Natural disasters always wreak havoc. Many of you may remember the major inconvenience, better yet, the major havoc that the freeze of February 2021 caused for our church. Worship services were disrupted for over a year, and youth and choir meeting spaces even longer.
Hurricane Helene hit the eastern United States on September 26th and 27th. It was more than an inconvenience, it was a disaster.
The town of Boone, North Carolina, a mountain community, was devastated by floods. Our former Pastor, Steve Troisi, leads Grace Lutheran in Boone. Soon after the hurricane tore through Boone he reported to us that he and his young family were okay, but many in Boone were suffering.
Triumphant Love responded quickly by sending funds in early November to help replenish his pastor’s discretionary funds. As of early December 2024 we have sent a total of $7000. And, Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR) teams were on the ground in Boone as well.
With all of this being reported to you in our Weekly eNews, many of you may have wondered who Pastor Steve is. We Called him to Triumphant Love in 2013 and he served to mid 2017. Many of our members worked with him early in his arrival to create a new vision and mission for TLLC. It became the core mission for which Pastor Danielle has now expanded. We were blessed by his time with us!
He recently shared with us one example of what he was able to do with his discretionary funds. Grace Lutheran hired a construction crew (who donated half of their cost) to dig out a home hit by a landslide. The husband, and father of 4, is a teacher who is also fighting cancer. We can be thankful that Pastor Steve and his church had discretionary funds to help.
He shared another story of local churches cobbling together funding to purchase a new trailer for a grandmother who is raising 4 grandchildren. Their home was swept away in the storm — thankfully they got out safely.
It doesn’t stop there. Grace Lutheran is working with LDR to organize and plan projects for incoming volunteer groups. They are converting their campus ministry house in order to house volunteer groups coming in to serve in the rebuilding. They plan to be prepared to host groups by late Spring 2025. The need for help continues. READ UPDATE BELOW!
Thanks to all of you who contributed earlier to help Grace Lutheran feel our Triumphant Love!
Update…Our TLLC Youth team met recently to discern and discuss if there was something the youth could do to assist this effort. After much consideration, they decided to change their plans for the Washington D.C. summer 2025 trip and to instead travel to LutherRidge Camp in N.C. which has been converted to a “home base” for volunteer groups. Our youth group will travel there in summer 2025 and help with the hurricane recovery projects.
If you’d still like to contribute, drop off checks or make online donations to TLLC and indicate in the NOTES that these funds are for Pastor Steve.