ALPHARETTA, Ga. — On Sept. 21, 2024, Hurricane Helene tore through Georgia with devastating force. One year later, the scars remain — blue tarps still cling to rooftops, ancient oaks lie splintered in fields, and the skyline in Hazlehurst stands conspicuously without a steeple.

Yet amid the damage and lingering loss, Georgia Baptists continue to rebuild, serve and testify to God’s goodness and grace.

First Baptist Church (FBC) Hazlehurst‘s Executive Pastor Philip Worthington said the storm caused extensive damage across their 10-acre campus, including an old school building that took the brunt of the wind.

“With the eastward wind coming through, it basically peeled two-thirds of the roof of that building off and then flooded the interior,” he said. “We had to do a complete renovation on the roof and the inside of that building.”

Worthington said the church faced long delays as insurance auditors cycled through. “They sent out multiple auditors and multiple different teams coming in to justify the claims,” he said. “So that took some time.”

Finally this past June, the church pushed ahead with repairs. “Since June, we’ve seen a lot of the restoration, not only of that building, but all of our buildings,” Worthington said.

Before the storm, the church had two steeples, but the newer one toppled during the storm. During repairs, Worthington said, “We had to take down our second steeple, which was the historic steeple.”

Worthington explained that once the second steeple was down, they could see that the damage made repair and replacement unfeasible, “so we are currently a church with no steeple.” The church is finalizing designs for a new steeple, which Worthington hopes will be up in the first quarter of next year.

But for the congregation, the physical restoration has only been part of the journey. In the aftermath of the storm, the church mobilized to meet urgent needs in the community.

“Our immediate response was to do a food and supply giveaway,” Worthington said. “We had people donating from all over our region of the United States… Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee.”

FBC Hazlehurst hosted teams for two months, feeding families and clearing debris. “People were just showing up with either supplies or teams,” he said.

The church also established a hurricane fund to assist families directly. “We realized we had a lot of people who had been out of power, who couldn’t go back to work, who lost homes, who lost vehicles,” Worthington said. “Rather than utilizing them for our own campus, we started putting a lot of the funds that people sent to us aside to help folks in our community.”

That assistance has included hotel rooms, fuel for generators and medical help. Yet even a year later, he said, recovery is uneven. “There are a lot of blue tarps still around,” he said. “There are a lot of folks that still have roof damage that hasn’t been repaired.”

And the emotional toll runs deep. “PTSD is a real thing,” Worthington said. “When hurricane warnings come now, it’s a big deal.”

Still, the pastor points to God’s faithfulness. “In the midst of hurricane Helene, in the aftermath, even in the anxiety of new storms, God is incredibly gracious,” he said. “Here at First Baptist Church, we’re experiencing a growth that we’ve not experienced before. What the Lord is doing here is just amazing.”

Worthington recalled the message delivered by Pastor Brad Waters right before the storm, from Romans 8:28, “that all things work together for the good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.”

“’All things,’ for us, was hurricane Helene,” Worthington said. “Even in the darkest of days, even in the toughest of circumstances, we know that all things work together for good.”

“It’s been a difficult year,” Waters said. “Through it all, God has been so good to us. I’m extremely thankful for the GBMB (Georgia Baptist Mission Board) and every local Georgia Baptist church from across the state that selflessly came to our aid. They brought more than help, they brought hope. Above everything, this has resulted in the furtherance of the gospel.”

Across east and central Georgia, the signs of recovery are visible, but so are the signs of loss.

Tim Batchelor, director of missions for the Hephzibah Baptist Association, said that most churches have now repaired their buildings, but many communities look forever changed.

“The appearance of many of our small towns and church yards was dramatically altered as many large trees and even a few buildings no longer remain,” Batchelor said. “Many of the churches lost large trees that once provided shade for parking or dinner on the grounds. Others suffered varying degrees of damage, which has largely been repaired.”

Even so, cleanup continues. “Our Disaster Relief (DR) unit continues to have projects in our communities as some still are in need of having damaged trees cut or downed trees removed from yards,” Batchelor said.

Marty Youngblood, the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s Pastor Wellness catalyst for the Southeast region, said, “As we continue to follow up with the pastors, ministers, their families and area association missionary strategists, we see that things are slowly coming together, but there is still work to be done.”

He added, “As we spent months driving around and listening to the stories of God’s grace and miracles, it was exciting to see how the gospel penetrated the darkness through both random and intentional acts of kindness by so many.”

Youngblood shared a moment that captured the faith he witnessed: “One of my favorite responses came from a pastor standing outside, overlooking the damage to his home. I asked him just days after the storm how he was doing. He replied, ‘We’ve got some bent sheet metal, fewer shingles, a tree on the truck, missing a few chickens, but our salvation is secure, and our hope is in Jesus, so all in all, we’re good.’

“Oh, that we would have this kind of faith in Jesus,” Youngblood said. “Faith to carry us through the storms of life and refocus us on the gospel of hope.”

In the small town of Camak, Hurricane Helene brought a century-old pine crashing through the sanctuary of Camak Baptist Church, splitting the roof and flooding the 1930s-era building.

Nine months later, Pastor Bryant Neal stood in that same sanctuary, surrounded by laughter and praise. “It was a joyous time with smiles and love being shared among the people,” he said. “Of course, I was a little nervous and feeling the pressure of expectations, but the smiles and the welcomed laughter among the people soon cast that aside. It felt like ‘home’ being back in the sanctuary.”

Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers removed the massive 23,000-pound tree within days, and the GBMB provided financial assistance.

“The DR team was a phenomenal, generous, great-hearted and fun-to-work-with group,” Neal said. “They are really passionate about what they are doing and why they are doing it. They really want to make an impact for the cause of Christ in the community.”

Jeff Gongwer, Pastor Wellness catalyst for the East Central region, said that through Mission Georgia “we were able to make contact with all the churches in the impact area (1,000) and then were able to provide support to all the churches that were affected (200). The beauty of Georgia Baptist life is that we are better together.

“As we collectively give through the Cooperative Program, which is 100 years old this year, we’re able to advance the gospel and serve one another to the glory of God,” Gongwer added. “Under the leadership of our executive director, Thomas Hammond, Georgia Baptists responded with spiritual and physical support.”

Neal said the church’s faith has grown through the process. “We are seeing some people standing and trusting more. We’ve seen God providing. God has just been very, very faithful to our group. We’ve seen people’s faith expand.”

In Louisville, where the hurricane left neighborhoods blocked by downed trees and power lines, First Baptist Church (FBC) quickly became a hub of hope.

“Our community looked like a war zone,” Pastor Jonathan Melchior said. “For the first few days, many people couldn’t even use their cars. Roads were blocked with live power lines, broken telephone poles and massive old-growth trees.”

Melchior added, “We were completely cut off. For the first three or four days, communication happened only by word of mouth.”

Realizing that the poorest families had no access to food, FBC Louisville organized a “peanut butter and jelly drive,” packing more than 500 bags with jars of peanut butter, jelly and loaves of bread. “People were deeply grateful,” Melchior said.

Help poured in from across the state. “Two churches in particular played a key role,” he said. “Lakeside Baptist Church in Milledgeville and Lakeside Church at Lake Oconee.”

Jay Reber, community outreach pastor at Lakeside Church at Lake Oconee, said, “When Hurricane Helene just barely missed Greene County, I knew that God wanted us to help the affected areas.”

Lakeside sent a team of more than 30 volunteers. “We spent a day handing out supplies at the church,” Reber said. “While we were handing out supplies, the Lakeside grill team was grilling lunch, and we gave out hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch… we had another group of people that divided up and went throughout Louisville to help clean up yards and remove debris.”

He added, “We were especially blessed to be able to clean up Pastor Jonathan’s yard and the church property at FBC Louisville. It was a very inspiring day for the people of Lakeside who drove down.”

The partnership didn’t end there. “At Thanksgiving, we collected Thanksgiving in a Box and delivered over 60 boxes of everything needed for a Thanksgiving meal, including turkeys,” Reber said. “Pastor Jonathan and I still talk on a regular basis, and we are still looking at ways that Lakeside and FBC Louisville can continue in this partnership. As always, when you do missions, the blessings that the Lakeside people received were just as great, if not greater, than the blessings they were to the people of Louisville.”

Melchior said the collaboration changed their church. “Because so many churches ministered to us, we were inspired to minister to others,” he said. “In January, we sent a disaster relief team from FBC Louisville to Banner Elk, N.C.” Helene caused significant damage in Banner Elk, leaving many roads impassable. “The mission to us became fuel for our mission to others,” Melchior said.

Jeff Parmer, associational missionary for the Ogeechee River Baptist Association, said most cleanup work has concluded, but the storm left lasting lessons.

“The work of Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief and other organizations immediately in the aftermath of Helene cannot be overstated,” Parmer said. “They were present, working, serving, and it was just a tremendous blessing.”

The financial impact, though, continues. “Churches are having to deal with very sharp increases in insurance costs and policies being changed,” Parmer said.

As a result of the storm, churches are more focused on readiness. “Our local VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster) has really leaned into getting prepared, getting the resources, getting ready for the next time,” Parmer said. “I think Helene just kinda lit that fuse for everybody.

“Even on a personal level,” he added with a laugh, “I didn’t have a generator. I have a generator now.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Henry Durand is news editor for The Christian Index.)