Hope Rising: Churches Leading the Charge in Flood Recovery
Oct. 10, 2024
Hosts: Dr. Isaac Crockett, Dr. Jamie Mitchell
Guest(s): Pastor Aaron Causby
Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 10/10/24. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.
Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.
Isaac Crockett: Welcome to this program, and for those of you listening right now, we’re going to be talking about what’s going on with the recovery from these two massive hurricanes that have hit our nation in the southeast. The title today is Hope Rising Churches Leading The Charge and Flood Recovery. If you are listening right now, let me encourage you, please pray for what’s going on, but also please text your friends and ask them to tune into this program either on your radio station or stand in the gap media.org. Stand in the gap media.org. You can stream it live stand in the Gap app. You could stream it live or later today. Send it, go do our website or the app and send it to somebody. I think you’re really going to want to hear what we’re talking about, live from the front lines. With that, I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett, co-host today is evangelist Dave Kistler. As you probably know, he is kind of at the tip of the spear of what’s going on. Dave, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to be with us right now.
Dave Kistler: Well, Isaac, it is a delight and honor to be aboard, and also we have a dear friend of mine, pastor Aaron Causby, who really, really is one of the key pastors here in western North Carolina. There’s been a lot of guys stepped up to the plate, but Pastor Aaron is certainly one of them and it’s great to have him as our guest today
Isaac Crockett: And we’re excited to have him on trial as by fire. Aaron, thank you for joining us and for the amazing work you’re doing. Welcome to the program.
Aaron Causby: Oh, I’m delighted to be here. I appreciate you for inviting me on and I’m looking forward to this discussion together.
Isaac Crockett: Well, Dave, you’re right in the middle, and Aaron, of course, as well, right there in the middle of the recovery work going on from this just historic catastrophe of flooding and damage from Hurricane Helene, and now you have friends that you’ve been in contact with, buildings have been flooded from Milton Hurricane Milton, but you’re literally right in the middle of this very important work that’s going on. Can you maybe speak to us just, I don’t know how you can put it all into an overview. There’s so much happening and so much even changing over the week, but can you just kind of give us an idea of what has happened to you personally and to this area that you have lived in and it’s you’re hometown boy from there?
Dave Kistler: Well, I’ll be delighted to I say, let me just back up to my last Friday when all of this started. Friday a week ago. We went to bed Thursday night, everything was fairly calm. Woke up about five in the morning, heard the wind picking up a little bit, but around 6:00 AM everything really kicked into high gear in earnest, and we have a swimming pool and we had not yet closed in the back, and I was trying to dump leaves out of the skier basket as fast as I could because the wind was so, it was so strong. It was just dumping leaves into the pool right and left. Well, I came inside because I was drenched, went back out. By the time I got back out there, tree had fallen across our garage and pushed a hole in the roof in the garage. We had another couple of trees fall near and across a portion of a fence that we have minimal damage to the fence.
Dave Kistler: Thankfully, our garage has already been repaired because of some of the great neighbors we have, but I’ll tell you this side, it was a signal of what was yet to come in the mountains of North Carolina. We live about 20 minutes, 25 minutes depending on where you go, maybe a little less than that 15 minutes from some of the beginnings of the catastrophic destruction, but the mountains of North Carolina, western North Carolina, I’m talking about blowing rock boots and the Rock Lake lure, Burnsville, spruce, pine, Bakersville, some of these areas that I tricked all through growing up as a boy have just been absolutely devastated. And I was there again yesterday in Old Fort delivering some supplies to a mutual friend of Pastor Aaron who’s on with us today and mine, and what I saw in Old Fort was just absolutely stunning. A lot has been out on social media a little bit on the news, but I’ll tell you this, Isaac, what you see when you’re there in person, the pictures just don’t come close to describing what has been lost.
Dave Kistler: And then of course there’s the loss of life and I’m talking about human life, animal life, just a lot of things going on that no one saw coming to the degree that it has. And I know we’re going to talk about some of that maybe in the second segment, but what’s been amazing, Isaac is this, and I know Aaron has seen it as well, is the response of the church of Jesus Christ. People have stepped up, and I’m talking about the church in the immediate area here of North Carolina that we’re not as dramatically affected as well as people from as far away as Florida, New York, and all over the country that have responded and come to this section of North Carolina to be a help. And it’s not that FEMA doesn’t have a presence here. They do in some places, primarily Asheville, which is a larger city, but what we’ve seen, what I’ve seen is the recovery effort is being led by
Isaac Crockett: And is it amazing how when bad things happen, it’s the church, it leads these things leading the recovery there. Dave, what are you hearing and seeing from Hurricane Milton down in Florida? I know you have friends that you’ve personally helped rebuild their church. What are you hearing from what happened just now with Hurricane Milton? I think we may have lost day for a moment here. Aaron, let me just go to you with what you’re seeing there and the weather and things that we’re going on. Can you maybe just describe a little bit of what it was like for you when all of this came your way?
Aaron Causby: Sure. Well, I was actually on vacation when the storm hit. I was at the beach in Wilmington, North Carolina, and I didn’t understand the devastation and everything that was going on until we started getting pictures. And of course we started seeing it on our Facebook pages, so we were absent when the storm hit. I knew of a few places that had been hit. I saw that Chimney Rock had been washed away, but really we were sort of out of the loop initially. So we headed back from vacation on that Saturday and of course we came back, had no power, but we didn’t really understand what was going on until we got back into town. And then our church, we acted the very next day when we got back, no one had power. We were not able to have service the next day, but we actually gathered the next morning on, I guess it would be Sunday, two weeks ago, and we fed over 500 people in about two hours. We spent the day driving around to hospitals, nursing homes. We even camped out at the Dollar General parking lot up from our church and just handed out meals, prayed with people, and really the response from particularly churches in our area has been very overwhelming.
Isaac Crockett: Well, and that’s what we’re talking about, this hope rising that comes from the churches, and I’ve seen this time and time again when things get really bad here in our own country and in other countries, that people turn to the light and that light should be the children of God who walk as children of light, not as children of darkness. Well, we’re coming close to a break here, and I think Dave is trying to get back on he lost self, but anything Pastor Aaron with your group that you’ve seen that maybe surprised you from the very beginning?
Aaron Causby: We’ve seen an influx of people from churches all across the nation. Certainly our church has done everything we can do, and I’ll talk about this later I’m sure in this broadcast, but there’s not a greater time for the church to shine the world’s watching us in moments like this, and it’s our job to shine, to bring our heavenly father to glory in all this.
Isaac Crockett: That’s right. Yep. For such a time as this. Well, we’re going to take a brief time out here from some of our partners and we want to come back on if he’s able to get back on. We’re going to try to talk more with Dr. Dave Kistler, one of our regular co-hosts who’s on the front lines getting supplies to people, and we also have Pastor Aaron Causby with us, and we’ll say more about him and talk to him some more. We’re going to take a brief time out and be right back. Welcome back to the program, and my co-host, Dr. Dave Kistler evangelist Dave Kistler is back with us again because of all that’s going on because of the hurricanes, very unreliable communications out there, but Dr. Dave Kistler, thanks for being back on. We were just getting into what you’ve heard from your pastor friends in Florida in some of the spots that have been hit in other hurricanes getting hit. Again, this go around.
Speaker 4: Well, I’ll bring you up to speed, and again, I apologize, Isaac. Yeah, our cell service has been a little bit sketchy here since the hurricane came through, but I’ve been in communication late, late, late last evening early this morning with some pastors in the Fort Myers, port Charlotte area, as well as Port St. Lucie, which happens to be on the eastern side of the state of Florida. What I have been told, because these folks all wrote out the hurricane that it’s been bad, but it’s not been as bad as maybe they thought it was going to be most of the effect on the eastern side of the state of Florida over in Port St. Lucie. The damage there I think was mostly as a result of a number, I mean a number of tornadoes that were spawned by the hurricane, but not necessarily just the wind damage and the rain from the hurricane itself, though the rain has been significant, but it’s all these tornadoes that have come about as a result of the hurricane on the eastern side of the state of Florida on the western side, some of the storm surges were not as bad as were expected.
Speaker 4: They were talking about perhaps 12 to 15 feet of storm surge. Some of that did not fully materialize, which is a good thing. But one of my pastor friends, Jay Shepherd, Tri-City Baptist in Port Charlotte, they lost a significant portion of their church building two years ago in Hurricane Ian, and we were able to go down with about 50 people and help them put a roof on that building, repair some things around the building, and then about three other structures as well. Well, they got inundated again with this hurricane. Hurricane Milton, the church does have water in it again, but Pastor Jay’s home is okay, and so I’m waiting to get further reports from other folks there in the area as to how they fared, but it was not as bad as it could have been. That’s basically the message that I’ve received up to this point.
Isaac Crockett: Well, amen for that. There’s so much to praise the Lord for and so much to pray for. While we were talking, actually, pastor Aaron Causby was just telling us what his church had done that Sunday morning right after the hurricane, instead of being able to meet for their normal services of worship, they met and there was service going on. They were serving hundreds and hundreds of meals to people. You’ve already been talking about it, but maybe you could talk to some of the importance of church involvement in these times and then maybe get into some of the other things you’re seeing going on. Maybe you and Aaron could talk to us just about what you’re seeing as eyewitnesses of this rebuilding and recovery process, and are they still searching? There’s so many questions going, I don’t think we have enough time in this program to cover them all, but maybe you could talk about some of what you’re seeing.
Speaker 4: Well, let me go to some of the recovery process. Yesterday as we were coming home from Old Fort North Carolina, which is on Interstate 40. Old Fort is a little community, beautiful little community. It’s the base of a mountain called Black Mountain, and once you go over a black mountain, you go on 40 into the city of Asheville, North Carolina, which of course was catastrophically affected. But as we were leaving, we stopped to grab a bite to eat at a small little kind of a service station that had a fast food restaurant in it. And Ian walked a young man who happened to be a major in the army, and it was interesting that he was needing to put some fuel in his SUV, but he said, I only have a government credit card, and this particular service station was only taking cash, so I was able to give him some cash to put fuel in his vehicle until he could get to a station that would take a government credit card.
Speaker 4: But he was telling us what was going on, and if I understood him correctly, his unit had about 1500 active duty army personnel here in Western North Carolina, and then from two other forts, army forts, an additional somewhere in the neighborhood of additional five or 6,000 additional active Army troops are in the area, but they’re doing search and rescue operations, which means there’s a lot of people that are missing. I know the news media has reported hundreds. I heard the first couple of days after 3, 4, 5 days after the hurricane came through, maybe 200 people missing, 300 people missing. In all honesty, Isaac, it’s significantly more than that. I heard fairly early on from very reliable sources that it may be as many as a thousand people missing. That number has gone up according to the folks with whom I’ve been in communication. And so as a result of all of that, of course tragically heartbreakingly, the death toll is going to go up as well.
Speaker 4: But there are some amazing, amazing stories of people that have been found, heard a story of a very young child was recovered after four days, and it is just miraculous situation after miraculous situation. But what’s happened, Isaac, is this, I’ve never seen such unity among the true church of Jesus Christ. I’m talking about people who know the Lord is Savior. They love the Lord. They’re committed unequivocally to the word of God and obedience to it. And of course, pastor Aaron’s church, Conley Springs, FreeWheel Baptist Church is one of those, our church, Mount Home Baptist Church, which is in the Morganton area, one of those churches and on and on and on and on. I could go the church Salem FreeWheel Baptist in Old Fort pastor Austin Bullock, dear friend of mine and Brother Aaron’s, that’s another church, but they’re literally not just locking arms, they’re locking hearts with one another.
Speaker 4: There’s a wonderful organization called Baptists on Mission. It’s part of the Southern Baptist Convention. They have great resources they’ve brought in, there are temporary showers that have been set up, laundry facilities, temporary laundry facilities that allow people to come in and wash clothes. Then you have wonderful organizations like Samaritan’s Purse, and through all of these tragedies, they do stellar work and they’re doing it again. And then you just have volunteers coming in with four wheelers, four by fours. Some of these locations cannot be accessed unless you have that type of a vehicle. And then you have, and I’m going to mention an organization called the Cajun Navy, and they’re from states, far distant from here, Louisiana and other places, but they’ve come in with mules and with horses and literally some of these spots that have been cut off from any contact because roads and bridges have been totally wiped out.
Speaker 4: These folks have been able to get to them with much needed supplies. You have the NASCAR community, many of the NASCAR teams and the owners of those teams have personal helicopters or corporate helicopters. Those folks entered into the picture very early on and were flying medical supplies in and then have continued to fly other supplies in. So Isaac, it has been an all hands on deck effort, but it has been led primarily by wonderful pastors like Pastor Aaron and a host of others that have just stepped up, adjusted their schedules and motivated and mobilized their people to go into ministry mode. And it’s just been going to be honest, it’s been overwhelming to watch.
Isaac Crockett: It’s incredible. And those of you who follow Dave on Facebook, you’ll see these things. You’ll see the pictures and videos. Pastor Aaron, let me just ask you as a pastor, and you also work by vocationally your funeral home director, but what are you seeing from your people because all of this, like you were, everybody’s caught off guard. What are you seeing from their willingness as Christian brothers and sisters to step into this?
Aaron Causby: Well, our church has just been incredible and I pastor what I would say, a relatively small church in the mountains here at Burke County. We probably average 130 to 150 people on Sundays, but when you get a lot of people doing their small part together, you can really get a lot done. And we’ve partnered with Brother Dave. We’ve partnered with churches in Wilmington, North Carolina, in New York State. I’ve been on the phone today with two pastors. One was from Waco, Texas, one was from Tuscaloosa, Alabama who know that I am close by to where the devastation occurred, and they just want to help some of these pastors that are sort of leading this I’ve been friends with. But the amazing part is some of them I’ve never met before. I have no idea who they are. They have no idea who I am, but the Lord has connected us and honestly, it’s an amazing thing. People that I would’ve never got to meet the Lord’s brought them together and knitted our hearts together and we’re able to lock horns and try to help people together. It’s been amazing.
Isaac Crockett: That is incredible. Just so neat to see. Now, Dave, you’ve mentioned something already. I’ve seen this firsthand at different times in disaster situations, but we’re hearing over and over the churches leading the charge. But when I think about the government response, I’ve heard rumors that FEMA and organizations like that government agencies aren’t allowed to continue down a road if there’s a road close sign in a place of disaster, but I’m also thinking long term, some of these communities have been almost wiped off the map. Long term there’s going to be major changes, but short term we have an election and just a few weeks from now, this election is not only a very hotly contested presidential election, but they’re in North Carolina. It’s a very close race with the North Carolina Governor’s election. What are some of the short-term issues, concerns, and implications that you might see right now because of this devastation?
Speaker 4: Well, it’s interesting you would ask that, Isaac, because last evening I was preaching at one of our local churches not far from our home and addressing the pastor asked me specifically to address the Christian’s responsibility to government and how should I vote? What principles should govern how I vote? Well, there was a lady there in the church that is part of one of the local election boards, and I asked her point blank, because it is an issue of concern. Polling places have been wiped out. Churches typically, a lot of churches tend to be a polling place, community centers or a polling place where people go to vote. Those have been wiped out because of this storm. And so I asked her, I said, what is being done? And there is a game plan in place to allow displaced persons who have had to leave Western North Carolina because their homes have been destroyed or they’ve had to relocate temporarily.
Speaker 4: There is a plan in place. And from what she described, it sounded like a very, at least what I heard, a solid plan to allow people if they can verify, Hey, I am from Burnsville, North Carolina. I’m from Yancy County, I’m from Conley Springs, North Carolina. I’m from Morgan and wherever, but I have had to be temporarily moved because of this storm impact. Then if they can verify that and produce documentation that will help people know they are from those locations, they will be allowed to vote at another place. And there are safeguards being put in place to make sure people don’t double vote and all that. So that is very, very encouraging to hear
Isaac Crockett: That encouraging indeed. But just so many implications from this weather and the aftermath of this tomorrow, Dr. George Var is going to be talking about there are millions of Christians who go to church who say they’re not going to vote this election. So this behooves us to look at what these people are going through to be able to vote and to love this opportunity to vote. We’ve got a lot more to talk about here on Standing the Gap today. We’ll be right back. Well, welcome back to the program. We’ve been talking about Hope rising and looking at churches leading the charge and this flood recovery from Hurricane Helene and even a little bit we’ve talked about with Hurricane Milton. And I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett, the co-host. With me today is evangelist Dave Kistler, and we’ve just heard so much from Dave and his young pastor friend of his who’s got a lot of neat experiences, both of them on the front lines in North Carolina. Dave, as we start the second half of this program, I’d like to go to you and have you reintroduce your pastor friend who’s on with us and maybe even talk about how you all knew each other, but really how this summer you’ve come to know each other and some of the bonding that you’ve had, as well as maybe some ideas that people are looking for, ways they could help in the areas that are affected by the hurricane, any ideas you have of what they could do to be a part of that.
Speaker 4: Sure. Isaac. Yeah, delight to reintroduce Aaron. I knew who Pastor Causby was, and I guess he knew who I was, but we had never formally met until I’m guessing, oh my goodness, maybe six, seven months ago. We happened to be at the same restaurant together and he happened to walk by, introduced himself to me and then was so gracious to pay for our family’s meal. And I pressed the folks when I went to pay at the end as to who had covered our meal and they said, well, it was Pastor Aaron of course. I shot him a quick message to thank him for his graciousness and kindness. And then we do this big 4th of July event in our area of North Carolina, and the Lord just laid him heavily on my heart to invite him to be a part of that and to come and be one of the men that would pray at that event, which he was more than willing to do.
Speaker 4: And then of course, on the 26th of July, the accident happened that claimed our son’s life and our daughter-in-law’s life, and Pastor Aaron, because he is also a funeral director at Jenkins Funeral home in Newton, North Carolina, he reached out to me and said, preacher, if there’s any way we can help you, we would love to. And so he didn’t just say that he did it and did it in a big way and just ministered our family. I cannot express here on radio what he has meant to me personally and what he’s meant to our family. Our daughters just have fallen in love with Pastor Aaron and with his church, my wife, the same way. And then of course we did a memorial service for Nathan at the insistence of members of Congress. They’re on Capitol Hill, and Aaron went with us and was a part of that as well and just kind of walked our family through that process.
Speaker 4: So he has become a very, very dear friend, and we’re going to be doing a lot of ministry together, Lord willing in the days ahead. But he pastors this church that was about 2020 some people when he took it 10 years ago and now it’s running 130, 140, they have a huge parking problem because of all the people coming to the church. And so God is using him in a great and mighty way. And for that I am beyond grateful. It’s so encouraging to see young men like Aaron, 33 young men like Austin Bullock, who is a friend of Aaron’s and mine, young pastor as well, but guys that just are mature beyond their years, love the Lord, walking with the Lord and accomplishing something wonderful. And now they’ve been thrust into the middle of this crisis and they’ve just risen like cream to the top, and it’s been very, very encouraging.
Speaker 4: As far as organizations that you mentioned, I’m going to mention just a couple, what we’ve found Isaac to be the most effective way to minister is working through local pastors. That’s why Pastor Aaron has been so critical. Pastor Austin over in Old Fort North Carolina has been so critical. They know their communities, they know where the needs are, and you bring somebody in from the outside, and this is not meant to be disrespectful to any government entity, but when you bring somebody in from the outside, they don’t know the area these local pastors do. So what I’ve done, when people call me Brother Dave, how can we help? I typically will hand them off to a pastor like Aaron or Austin or a pastor over in the Hudson, North Carolina area, pastor John Sawyer or a multiplicity of others because these pastors know the area best. And so that’s what we’ve been doing. And to be honest with you, Isaac, it’s been working very, very successfully.
Isaac Crockett: Amen for that. What great idea. Pastor Aaron, as Dave just mentioned, you’re a funeral home as well as a pastor in times of community crisis, and of course this is a huge unexpected one, but any kind of community crisis, how has that kind of bi-vocational role that you play there, how has that uniquely positioned you in serving the community?
Aaron Causby: Well, I don’t think there’s any greater job that I could have as a pastor by vocational pastor than that of a funeral director. And I was interested in funeral service when I was 18. My first job interview I ever had was at a funeral home. I didn’t know that I was going to be doing everything that I’m doing now. I just had to attended funerals and watched the man open the doors for people and watch the funeral director walk the family in and out, and it’s a ministry job, and I’m able to give the gospel to people who would never attend my church. As a matter of fact, in a couple hours, I’m going to be officiating a funeral for a lady that I met their family through the funeral home, officiated her dad’s service, and her mom passed away. And when she called in to give us the death call, she said, you’re our preacher, and these are not church people. And you’d be amazed at how many people in our area of the Bible belt don’t have a church connection, they don’t have a pastor, but the Lord’s put me in a unique position where I’m able to help people we say on the worst day of their life, and there’s a lot of people that have lived the worst week of their life over the last week. And so I’m really honored to be in the position that the Lord’s given me to, as I say, serve the Lord as a funeral director and a pastor.
Speaker 4: I’m just going to word it the way I’ve seen it in something that our mutual friend Pastor Austin said to me yesterday. He said, no matter what has happened over the last couple of weeks, whether it be volunteers coming in to help or whether it be people that are what we would call victims of this storm and they need help, he has not seen any negative attitudes. He has not seen anybody that displayed anything other than extreme gratitude, a spirit that wants to serve. And I said, Austin, that’s exactly what I’ve seen. It’s just been overwhelming to me the response and the spirit of both volunteers coming in to help as well as those that have been so dramatically and adversely affected. What has been your experience with what you’ve seen with all these meals, these 500 and some or more meals that you’ve served and all the things that you’ve done serving our particular community? What has been the spirit of both volunteers and the victims that you’ve seen?
Aaron Causby: I’ll tell you the spirit of our people at our church, and I told our church this past Sunday on my 10th anniversary, brother Dave, you were there and we were honored to have you. I told our folks, I’ve never been more proud to be the pastor of that church and to serve the Lord with those people. We took a group of about 30 people to Avery County on Saturday. We didn’t know what we were going to be doing. We just knew that we had a ton of supplies that people had brought in and we just wanted to show up and help. And we ended up going through a local church, victory Baptist Church there in in Avery County, which is a little town. It’s not west, it’s sort of more north of where we are, the pastor, they had so many supplies that were there that people had dropped off, but the issue they were running into is people would drop off a tractor and trailer full of supplies and then they would just leave.
Aaron Causby: And the pastor told our people, he said, really, what we need to do is put these supplies on a pallet, shrink, wrap them and get them in the dry. And that may seem like a small task. It may seem like something that’s unimportant, but our people jumped right in. They started organizing, and we literally spent five or six hours on the mountain there just stacking supplies, putting them where they needed to be in the drive, because the reality is the people in Avery County have one grocery store that’s Ingles, and Ingles was flooded at seven feet of water in the store, so people can’t go to the grocery store and get supplies. And so our people jumped right in. I was so proud of them. They don’t have to be a hero, but when they show up and work together, they can really get a lot done. So that’s been the spirit of our people is plug me in wherever. I told the people last night at our church during Bible study, whether you were the one delivering the meals or whether you were the one just squeezing the ketchup bottle to fill the little ketchup containers. Heaven takes note of that. And certainly God keeps a record of all those little things, every little bit’s important.
Isaac Crockett: Amen. It matters to God, it matters to the people you’re helping. Pastor Aaron, real quickly here before the break, what is the changes of needs as the weather is starting to cool down? What are you seeing on the ground there for needs now that the weather is changing?
Aaron Causby: Well, the weather is changing. It was about 43 degrees at our house this morning. And as you work west and northwest, it’s in the thirties already, and these people that don’t have power, they don’t know when they’re going to get power. They certainly need heat. So the second half of the day on Saturday, we delivered 110 gas cans full of gasoline to areas that you could barely get to. The roads are washed out to the point that you have to be very careful driving to those areas, and it’s these little remote communities, these little mountain communities that most people don’t even know about. They knew in reality before the hurricane hit, they didn’t have much to begin with, and what little bit they had has been taken away. So the influx of people coming into the western part of the state, bringing in bottled water, hygiene products, non-perishable items, food, all those things, from what I’m hearing from most pastors in the area that are leading those distribution centers, they are good on supplies, but the needs are sort of transitioning into coats, blankets, propane, camping, stoves so people can cook, people can have heat, things like that.
Aaron Causby: It’s sort of transitioned. It transitioned rather quickly because just a week ago, they had no bottles of water, but everyone’s been so gracious and so generous to deliver all those supplies. Now it’s transitioned into things that would keep them warm and then also rebuilding. I mean, a lot of these people have lost their homes. A lot of my pastor friends have lost their churches and they have the supplies they need as far as basic necessities, but they still don’t have a building. So those things are going to take a lot of time.
Isaac Crockett: It is incredible. Even as you’re speaking about it, I am still trying to wrap my mind around it. I have family in the Carolinas and in Tennessee and hearing things from them, but some of these areas so impacted by it. And like you said in one week, the difference in the change in weather and the difference in needs. So we still need to be praying for these groups, praying for these pastors, pastors like Pastor Aaron, Dr. Dave Kistler, and others who are out there making a difference and raising hope. We have a quick timeout and we’ll be back for our last segment, closing out and praying for what’s going on in our country right now. Please don’t go away. We’ll be right back on Staying in the Gap today. Well, welcome back to the last part of this program, and my co-host today is Dr.
Isaac Crockett: Dave Kistler. Our guest is Pastor Aaron Causby, and I think it was last week that I was interviewing Kyle Paisley, the son of Dr. Ian Paisley of Northern Ireland who led so many things in the church and in the government there. And what Kyle Paisley said, he talked about having revival in the land, having power, and he said, if there’s no power in the pulpit, there will be no power in the pews. And so if we want to see churches involved in growing and doing and activating, you have to have a leader in the pulpit. And that’s why here at Stand In the Gap Media, we are a ministry of the American Pastor’s Network. We’re here trying to help pastors preach the truth and live it out. And today you’re hearing from a pastor, a young pastor, but he’s been at the same church that he’s at right now for 10 years, and he’s bringing power to the pulpit and his congregation is following him.
Isaac Crockett: You can see that from what Dave has been saying from what we’re seeing on the ground there. And Pastor Aaron, it’s an honor to talk to you and to know what you’re doing there. But my question for you is you’ve been here for 10 years, you’ve been in this town through trying circumstances, especially as a funeral home director as well, with this historic flood going on. There’s a lot of crisis and chaos happening, but you have gone through crisis and chaos maybe at a smaller level at other times. What are some of the things you’ve learned in times of difficulty, times of loss that you could share with us that would be helpful for all of us to learn from those going through the floods of Hurricane Helene and Milton, as well as other listeners all across the country and all across the world?
Aaron Causby: Sure. Well, pastor Isaac, I appreciate everything that you’ve said and everything that you’re doing. The biggest thing that I’ve learned, which I shouldn’t be surprised about this, but honestly I am is just the generosity of the church and not our church, but God’s church. I’ve learned so much about how generous people are, and I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of support that has came into our town. These are our people. We’re just mountain people who didn’t have much to begin with anyway. And so many of our brothers and sisters in Christ have been just catastrophically affected by this storm. And I’m overwhelmed every day from last Monday until even today as I drive to the funeral home, I have to get on Interstate 40 East to come to work, and almost every vehicle that I pass is a truck with a trailer full of supplies or a truck with a side-by-side or a skid steer or just a van full of people that are showing up from all across the country to generously give their time, to generously give their money.
Aaron Causby: As I’ve been on this call, I’ve been receiving text messages and phone calls from people that I’ve never met before, and the Lord has brought a lot of people together. And I wrote this down this morning as I was praying that when God’s church operates in unity, so much can be accomplished in a small amount of time. And that’s proven to be true during this time. And if you’re looking for a way to get involved to echo what Brother Dave said, I would challenge you to hook in with the local church from this area. And there’s a lot of churches doing a lot of things, but we know that God’s in control and we know that God’s in charge of all this. And I’ve just learned about the generosity of people and the unity of people, and we can get a lot done when we put our heads together.
Speaker 4: Aaron, this storm, Helene has rearranged the landscape of Western North Carolina. There are tragically some cities like the beautiful little community of chimney rock, the chimney rock. Rock is there. It’s what draws people to that community. Of course, it’s not been damaged. It’s going to stay there and I’m sure something will rise up around that. But all the little shops that were along the little creek there, the river are gone. They’re just completely gone. And I was looking back yesterday through, it will be a year, October 19th, just the 19th of this month, my wife and I were up and visited some of those little shops. It’s just a quaint, beautiful little North Carolina town. Well, it’s all gone. So all of that part of the state has been changed dramatically. I’d love to ask you this. This has also changed the landscape of the church, and you’ve already alluded to it. I wonder what you as a pastor would love to see in your church and in the greater body of Christ, the entire church of Jesus Christ moving forward once this particular crisis is over and it’s going to be months if not years, but at some point if the Lord tears, it will be over. What would you like to see the church doing being once this is passed?
Aaron Causby: Well, I was challenged by one of our church members after we fed all those hundreds of people. Two weeks ago, I had someone come up to me in my church and they said, why are we not doing this all the time? Why did we just now start doing this? It certainly took a tragedy like this for us to fill the urgency to reach people. And the little road that my church is on is called Israel Chapel Road, and most people wouldn’t have a clue where that is. But we were able to hand deliver a meal to every single house on that road that day. And to be honest with you, it convicted me because I thought, I’ve been here 10 years, we should have already been doing this. And so I’ve been challenged to live with urgency. I preached last night about how we live such temporal lives.
Aaron Causby: We live such worldly lives, but God’s people should have eternity at the forefront of their minds at all times and live like there’s eternity at stake. And so I hope for our church that our church can always be a place where the gospel is the focus, because really Brother Dave, I know you’ll agree with this, and Pastor Isaac, the greatest need is not bottled water. And the greatest need is not propane. All these things are great and they’re needed, but the greatest need of our land is the gospel. And I hope that our church can focus on the gospel and also hope, and this sounds simple, but I hope that our church can operate with a grateful heart, not take for granted anytime we get to meet together as a body of Christ and the beautiful facility we have and our church family. And I hope we can always have grateful hearts for what the word has given us and allowed us to keep when so many others have lost everything.
Isaac Crockett: Well, pastor Aaron, thank you for that very convicting for all of us. We hear and think about that. Dave, any final comments? And then could you close our program in prayer?
Speaker 4: Yeah, be delighted to Isaac. Listen, I just want to say, Aaron, thank you for being on. What a blessing it is to walk through this tragedy alongside you. And just to share some part in it, Isaac, I want to echo kind of what Pastor Aaron said moving forward. The thought that has resonated in my heart over and over and over and over is that the water bottles and the propane and the ching saws and the generators and all of that is a means to an end. These people need these things. They need them desperately. And to be able to provide them for them is akin to what Jesus did when he met physical needs of people while he walked this earth. He healed, he fed, but he did all of that with a much bigger and more eternal goal in mind. And that was to see the souls of those people forever altered and to see them come to know him as savior and to spend eternity one day with him.
Speaker 4: And so I’m praying that through all of this, our focus will remain on ministering to people at every level, but primarily ministering to them spiritually. And one of the greatest ways to do that is to minister to them by meeting physical needs at a moment of crisis. And there’s all kinds of crises in people’s lives. It may be an emotional, it may be a death, it may be a suicide of a family member, but crises come up all the time, and we’ve got to be ready, instant ready to move in and to come alongside folks and minister to them in the hopes of getting the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. Father, I want to thank you for what you are doing, Lord, even in the midst of tragedy, Lord, a lot has happened. Lord, in my own personal life this summer leading into the fall, Lord, we’ve had personal loss.
Speaker 4: We’ve had personal tragedy. Lord, the hardest thing we’ve ever walked through. But Lord, you’ve walked through it with us. And Lord, you’ve brought wonderful people alongside us to walk this course. And so, Lord, I want to thank you for Isaac. I want to thank you for Pastor Aaron. Lord, I love these men. Lord, they’re young men, but Father, they have your hand of anointing and power upon them, and I pray you would bless them in mighty and powerful ways. I thank you, Lord, for allowing us Lord to walk through this tragedy in North Carolina, and Lord, be some kind of help I pray that would continue blessed in a mighty way. Give us your direction and your wisdom and your power as we move forward in your mighty and matchless name in England. Jesus, I do pray. Amen.
Isaac Crockett: Amen. Amen. Thank you so much, Dave. Aaron, thank you. Those of you listening, thank you for listening. Please share this program with others and pray for us here at the American Pastors Network. And until next time, stand in the gap for the Lord today. Wherever you are.
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