's not a quid pro quo. It's not like Lord,
we do this and you'll do that.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
The slot machine Christianity that some preachers is ridiculous, but
it is a law of the universe that if you give,
God will trust more to you to give away more.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
Yeah, we just we give with confidence and we're really
glad to be able not to nickl and dime people
or ministries, but if it's worth doing, do it all
the way. And on the Sundays. Since September twenty eighth,
our offerings have gone up, like we had more really
(36:22):
good offerings in the weeks.
Speaker 10 (36:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
I was thinking, Okay, that first Sunday in October, nobody's
going to give any money because it all But the
next Sundays and the Sunday after that better and better
and better because we helped people exercise their generosity muscle.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Well, you know, the Bible says that God loves a
cheerful giver. That we're cheerful in the Greek. I'm sure
you know, Talbot is hilarios. God loves hilarious givers who
just joyfully give, because that's the nature of God. He's
joyfully given to us.
Speaker 5 (36:50):
Actually, I'm such a new preacher. I didn't know that.
I don't know, and feel free to steal it.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Oh, yes, I stole it from somebody. Yes, yes, Well,
it's the whole thing. The blessed are those who give,
and the whole idea of giving is so much the
heart of God. For God so love the world that
he gave his.
Speaker 5 (37:07):
Oly He didn't loan, he didn't rent. That's gay.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
And so you've you've found that you're giving actually has
increased since you gave a whole week's offering away and
folks again from somebody in church world for decades. That's
a big deal. We have our budget, we have expenses
that we have to reach, but you gave it away
trusting God, and it's increased your own giving.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
Yes, And the budget's usually divided by fifty two isn't
it and say no, even miss one, but we have
discovered that you can because God is that good.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Well on behalf of City of Hope and D John,
who oversees the organization, thank you for the kind and
generous gift generally to western North Carolina, specifically to Barnardsville.
Because of you, we raised four hundred thousand dollars in
the general offering with the listeners and also Moments of
Hope giving a matching gift. But then your generosity went
(37:58):
from four hundred to five one hundred and twenty plus thousand,
which allowed us again to complete the project. There Talbot,
So all of your people please tell them from D
and me and our listeners thank you so much for
being a part of this.
Speaker 5 (38:09):
Well you are welcome, glad to be part of it.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Yeah, and do the relationships though in Barnardsville remain. You
told me during the break that they're saying to you
all the time when you coming back, when you coming back,
and are you going to keep those relationships?
Speaker 3 (38:23):
You know, people ask me this all the time. We
didn't just go in and provide a service. That was
never my intent. My intent is to really walk alongside
of our neighbors, and they were my neighbors at the time,
but now I would say some of them will be
friends forever. And do I plan on going back, You know,
originally I was going every two weeks, some every week,
(38:44):
and now I do plan on continuing to go back
because we still have some work that we're doing there.
And I think it's really important for us to know
that Good Shepherd didn't just give us a financial donation.
They have actually committed their time as well to help
rebuild an entire house. The team that they brought to
(39:04):
this community to help us serve they're incredible and they're
incredibly skilled. And so we had this one last house
that we really needed funding for there was a gap
in it, and the gap was filled, but not just
the gap in financial but in skilled labor. And so
they've committed over the next several weeks and months to
walk alongside of us and continuing to rebuild the last
(39:27):
houses in that committity.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
And you've gotten all the permits that are necessary to
complete the work. Is that right?
Speaker 3 (39:32):
So we are in process. We plan on breaking ground
early January.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Good It will be rebuilt, it will be done. Barnersville
does not have to go through another winter of coldness,
scared with all of their houses being devastated. Again, Talbot,
thank you, d thank you, and let's begin now launching
what we're going to do in another couple of weeks.
The City of Hope is going to look at in
December six vulnerable communities here in Charlotte. We're going to
(39:58):
have one hundred thousand dollars give from almost a Hope church. Again, listeners,
if you would give, go to City of Hope selt
dot org. City of Hope clt dot org, and there
you can give and your one dollar becomes two, your
five to ten. We're gonna raise two hundred thousand dollars
to help vulnerable communities here in Charlotte thieve kids, give
them reading ability, and give them health benefits as well
(40:20):
some of the mental stuff that's going on in community.
Still a post COVID deal as well. Talbot, any last.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
Thoughts, I'm so glad to have been here today, and
I'm just really delighted that churches in this in Charlotte
are banding together rather than working in isolation with a
little bit of you know, suspicion and competition. But here
it is that we're coming together and doing this project
as a body.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Yeah, and if anybody wants to go to a great
church on the southwest side of town, Good Shepherd Church,
pastored by Talbot Davis and some other wonderful people as well,
go make that your church home. I promise you'll hear
the word of God, you'll hear the gospel of Jesus Christ,
and you'll be care for as a parishioner. It's a
great church, Good Shepherd Church on the southwest side of town. Talbot,
(41:05):
thank you for who you are in Christ and d
thank you for all you're doing as well. As we
try to make a difference in western North Carolina, make
a difference here in Charlotte again CITYFOPECLT dot org. You
can go there and actually see the video that's been
done showing the pre flood stuff and now the post
flood stuff and d any final thoughts from you, I
just want to say.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Thank you and thank you to the community that continues to.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
Support the work we do.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
Yeah, well, folks, do this. Jesus said, love God and
love your neighbor. If you do those two things, you
have a lifetime's worth of work to do. That's your
job description. Love your neighbor wherever you are, and as
you do so, you'll be filled with the joy of
the Lord, and the joy of the Lord will be
in you. So thank you folks for listening. I'm David Chadwick.
(41:48):
This is News Talk eleven ten ninety ninety three WBT
Talk with you all next week.
Hi everyone, I'm David Chadwick and this is News Talk eleven,
ten ninety nine three WBT. Welcome to the show. In
case you don't know, this is a faith in values
program that tries to intersect faith and values with what's
going on locally and globally. It's been a pleasure doing
this show now for twenty five plus years here on WBT.
Many many thanks to all of you who listen, and
(00:30):
many thanks to Perry's Find Jewelry. Without you, I could
not do this on a weekly basis. Ed Billick is
my producer. Good morning, Ed. Great to have you here
today as well. I have two guests in studio. One
is d John who's been on the show before, a
former Charlotte Mecklenberg police officer. Also one who heads up
City of Hope, which is a big deal here on
WBT and the church I pastor Moments of Hope Church
(00:52):
as we try to really care for the most vulnerable
community and citizens around us. Also Talbot Davis, who's become
a really good friend over the last months and years.
Talbot is the pastor at Good Shepherd Church here in Charlotte,
a huge, growing church on the southwest side of town
and just a wonderful man of God. He is my
guest as well. Why are they with me today? It
(01:14):
is to celebrate the fact that a year ago we
looked at the hurricane that blew through western North Carolina
and devastated so many people. We said, we've got to
do something. We can't just sit back and do nothing.
We can't do everything, but we can do something. So
D John and I talked about rebuilding an entire community
called Barnardsville, North Carolina. We started raising money on our
(01:38):
annual Christmas time period, a matching gift from Moments of
Hope Church, from you the listeners, and we raised over
five hundred and twenty thousand dollars. I want to make
sure all of you know why that extra one hundred
and twenty plus thousand came in. But we were able
to rebuild an entire community in Barnardsville, North Carolina. D
(01:59):
You've been there and it's been cool to watch what's happened.
But that community is really restored.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Isn't it It is.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I think it's incredible to see where it was and
where it is today in such a short period of time.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, and the homes have been restored the bridges and
it just looks like it's back to somewhat normal. Although
their psychology is not normal. We'll talk about that in
just a little bit. They still have some trauma. Then
Talbot's listening to me on BO and Beth talking about
Barnersville one Thursday morning, and he's driving to work and
he thinks, Wow, that's really cool. I think my church
(02:32):
could be a part of that. So Talbot, what happened.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
What happened was we had decided a good separate church
that on September twenty eighth, the one year anniversary of Helene,
the whole offering was going to be given to hurricane relief,
and we were looking for really good partners. We had
a couple in mind and we just needed one more
partner who would benefit from our generosity. And when I
(02:55):
heard that on the radio that morning, I was like,
it's gonna be City of Hope. We're going to do
this together.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
So you went back to your leadership and you said, hey,
let's see what we can do in cooperation with City
of hopeing you met with D thereafter.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Even better than that, not just meeting with D, we
actually got to take a trip a group of men
went up to Barnardsville under D's leadership, and I personally
was part of a group that worked on a back deck.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
Oh so good, so good, but yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
It was marvelous actually to see the community and it's
raw natural beauty, and then also to kind of have
our hearts broken over what had happened to it and
take just a small part of helping people put their
lives back together. So I'm so glad that I was
able to see it on the ground.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Now you take up your offering, and what was your
hope for offering?
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Yes, we had a typical Sunday we get about one
hundred thousand dollars a week and offering, which is phenomenal.
We had a challenge goal of one hundred and fifty,
a miracle goal of one hundred and seventy five, No,
a victory goal of one seventy five, and a miracle
goal two hundred thousand dollars. And when the actual God
(04:16):
had a different definition of what a miracle was.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
He always does.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
And so that day we received seven hundred and six
thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Wow. Wow. And so you looked at our particular part
of building Barnardsville and how much did you devote to
City of Hope.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
One hundred and twenty thousand dollars went to City of Hope,
and other partners included Convoy of Hope, which is a
national ministry, and of course Samaritan's Purse, which is cream
of the crop in disaster rescue.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
They do it better than anybody, and they do it
in the name of Jesus. Do think is important?
Speaker 6 (04:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yeah, and so d we're sitting around going, okay, last year,
we had a two hundred thousand dollars matching gift from
Moments of Hope Church and we hoped maybe that would
be matched. We knew that was a stretch goal, but
indeed we had four hundred and three thousand that ultimately
came in or so, and then Talbot calls us and
tells us about this particular gift. What you think, you know?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
I was actually really excited because I saw the need
when it came to rebuilding homes, like fully rebuilding homes,
and to receive one hundred and twenty thousand dollars that
allows us to give an extra home to an entire family.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
So we advertised success while we raised four hundred and
three thousand dollars through WBT two hundred thousand for moments,
I hope the matching gift through the listeners, But then
we had this added on and honestly, d if I'm
not mistaken, that really was the boost that allowed us
to complete all the projects there that we needed to
complete in order for Barnards Built to be rebuilt.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yes, I would say definitely.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah. So here we are a year later and we're
sitting here going today's show is to celebrate the victory
of barns Bill being rebuilt. We want to talk about
the people there and what they have said to you
guys who've actually been there. I've not been there. My
wife went one day and spent the whole day there
as well, developing relationships, which is so key because you
(06:11):
can't know the need unless you know the people and
what they tell you is the need, but also the
fact they have given us thanksgiving for the success that
has occurred. Later on, we're going to share Mark Garrison's
seven minute visit to Mark Barnardsville and how he captured
the thought of success there as well. Talbot, what are
you feeling right now at this moment?
Speaker 4 (06:31):
I'm I continue to be stunned at the level of
generosity of the people of Good Shepherd and how they
reached out, and also so grateful that we have that
personal connection not only with Moments of Hope Church, but
with the people in Barnardsville.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Yeah, two churches in this community coming together along with
many others and making a difference in an entire community
in western North Carolina, Barnardsville, North Carolina. That's what we're
celebrating today. When we come back, let's take a deeper
dive to that community. I'm David Chadwick, will be right back.
Speaker 7 (08:29):
Raise a hallelua my up, it is a melody. Arais
a holly Heaven come to fight for me.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
I see.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Well, today we are raising a Hallelujah on this show.
Hallelujah means praise God. We're raising a praise God for
a successful endeavor that we started last year. Hi, everyone,
I'm David Chadwick and this is News Talk eleven, ten
ninety nine to three WBT. Welcome back to the show.
We're raising that Hallelujah because we thank God today for
(09:18):
an endeavor that we started last year, the rebuilding of
a destroyed community after the hurricane in western North Carolina
called Barnardsville, North Carolina. Why Barnardsville D? Why Barnardsville D.
John is one of my guests today, oversaw this whole project.
Why Barnardsville.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Well, you've heard me before say I didn't know what
Barnardsville was before Hurricane Helen.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
I had never visited, never heard even the name. We've
heard of Burnsville, but not Barnardsville.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
So why Barnardsville Because it's such a small community that's unincorporated,
and they were so devastated by the storm. And when
I visited there, I was boots on the ground to
just see what the need was, and the need was
so overwhelming, and I quickly realized there was no mobilization
of resources to be able to help this community recover.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, and it's about two and a half hours from Charlotte.
It's about a half an hour on the other side
of Asheville, as I understand. And again, the emphasis for
us was that they don't have anybody responding. They don't
have access to the county and state and federal money
like others do. So that's where we decided to step in.
And again we said a lot, we can't do everything,
(10:25):
but we can do something, and here is a community
that needs help, so we decided to jump in and help.
Talbot Davis is also with me today, pastor of Good
Shepherd Church, and Talbot with his congregation raised seven hundred
plus thousand dollars for hurricane relief just a couple few
weeks ago gave one hundred and twenty thousand of that
to us in order to complete the Barnersville project. When
(10:47):
you went to Barnersville, Talbot, what was your experience with
the people there.
Speaker 5 (10:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
One of the things that was so interesting was on
the first day of work, because I sense that the
people of Barnardsville had been overpro promised and under delivered,
not by City of Hope, but by other people who
had come in that there was a little bit of suspicion.
And so we were working on the deck and I
was proving one hundred percent my ineptitude with tools. But
(11:15):
as we were doing that work. As we were doing
that work, one of the residents, one of the neighbors
of the home we were working on, came over and
really quite suspicious. What are you doing, who are you
and what came out of the conversation, and fortunately some
of the guys on my team, they were very helpful
and kind, but what came out she just didn't want
(11:35):
this person who owned the home to again suffer the
disappointment of we're going to this will and then nothing happened.
And so the great thing about City of Hope and
the partnership with Good Shepherd is that we were able
not only to make the promise but to deliver on it.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
So d John, overseeing this project, you took a lot
of people there, not just from Charlotte, but from others
as well, not just from Good Shepherd or Moments of
Hope Church, which we had our representation, but you had
to oversee. I'm sure it was like herding cats a
bunch of people who wanted to help, but from all
over the state of North Carolina, even beyond.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
You know, I was able to capture the numbers of
how many people we had. It was incredible to me
to see we had people from Pennsylvania, from Delaware, from Virginia,
from Texas all come in to serve the people of Bernardsville.
And when I look at the numbers, we had to
sheer over eighteen hundred people that came through the last settings.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
That's so impressive. And weren't there a group of Amish
people who came in. I mean, they're known for building
barns and whatever in like a day. Didn't they come
into and help in the rebuilding.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
So they did.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
We had Amish, we had the Mennonites, we had the Methodists,
we had the Baptists. When you think about all the
different people that came through, I did a calculation. I
think we had a little over twenty organizations that came through.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
To help well. And they had mistrust even among themselves.
I understand that their denominational churches kind of had some
mistrust because just differences in theology, but maybe some past
experiences as well. And you were able to bring them
together in Barnardsville as a unit too to recover their community.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
This was a huge opportunity for the representation of neighbor
serving neighbors to set aside our differences or the things
that we can't agree on, but we all agreed that
this community had devastation and they need hope.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
To restore and Talbot. When you were there, you got
to talk to the people. Did you feel they warmed
up the longer you were there by building a relationship
with them, oh for sure.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
And one of the projects, in addition to building the deck,
we moved a chunk of furniture and to move the
furniture from the truck into the barn at the back
of the property. You wouldn't think that moving furniture is
like a source of joy, but there was so much
laughter and engagement and appreciation on the other end.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yeah, and d I understand too that some of these
people aren't people of faith that we actually cared for
and served, but what they saw was the hands and
feet of Jesus in action, and we showed the love
of Jesus without even saying a word.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
I would say quite a bit of them don't have
a relationship with Jesus. And one of the most important
things I communicated to all volunteers is we weren't here
to speak the word, but we were to show people
Jesus's love through our actions. And I think that the
documentary that we just recently created is a testament to
(14:41):
the action. We had volunteers that just showed up.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
But then the people would say, you know, I was.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Never served this way. You just continue to show up
and just love us so well, and then that leads
us to the question of why why do we do that?
And it gives us the opportunity to tell.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Them the why.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Yeah, and we do know that Jesus said to be
a witness in Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, uttermost ends of the earth.
I've always used those as concentric circles. Outward from whatever
your city is, that's your Jerusalem. The next concentric circle
outward is probably the area around your city. The next
concentric circle is maybe the county or state. Then the
(15:19):
next concentric circle is the world. We're supposed to care
for all of those as best we can locally and globally.
So that's what we've tried to do. Talbot, Paint a picture.
You're a pastor, you preach every week, practically, paint a
picture for us of Barnardsville. What was it like post
flood when you went up there.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Post flood almost a year later, the beauty of the place.
I kept asking myself, why is it that mountains are
so pretty? Why does this look so scenic compared to
a flat terrain. And I don't know if it actually
came up with an answer to that question. I just
know the experience it has dropped dead gorgeous Barnardsville is
(15:59):
and to think that there was a time when it
was so devastated and instead of homes there was lumber
and debris, and to see that gone and to know
what people have done to restore the natural beauty was
really quite rewarding.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Well, I know, we did a video that has pictures
of the flood that's occurred, and we've sent that to
all of you. I think it's available through Moments of
Hope video and I'd love to make that available to
our people listeners who want to see it. But d
you were up there right after it happened. Talk about
here's the beauty today, but talk about right after the flood,
what did it look like?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
You know when I went up there. I went up
in early February.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
January was my first time that I went, and there
were piles of debris that were at least fifteen sixteen
feet tall and wide the impact of the hurricane.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
There was a lot that still had not even been touched.
What was incredibly, I think heartbreaking.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
To me is when I went, it was really really
cold and there was no people out to be seen.
And so, like you know, after disaster, a lot of
times you see all kinds of volunteers and help and
things like that, pouring into communities to help restore. Well,
when I went in, there was nobody to be seen
and so and there was a lot of work to
(17:17):
be done.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Did they just retreat into their own little enclaves to
try to protect themselves? Were they in shock and trauma?
You and I've talked about that some just the psychological
devastation from the flood as well.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
You know, when I started talking to some of the
community members just about their experience, and this was this
was day one.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
I had one.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Lady tell me she said, you know, this was one
of the hardest winters we have ever experienced, And she
said it was just hard for me to even get up.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
So we were trying to get to Barnersville and see
if we could do whatever we could do so they
didn't have to go through another winter without homes, without heating,
without those kind of things. And that's what we've been
able to do. Just talk a second. We've got to
take a break in about a minute, but just talk
a second. Those homes have been rebuilt, they have heating,
they have shelter. They're not gonna have to face what
they face last winter.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
This is correct.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Over the last two weeks we have actually had teams
of volunteers in Barnardsville helping those members that are still
living in RVs because building how'ses take a really long time.
We've had about thirty volunteers come in over the last
two weeks to help individuals what we would call winnerize
their spaces so that they can get through the winter.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Tabo, we have thirty seconds your thoughts.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
Yeah, I just love the fact that that teams are
still going up and actually are Our thought behind the
Shelter from the Storm project is it's a year later.
Exactly a year later, the rest of the world wants
to move on and we're going to lean in.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Yeah, and the rest of the world does move on,
but you know, the problems are still there and that's
what we want to continue to talk about when we
come back. Let's do so. Have Mark Garrison's show as
well as a part of this Barnardsville Recovery celebrateation today
on News Talk eleven, ten ninety nine three w BT.
Speaker 6 (21:03):
We are many here, we are one. We are seeing
yet Don in his invo and again we are all
his hands and his feet bringing Percy and peace to
(21:24):
this school for your many and a wan.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Hi everyone. I'm David Chadwick. Welcome back to the show
and have with me in studio Talbot Davis, the pastor
Good Shepherd Church, d John former Charlotte Neckenberg Police Department,
but also more importantly now the head of City of Hope,
and welcome both of y'all again to the show. If
you'd like to hear this program in its entirety, scroll down.
Go to WBT dot com, scroll down to the weekend shows.
(21:48):
Look for the David Chadwick Show. You can hear it
from beginning to end. Because we're celebrating a great success.
D Let's start with you again. How many people have
been organized to go to Barnsville, North Carolina as a
part of our City Hope campaign to rebuild that entire
community destroyed by the hurricane.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
We've had over eighteen hundred people.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Wow, we are many, but we're one, as we just
heard in the song the hands and Feet of Jesus
going there and this success has been remarkable and you
have been a part of seeing all of this happen.
Good Shepherd raised seven hundred thousand dollars for hurricane relief
on one Sunday, Just remarkable gave one hundred and twenty
plus thousand and two. City of Hope raised five hundred
(22:27):
and twenty plus thousand dollars to help rebuild Barnerville and
d Again, is it too much to say that Barnersville
is rebuilt, that they are now moving forward. They still
have some psychological distress because of what happened, but they're
back on their feet.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
They are definitely on a path to full recovery.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Okay, Well, I want to also use this as a
shameless plug for our next fundraiser with City of Hope.
We're going to devote it to our six or so
City of Hope partners in vulnerable communities all throughout Charlotte.
We're going to help with the reading, feeding and healing
in those communities underserved vulnerable citizens in our area. We
have one hundred thousand dollars matching gift from Moments of
(23:05):
Hope Church. We're hoping that by the end of December
two hundred thousand dollars as well. Go to CITYOHOPECLT dot
org and you can give, but also do you remind
me that's where they can find the video about Barnardsville
and the rebuilding of it.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Yes, and they'll be able to see the full impact
of what we accomplished.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
In Barnardsville, CITYOFOPECLT dot org. Guess where we'll go in
this next fundraiser. The video is there. Please go there
if you want to see in eyesight what happened in
that community. Now, Mark Garrison, who is the head of
the news department here at WBT, went to Barnersville with
d and there he did a show that basically tells
(23:43):
what happened. I thought it'd be appropriate if right now
we listen to Mark's assessment of that successful story in Barnersville. Mark,
thank you for what you did.
Speaker 8 (23:53):
But we look back to what happened a year ago,
and I think Beth and Mark Garrison, WBT news director
joins now, part of the reason why people are so
uptight about this is because of how recent western North
Carolina being hit by Helene was.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Yeah, that's the truth.
Speaker 9 (24:10):
So over the weekend I went to the town of Barnardsville.
Have you ever heard of it?
Speaker 10 (24:14):
Oh?
Speaker 11 (24:14):
Yes, through David Chadmick at the work they've done.
Speaker 9 (24:18):
That's exactly right. It is near Asheville, hard hit by Helene.
That is until David Chadwick and his project City of
Hope came along with more than two hundred thousand dollars
contributed by our listeners here on wbt SO. On Saturday,
I was there and learned just how that money was
really put to good use.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
I want to thank you everybody for coming asking place
all the food.
Speaker 9 (24:41):
On Saturday, about two hundred people turned out at the
Barnardsville Volunteer Fire Department.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Do you like ton cole slaw for some barbecue.
Speaker 9 (24:49):
Cooked up by the assistant fire chief. Oh, it looks wonderful.
But most of all, just to enjoy being here.
Speaker 8 (24:56):
Glad to be we law, livelihoods, homes, farms, everything, and
we're still here and that's what we're celebrating.
Speaker 9 (25:02):
Barnardsville is not really a town, though there's a gas
station that sells a few groceries and a little post office,
but basically Barnardsville is a collection of about five hundred
folks who live along the mountain side with Big Ivy
Creek wrapping around their homes. But in September of twenty
twenty four, Hurricane Helene turned Big Ivy Creek into a
(25:26):
raging monster.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
We're in the middle of an Ouncian here, the middle.
Speaker 9 (25:30):
Of an ocean. That's ninety one year old Bob Russell
on a video that night, standing on his porch watching
the water come crashing into his yard. The people here
are constantly reliving that night, like Lisa Bonner.
Speaker 11 (25:43):
Thirty foot waves were hitting the back of the house,
water was coming through the windows.
Speaker 9 (25:47):
Lisa was sitting in the stone house her family built
in nineteen forty five, where she now lives with her sister.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Just when the landslide came. It was like this house
was in the middle of a raging river.
Speaker 9 (26:00):
Waters surging against the house thirty feet high, busted the
back door. Giant boulders crashing down from the mountainside.
Speaker 11 (26:08):
Took the two dogs, went upstairs and just pray, Lord, blease,
don't let me see a river rushing through here.
Speaker 9 (26:14):
The next day, as the water subsided, people here began
to realize just how badly the storm had turned their
lives upside down.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
It was bad.
Speaker 9 (26:23):
People lost their homes, their vehicles, and there wasn't much help.
FEMA came and left. Volunteers showed up, but when they
saw the mess they left too. The water was over
the road even four months after the storm, the mess
was still everywhere. When a former Charlotte cop named d
(26:43):
John showed up in Barnardsville.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Piles and piles and piles of debris everywhere.
Speaker 9 (26:50):
D took the job as project manager for Cities of Hope,
and when she began knocking on doors here offering to help,
people weren't too excited. With no insurance, it's no money
for repairs and no hope.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
So when I came, the people were not hopeful at all,
like how can I help you?
Speaker 10 (27:08):
It was like.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
There's no hope for help, okay, and so.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Please go away.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
But D did not go away.
Speaker 9 (27:14):
Instead, she just started making lists after list of all
the damage and began bringing in work crews, the storing.
That beautiful old stone house where Lisa Bonner rode out
the storm, This house was a rick, It really was.
Her sister Sherry says it took crews two full weeks
just to get nearly ten feet of mud out of
(27:35):
her basement, never mind all the other work needed.
Speaker 11 (27:39):
And I was like, I can't believe you guys did this,
And I mean they did not stop until it looks
just like it does right now in.
Speaker 9 (27:46):
All Cities of Hope has now finished eighty projects around Barnardsville,
from new roofs, to new fences to new houses.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Before City of Hope came, you would not believe this is.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
The same house.
Speaker 9 (27:59):
That's Janets showing us her newly rebuilt four roomhouse has
been in her family for generations. Helene lifted the roof
and dumped a lot of rain inside, ruined the walls
and floors. But thanks to Cities of Hope, the little
house is like news.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
And look at it.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
It's beautiful. Look at the windows.
Speaker 9 (28:17):
The fact that strangers just showed up and said we've
got this still brings Janet to tears.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
What would have happened if they hadn't come along, we.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Would have lost this house. I'm blown away.
Speaker 9 (28:30):
So today when d John stops at homes in Barnardsville,
she's not turned away.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
I'm so grateful for all of your help.
Speaker 6 (28:39):
Thank you, Dean Well.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
I am so thankful that you're still here.
Speaker 9 (28:42):
That's Chris Russell. He was the one shooting video that
night of his ninety one year old dad.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
We're in the middle of an olgion here.
Speaker 9 (28:50):
As Helene brought an ocean into their yard, washing away
their cars. Carving a massive canyon that somehow cut a
path away from their home.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
A lot of miracles happened that day, and many angels
after it showed up here to help.
Speaker 9 (29:03):
He considers Cities of Hope to be one of those angels.
They cleared out debris and made Chris's yard like new again.
His dad is grateful to you.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
I'm just thankful to the Lord. I realized that you
know we're here for a reason.
Speaker 9 (29:19):
So Big Ivy Creek is once again just a gentle,
scenic mountain stream. And even though there is still a
lot of rebuilding left in Barnardsville, a gospel group cheerfully sang,
I'm gonna lay my troubles by the water because thanks
to help from Cities of Hope. D John says, the
(29:41):
people here do have hope.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
And I would say almost everybody in this community has
a path forward.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Are you glad you got involved?
Speaker 3 (29:50):
I am, But just to be able to see people
and know that they've been taken care of is actually
pretty incredible.
Speaker 9 (30:00):
In the coming days, they planned to build a house
for a retired teacher that was trash. They've had some
trouble getting the permits. That's been kind of slow with
the county, they're providing housing for others, so it's been
a little bit of a slow process. But as she said,
the town as a plan. And what's really cool is
BT listeners played a big role in this. This didn't
cost those folks a dime there because so much money
(30:22):
was contributed.
Speaker 11 (30:23):
How beautiful that you spent so much time up there, Mark,
And what a lovely way to tell the story and
to really humanize how the rebuilding effort is impacting these people.
You know, it's not just numbers and figures when you
hear the voices and you hear the stories.
Speaker 9 (30:40):
Yeah, and I tell you, those are the sweetest town people.
I mean everywhere we went. Of course I was with
d and they just hugged her and thought, oh, this
is our angel from Charlotte. But it's a very resilient group.
They're full of faith and very optimistic about the days ahead.
Speaker 8 (30:57):
Well, and what a weekend to be up there and
one year later, I mean that you can feel the
hopeful tone of the community and what you reported right there.
And great job as always painting the pictures so that
we can we can't all be there, but we all
wanted to help and have wanted to help and now you,
as you say, WBT listeners have been able.
Speaker 9 (31:17):
To help absolutely. I mean that's a lot of money
that BT listeners poured in and so the work continues.
Speaker 8 (31:23):
Mark Garrison reporting, Thank you so much, Marky sir.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Thank you Mark Garrison. Thank you Bo and Beth for
allowing him to be on your show. D John real
quickly when you hear that, what do you think?
Speaker 8 (31:33):
You know?
Speaker 2 (31:34):
I am so thankful for the opportunity to impact people.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Yeah, the angel from Charlotte. See John Talbot, you raised
seven hundred plus thousand dollars one offering and you're going
to give that away. And I want to know when
we come back. What did people at Good Shepherd think
when you told them we're going to give a whole
week's offering away. And in church world that's a big deal.
I'm David Shadwick will be right back.
Speaker 10 (32:54):
If you want it. It's sick you're gonna want come.
If you walked ten thou you're gonna walk ow free
by because at the mincher of his name, at the
becher of his day, at the bencher of his day,
(33:16):
the change everything can change.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Well, you listeners along with moments of Hope Church. City
of Hope and also now Good Shepherd Church helped rebuild
a community called Barnersville, North Carolina, completely destroyed by the
hurricane a year plus ago. It's now well. In the
name of Jesus. How everyone, I'm David Chadwick. Welcome back
to the show. D John is with me, who oversees
(33:39):
the City of Hope initiative in Barnersville and some other
things as well. Talbot Davis, the pastor at Good Shepherd Church.
And Talbot, when you heard Bo and Beth and me
talking about Barnersville as success, you went to your leadership
and said, why don't we help as well. You devoted
an entire offering one week, and in church world, that's
a big deal to the hurricane relief. You gave a
(34:01):
lot of it to Samaritan's Purse and a convoy of Hope,
great ministries that help devastated people. But also you gave
one hundred and twenty plus thousand dollars of that offering
to City of Hope. How much was the offering again.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
It was seven hundred and six thousand dollars. In fact,
I remember telling d when we were first getting started
and I was like, you know, if we get this right,
if we reach our miracle goal, you might get forty
thousand dollars. And the miracle goal was two hundred thousand
dollars on one Sunday. And it makes no sense for
a church to give away an entire offering. It's not
(34:38):
the first time we've done this. In years past, we've
had we've had a couple of initiatives around human trafficking,
and one Sunday back in twenty thirteen, for example, we
gave three hundred and eighty nine thousand dollars.
Speaker 5 (34:52):
But it all.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
Started because several several years ago, we realized, why take
up a special offering. You might have heard of church
is doing that. Let's take up a spatial offering. And
I was like, if something's worth giving, to give the
whole thing. And the remarkable truth is that the more
we do this, the more we we we give. You
could call it an ungodly amount of money, except it's
(35:16):
very godly.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Yeah, but yeah, he owns everything he does to God.
It's not a surprise.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
The more we do it, the healthier our own finances become.
As a church. Because the truth is, you never miss
what was never yours to begin with.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Oh I like that. Yeah, that's very good. Well, you
know Jesus said in Luke six thirty eight, give and
it shall be given under you. Now, you don't give
to get, but the reality is if you give, you
get in order to give them more away.
Speaker 4 (35:43):
Yeah, when you commit to giving it, God ensures you
have it, and so we you're right, we don't.
Speaker 5 (35:48):
It's not a quid pro quo. It's not like Lord,
we do this and you'll do that.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
The slot machine Christianity that some preachers is ridiculous, but
it is a law of the universe that if you give,
God will trust more to you to give away more.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
Yeah, we just we give with confidence and we're really
glad to be able not to nickl and dime people
or ministries, but if it's worth doing, do it all
the way. And on the Sundays. Since September twenty eighth,
our offerings have gone up, like we had more really
(36:22):
good offerings in the weeks.
Speaker 10 (36:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
I was thinking, Okay, that first Sunday in October, nobody's
going to give any money because it all But the
next Sundays and the Sunday after that better and better
and better because we helped people exercise their generosity muscle.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Well, you know, the Bible says that God loves a
cheerful giver. That we're cheerful in the Greek. I'm sure
you know, Talbot is hilarios. God loves hilarious givers who
just joyfully give, because that's the nature of God. He's
joyfully given to us.
Speaker 5 (36:50):
Actually, I'm such a new preacher. I didn't know that.
I don't know, and feel free to steal it.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Oh, yes, I stole it from somebody. Yes, yes, Well,
it's the whole thing. The blessed are those who give,
and the whole idea of giving is so much the
heart of God. For God so love the world that
he gave his.
Speaker 5 (37:07):
Oly He didn't loan, he didn't rent. That's gay.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
And so you've you've found that you're giving actually has
increased since you gave a whole week's offering away and
folks again from somebody in church world for decades. That's
a big deal. We have our budget, we have expenses
that we have to reach, but you gave it away
trusting God, and it's increased your own giving.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
Yes, And the budget's usually divided by fifty two isn't
it and say no, even miss one, but we have
discovered that you can because God is that good.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Well on behalf of City of Hope and D John,
who oversees the organization, thank you for the kind and
generous gift generally to western North Carolina, specifically to Barnardsville.
Because of you, we raised four hundred thousand dollars in
the general offering with the listeners and also Moments of
Hope giving a matching gift. But then your generosity went
(37:58):
from four hundred to five one hundred and twenty plus thousand,
which allowed us again to complete the project. There Talbot,
So all of your people please tell them from D
and me and our listeners thank you so much for
being a part of this.
Speaker 5 (38:09):
Well you are welcome, glad to be part of it.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Yeah, and do the relationships though in Barnardsville remain. You
told me during the break that they're saying to you
all the time when you coming back, when you coming back,
and are you going to keep those relationships?
Speaker 3 (38:23):
You know, people ask me this all the time. We
didn't just go in and provide a service. That was
never my intent. My intent is to really walk alongside
of our neighbors, and they were my neighbors at the time,
but now I would say some of them will be
friends forever. And do I plan on going back, You know,
originally I was going every two weeks, some every week,
(38:44):
and now I do plan on continuing to go back
because we still have some work that we're doing there.
And I think it's really important for us to know
that Good Shepherd didn't just give us a financial donation.
They have actually committed their time as well to help
rebuild an entire house. The team that they brought to
(39:04):
this community to help us serve they're incredible and they're
incredibly skilled. And so we had this one last house
that we really needed funding for there was a gap
in it, and the gap was filled, but not just
the gap in financial but in skilled labor. And so
they've committed over the next several weeks and months to
walk alongside of us and continuing to rebuild the last
(39:27):
houses in that committity.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
And you've gotten all the permits that are necessary to
complete the work. Is that right?
Speaker 3 (39:32):
So we are in process. We plan on breaking ground
early January.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Good It will be rebuilt, it will be done. Barnersville
does not have to go through another winter of coldness,
scared with all of their houses being devastated. Again, Talbot,
thank you, d thank you, and let's begin now launching
what we're going to do in another couple of weeks.
The City of Hope is going to look at in
December six vulnerable communities here in Charlotte. We're going to
(39:58):
have one hundred thousand dollars give from almost a Hope church. Again, listeners,
if you would give, go to City of Hope selt
dot org. City of Hope clt dot org, and there
you can give and your one dollar becomes two, your
five to ten. We're gonna raise two hundred thousand dollars
to help vulnerable communities here in Charlotte thieve kids, give
them reading ability, and give them health benefits as well
(40:20):
some of the mental stuff that's going on in community.
Still a post COVID deal as well. Talbot, any last.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
Thoughts, I'm so glad to have been here today, and
I'm just really delighted that churches in this in Charlotte
are banding together rather than working in isolation with a
little bit of you know, suspicion and competition. But here
it is that we're coming together and doing this project
as a body.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Yeah, and if anybody wants to go to a great
church on the southwest side of town, Good Shepherd Church,
pastored by Talbot Davis and some other wonderful people as well,
go make that your church home. I promise you'll hear
the word of God, you'll hear the gospel of Jesus Christ,
and you'll be care for as a parishioner. It's a
great church, Good Shepherd Church on the southwest side of town. Talbot,
(41:05):
thank you for who you are in Christ and d
thank you for all you're doing as well. As we
try to make a difference in western North Carolina, make
a difference here in Charlotte again CITYFOPECLT dot org. You
can go there and actually see the video that's been
done showing the pre flood stuff and now the post
flood stuff and d any final thoughts from you, I
just want to say.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Thank you and thank you to the community that continues to.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
Support the work we do.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
Yeah, well, folks, do this. Jesus said, love God and
love your neighbor. If you do those two things, you
have a lifetime's worth of work to do. That's your
job description. Love your neighbor wherever you are, and as
you do so, you'll be filled with the joy of
the Lord, and the joy of the Lord will be
in you. So thank you folks for listening. I'm David Chadwick.
(41:48):
This is News Talk eleven ten ninety ninety three WBT
Talk with you all next week.
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