Faith Rebuilding Communities

Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, the small town of Chimney Rock was devastated as Hurricane Helene tore through, leaving dozens of homes in ruins near the popular tourist destination of Lake Lure. In the following months, churches driven by their faith came together to support the town, providing food and aiding reconstruction. 

Chimney Rock, six months post-Hurricane Helene, looks just as desolate. The once busy downtown is now filled with construction trucks and many volunteers working restlessly to get the small village back running again. Inside one of the main buildings, Christian missionary groups are at work in the kitchen, with volunteers coming in and out after their lunch breaks. When going inside, one man emerges from the kitchen with a welcoming smile.  

Kevin Maxwell, president and founder of Outreach of Ministries Seymour, leads the non-profit missionary organization in its efforts to support workers rebuilding Chimney Rock. Since the first month after Hurricane Helene devastated multiple towns in North Carolina, they have been serving hot meals to those on the front lines of recovery. 

“Just to see the smile in some of the people’s faces that live here,” Maxwell said. “When they come and get a warm meal, which they weren’t expecting, and that was in the very beginning. Now it’s more about feeding the workers.” 

When OMS first arrived in North Carolina, a school in Lake Lure reached out for help in feeding its students. Without a kitchen on-site, children either had to bring their lunches or rely on the school’s limited options, such as cold meals like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Because of the Hurricane, the school lost power and couldn’t offer the limited options. 

“We came down about three weeks after [Hurricane Helene] happened,” Maxwell said. “We stayed in Forest City, which is even farther south, and we ended up serving the school that’s here in Lake Lure. We just happened to be in Forest City doing some outreach and some of this storm relief, and are like, yes, if you could come and sort of have lunch today, and so we came that day and served 800 hamburgers and hot dogs for them.” 

For years, OMS has been in the ministry, traveling throughout the East Coast and around Indiana with a food trailer, and they go to help wherever their faith brings them. Their outreach efforts have included New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Working alongside Spokes of Hope, a North Carolina-based non-profit dedicated to disaster relief, both organizations have found fulfillment in helping Chimney Rock recover.  

“Everything that we had to do, you know we were in because we were feeding 1500 people each day, so we were working 16 hours a day,” Maxwell said. “You get up early to cook and then feed all day and come home, clean up, and prep for the next morning, do it all over again, and that was super rewarding to see the kids’ faces. It blessed me.” 

For Maxwell, founding the organization without ties to any specific church was essential. He wanted to embody the broader impact of faith, helping wherever God’s people were called to serve. 

“This is non-denominational, and we’re not associated with any church,” Maxwell said. “It’s God, this doing it is us as the church, you know, one body, and when we serve, there are probably at least at the minimum four different churches that come and help serve. It’s supposed to be the church, which is not one name, and one never allows a church’s name to be around our food trailer in our outreach or anything like that; we don’t allow it.” 

With the help of Spokes of Hope and other church organizations that are helping in the rebuilding process, the Amish also had a big impact and presence in helping Chimney Rock rebuild. Coming from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the Amish have helped build tiny homes for those who lost their homes, as well as now helping with the rebuilding of this town. 

“If you’re ever been around them, you know they’re extremely hard workers,” Maxwell said. “They show they’re ready for work, and there are no breaks. They come in for lunch as soon as they’re done, and they’re back out. It has been a tremendous help, I know that for sure. It’s kind of unexplainable. And there’s not a word for it really to say how much help they’ve had.” 

Arriving in groups of 40 to 50 each week, mostly younger members of their community, they work tirelessly. Whether it is rebuilding homes or preparing meals in the kitchen, their efforts not only support the victims but also provide relief to the volunteers already aiding in the town’s reconstruction. 

“They’re just super hardworking, even the girls,” Maxwell said. “I’ll get like three or four girls in the kitchen, and they’ll bake whatever I tell them to bake, even if they don’t know. I’ll pull out the recipe, we’ll talk about it, and they’ll go do it. But the funny thing is, as soon as they are done and they’re like, what do you have left, if someone comes in and says, hey, that is great big power rubbish people pick up, they’re like, yes. You know, most Americanized teenage girls would be like, I’d rather stay in the kitchen.” 

Finding fulfillment through helping in Hurricane Helene relief for the last few months, serving the school, and seeing the happy faces of all the kids was worth it for Maxwell and his group. 

“The first time that we were here, when we fed at the school, was probably the most rewarding, because that atmosphere that was set at that school was like a carnival atmosphere,” Maxwell said. “They were laughing, and you knew that they hadn’t laughed in a while, right? And they were laughing and giggling, they were playing games in the parking lot, and I was like, that was worth it.” 

Maxwell has nothing stopping him from returning to Chimney Rock, as he has been going back and forth between North Carolina and Indiana. Balancing life back at home with his family and his many businesses, including a free cleaning business where he cleans homes in need for free. Beyond his work, he finds fulfillment in ministry and dedicates his time to feeding and helping those in need. 

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This story is part of a semester-long investigative reporting project into the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. It was created by an advanced reporting class in the Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies program at UW-Milwaukee. Other stories from the project are available here.

This work was made possible through the support of MPC Endowment Ltd., the philanthropic affiliate of the Milwaukee Press Club.