After Hurricane Helene hit the mountains of Western North Carolina in late September 2024, causing massive flooding, mudslides and nearly wiping out entire towns, many churches and individuals mobilized to get immediate needs met such as food, clothing and shelter.
The North Carolina West (NCW) and North Carolina East (NCE) districts became inundated with people wanting to help; church hallways were filled with donations, people gave money, and volunteers were deployed to areas such as Asheville, Boone, Swannanoa and Old Fort.
One pastor/volunteer possessed such a unique combination of practical skills, tenacity and a deep passion for wanting to help people that he is serving in Hurricane recovery weekly.
Pastor Bradley Hill, house flipper and deputy chief of his local fire department, is on an ongoing mission he calls “Mountain Mondays.” He heads to the mountains (approximately 1.5 to 2.5 hours from his home in High Point, North Carolina) every Monday with prayers and donations and equipment that miraculously continue to find their way to him.
Pastor Bradley, who is a member of NCE but serves as an assistant pastor at Greenwood Hills in NCW, has found a way to be a conduit to connect people. Sometimes that is people with supplies with those who need them, and other times it is connecting with people who don’t have a faith in God.
This work didn’t just start with Hurricane Helene. In 2014, Pastor Bradley was the executive pastor of a growing church in North Carolina, and he had an unusual encounter with God calling him to do something completely different. He resigned from his position in 2017 and later created an outreach non-profit called Rise Up Network.
“I’m just a normal dude with a passion and a deep sense of caring for people who are the least, last and lost,” said Pastor Bradley. It can be hard to put a label on the work he does and what exactly it is. “It’s a group of people, a network of people, organizations, churches, civic organizations … whatever it takes … to help people rise up from their current circumstances with self-struggles, deep-rooted life challenges and unhoused situations,” he said. Pastor Bradley has been deployed to at least 15 natural disasters in the past 20 years and was helping the disadvantaged in Honduras when Hurricane Helene hit.
Once back home, he knew he needed to get involved. “The Lord said ‘go,’ and I just knew I was supposed to start driving West.”
The place he has been led to the most is Old Fort, North Carolina. Old Fort is a town with a very flat elevation that was nearly wiped out, just outside of Black Mountain.
Old Fort Wesleyan Church, which was 5-feet deep in water and mud throughout its entire property, was basically adopted by several churches as the project they would spend time and money restoring. But Pastor Bradley soon found a different role. As people began randomly showing up from places such as Tennessee and Pennsylvania with skid steers and trucks and vans of workers, they needed direction. “I was just being present, and while I wasn’t in charge, I knew how to make a decision, so I just started guiding and directing them,” he says.
Pastor Bradley has now been asked by NCW District Superintendent (DS) Jerry Lumston to help coordinate the “resurrection” of Old Fort Wesleyan, while NCE District Superintendent Tim Jones has appointed him as the NCE District Regional Response and Outreach coordinator. “He is a people person,” said DS Lumston. “He is just a natural fit. He has the non-profit, he’s a natural evangelist and he has the skills to do the job that needs to be done.”
While the flood was nearly four months ago, there are still people living in tents in the hills, said DS Lumston. “Our people have led multiple people to the Lord at giveaways up there.” The NC districts have many churches working in areas that don’t have Wesleyan churches, continuing to supply their needs. For example, 3,000 space heaters were delivered to Bethel Wesleyan in Flat Rock, and six Amazon truckloads of packages, which all needed to get to the right people in Canton. These are the types of logistics that were coming at them on a weekly basis.
As Pastor Bradley shares what he is doing with people, many open their wallets and hand him money without any prompting. His barber told him that every time he prayed, Pastor Bradley’s face came to his mind. “He handed me $6,464 and said, ‘I didn’t know where to give this, but the Lord told me to give it to you.’” Some days he simply drives an old RV he was given by a supporting partner in Energize Ministries, talks to people, gives them money and tells them, “God sees you.”
God is now using the skills Pastor Bradley possesses to be a conduit for people and teams restoring Old Fort Wesleyan and in other towns as well on his Monday trips.
He reveals that at a conference in Israel 10 years ago, God gave him a vision for Rise Up Network. “In the vision I saw trucks full of supplies, I saw airplanes going into places and transfer trucks and shower trailers and washing machine trailers.” He was transfixed by this in the middle of someone’s speech in a way that he had never experienced before. Since then, Pastor Bradley has known this is what he is called to do, to get a group of people and organizations together to help the least, last and lost. “As a member of the fire department, I have been privy to what happens when someone loses everything. They always need someone to talk to.”
To learn more about Rise Up Network or to get involved in Western North Carolina relief efforts, visit riseupnetwork.com.
Jennifer Jones is a freelance journalist and pastor’s wife serving as the North Carolina East District administrator.
