Those that went with Lue Ward and Having Church Ministries to New Bern, N.C., had a transformative experience bringing supplies to those in need at About My Father’s Business Outreach Ministry before Thanksgiving.

Ward and the ministry spent three weekends gathering donations from the community at Mike Duman Auto Sales and LW’s Lawn Service.

For some of those that went with Ward, this wasn’t their first time helping in the aftermath of a hurricane.

Barbara Edwards has been to New York after Hurricane Sandy, and she was more than happy to join for the trip to North Carolina.

“I enjoy mission work and getting my foot wet with it, and this was an opportunity,” Edwards said. “It was a good idea, and I jumped on board.”

Even though she has done this before, seeing those in need is still just as jarring.

Hurricane Florence ripped through the Southeast more than two months ago, and communities like New Bern are still struggling to come back from the devastation.

“Traveling along, I saw a lot of blue tarps, and we could see different places where you could tell people were still affected,” Edwards said. “When we got to New Bern, you could see that people were working hard to make repairs. When we got to the ministry, you could see that people were struggling to come back from what had happened.”

Edwards was happy to see that this ministry, though small, was working hard to help its community during a tough time.

“They are a very small and tight-knit body of believers, and you could tell that they were just started working for their community. It’s just a part of their ministry,” Edwards said. “They were there to help their community, and it was quite obvious when we arrived.”

Being able to help, even just a little bit, was everything Edwards could have hoped for, and she is looking for any chance to do it again.

“It’s a good and humbling feeling. Sometimes we forget the people on the ground,” Edwards said.

Johnnie Edwards III has been working with Ward on hurricane relief since Hurricane Katrina, and he plans to continue charity work in the future. He believes that it is his job to go to other communities in need, because Suffolk already has a slew of great organizations.

“Suffolk has great charity organizations for Suffolkians with LeOtis (Williams), formerly Impact Suffolk and you could go on and on with local churches. Suffolk is straight, and now Suffolk has a chance to be a blessing in a larger world,” Johnnie Edwards said.

Going to New Bern was emotional for him because of how close the devastation was.

“What made this different than the other trips was because this one was so close. This was three hours, and this could have been us,” Johnnie Edwards said. “That’s how I felt going down there since it could have been us. It was only appropriate to make sure we helped.”