Franklin Graham on Hurricane Relief: Carrying Billy Graham’s Legacy Forward | #119

Welcome, everyone to on the Home Front. I'm Jeff Dutton, and I appreciate you tuning in today. We are honored to have Reverend Franklin Graham with us. Franklin is the son of legendary evangelist Billy Graham, and like his father, he has devoted his life to serving others. Through his leadership at Samaritan's Purse, Franklin carries forward the legacy of compassion, helping those in need worldwide, especially in times of crisis like the one now in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina. Samaritan's Purse is located right there in western North Carolina, has been making a significant impact across the region as well as working in Florida and Georgia and beyond. Anywhere people are in need, this organization has been on the front lines of disaster relief for decades, offering critical support when and where it is needed the most. As an Appalachian State graduate, just like.

Reverend Graham, I feel deeply connected to.

This area and the people who live there. The recovery from Hurricane Helene is far from over, and many families are still struggling without essentials such as food, water, and medical care. For some, it might take years to rebuild and return to their homes. It's a reminder that recovery doesn't end when the headlines do. So.

Today, my family and I are making.

An additional $10,000 donation to Samaritan's Purse.

And we're committed to donating every month.

Until these communities are stabilized. I encourage you to join us by supporting Samaritan's purseamaritinspurse.org or even volunteering alongside of us. They arrange for volunteers to go into these areas in addition to taking financial donations and distributing critical care to the people that need it. Let's jump into our conversation and learn how we can work together to bring relief and hope to these communities.

We're here today on the home front with Reverend Franklin Graham, who leads Samaritan's Purse organization up in western North Carolina. Incredible organization. We've been involved in various ways over the years. Mr. Graham, we're here roughly a month after Helene. What remains some of the biggest and.

Most urgent needs for the people of western North Carolina?

Oh, that's. There's a. It's a long. It's a long list. The people that don't have electricity, it would be generators. That's. That and fuel. That's. That's a big thing. For people that lived in mobile homes along the Swannanoa river down in Buncombe County. Those people, though those mobile homes are going to. We've cleaned them up, but some of them just going to have to be replaced. And these are poor people and they don't have. They don't have the means. There's some people that had mortgages on their houses. You could get flood insurance and of course the house is destroyed and you got to either build it back or they're going to have to rent, pay off the mortgage. I don't know how they're going to do it. It's. It's a tough deal. We need volunteers. It's. This will be, you know, the third week, and it's. And it's. People are struggling, and so we need teams of volunteers and we're going to need that for months to come. So if a person can come and give a few hours or give a day or two, that would be a huge help.

I was in a business where I responded to disasters for 25 years, and it was never lost upon me that it was neighbors helping neighbors. And you can wait for fema, you can wait for the government to show up, but it was always people helping people, and that's the way it's always been. What has been, what can people do right now to come up there and get involved? Where do they go, where do they report to and how do they get involved with you?

Well, need to go to Samaritan's Person.org and click on. We know we're down in Florida. We're in Georgia working, of course, here in North Carolina, we're in Ash, Asheville, Boone and Burnsville area. And so there's plenty of opportunity up here in the mountains if a person wants to, to come and help. And we need prayer. I mean, that's, that's a huge thing that people up here still need prayer. I mean, still need. We always need prayer. But I mean, but right now the weather's getting cooler. Well, we're getting frost every morning, so it's getting cold. And we just need to try to help people get back in their houses, get them repaired, or help them be able to move on.

If people wanted to donate certain essentials like drinking water, food, medicines, what are some of the things that are truly in need right now? If people wanted to donate things, I.

Think water is probably okay. Places like in Asheville and Buncombe county, the water systems are for the most part still up and running. Bottled water for drinking is, is, I think is probably an ample supply of that. As far as clothes, I think, I think that's a tough one because you don't want to receive used clothes and that's, that's hard to sort and so forth. But, you know, if a manufacturer wanted to give, you know, 30,000 or 20,000 jackets or something like that. That would be huge and that would be a great help. But I think the big thing right now we just need, we need people, bodies and people to come up, volunteers who let their, their hands and their feet be the, the hands and feet of the Lord Jesus Christ right now and helping these people that have, you know, just clean up and where they can move on.

What kind of work could people expect to be doing? Is it democking houses, is it demolition? Cleaning out sheetrock, things like that, muddying.

Out houses, cleaning up debris, using a chainsaw to cut, you know, trees off, roofs. And, and you say, well, I can't do that. Well, maybe there's those in your work team that can do that and you just help carry off the limbs. But there's something that all of us can do. No question about it. There's plenty for everybody to do.

So my experience is in situations like this, three to six months, usually the initial wave of, of cleaning out the houses, getting the trash out, stabilizing people. Sometimes you have to relocate people to new housing because their homes just are not going to be ready if at all. Is, is that what you expect? Maybe three to six months for this initial wave. And then people are just going to have to sort their lives and figure out what they're going to do next.

Well, the Samaritan's purse will be involved. We were estimating at least three to four years. Okay. It's just not a six month deal for us. This is a long term and we're here to help people recover.

Are you providing housing, long term housing options for people?

We don't have long term housing options for the short term. But what we'll do is we'll do rebuilds. We'll help people rebuild their houses, we'll provide trailers for people that didn't have insurance, that lost their mobile homes. There's a lot of things that we will be doing in the months to come.

Have you been able to coordinate with maybe churches from surrounding areas that weren't affected for relocating families on a temporary.

Basis or what does that look like?

Well, I found a lot of people just moved in with relatives.

Right.

You know, it's not like people live here and they don't know anybody. They have an aunt or an uncle or grandparents that live, you know, 5 miles away or 10 miles away or whatever, and they have moved in with them. And so as families are to help us take care of families.

Yeah. Well, we certainly appreciate everything that you've done up there. We appreciate you being a mechanism for people to get involved, for people to donate. We're going to keep supporting every month on the month. My family and I, my wife and I, people here at our organization in Huntersville have already been up working with your teams at Samaritan's Purse on the weekends and doing all of that. So we're going to continue to organize those trips. We'll keep pushing people up the mountain as, as, as long as we can, and, and we'll keep financially supporting the cause. So we, we really appreciate what you're doing up there. You know, we, you know, we both went.

We're both Appalachian State grads.

Well, you know, I'm, I'm one of those guys that just went to school here and stayed.

Well, we, my wife and I talked about it, but we did. We decided to roll down the mountain to Charlotte. But yeah, we, we. Our hearts are hurting for these people and we're just so thankful for the work that you're doing and giving us an opportunity to know how to, how.

To, how to assist these people.

Michael, Jeff.

Yeah. Thank you for your time today.

We are forever grateful to Reverend Graham for joining us today in giving us insight into the recovery efforts in western North Carolina. As Billy Graham's son Franklin has carried forward his father's legacy of faith in action, leading Samaritan's Purse with heart and determination for many years. The challenges with these communities are immense, but with continued support, we can help them rebuild. If you'd like to donate, please visit samaritanspurse.org a recurring monthly donation, no matter what the amount is, can make a lasting difference as the need will extend far beyond the initial recovery phase. In addition, Homefront Brands is organizing volunteer trips from our Huntersville, North Carolina headquarters to assist with relief efforts on site. If you'd like to join us, please send an email to podcastomefrontbrands.com or reach out to me on Instagram at. Jeff Duden.

Together we can offer more than donations. We can offer our time, our energy.

And presence to those in need. Thank you again for listening to on the Home Front. I'm Jeff Duden and I hope you'll continue to join us in supporting these very important efforts. Until next time, take care and stay engaged. We'll see you soon.