On September 27, 2024 I was forced to scramble up a steep thorn and ivy covered hillside climbing over downed trees to escape the floodwaters of the Swannanoa River.  We helped our dog navigate the way while carrying our few belongings on our backs and one small suitcase.  My husband and I had spent the early morning praying and trusting in God for provision and protection as trees fell around our rental house.  After daylight the sounds of falling trees subsided and a new sound reached us.  This was undeniably a sound of wood splitting and cracking but not trees.  We witnessed one by one as our neighbors’ houses were hit by debris in the river and ripped off their foundations to add further devastation to the houses downstream.  To our horror we watched one of our neighbors with his dog floating away on the roof of his house.

We had arrived in Asheville three weeks prior after moving from Alaska, where we had been living for 15 years.  My husband had transferred from Denali National Park to the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We felt like we were coming home.  We had both spent the first 20 years of our adult lives in North and South Carolina close to the Blue Ridge and had spent countless day and nights camping and hiking and biking in the mountains.  This is where our heart lives and we felt God’s call to settle in Asheville.

The experience of September 27, 2024 will forever shape my outlook on life and my perspective on how to use my blessings to help others.  I see that we are at all times balancing on a knife’s edge and any decision or circumstance can throw us into poverty, homelessness or a life-threatening situation.  Any control we think we have is an illusion.  The only thing we control in this life is how we respond to what happens around us.

The Lord God, the Creator of the Universe, has blessed me abundantly and I will use my blessing and skills to bless those around me.  I have done nothing to deserve the outpouring of blessing that I have received.  I have done nothing special that sets me apart.  But God used the events of September 27, 2024 to open my eyes to how he had uniquely prepared me to make a difference in his world.

I have named the nonprofit organization which I am founding, World of Abundance to reflect the reality of God’s creation.  There is enough food for all, there can be enough housing for all, there is enough work for all and there are enough workers for all.  There is also enough money for all.  Most of us perceive the world through a lens of scarcity because we are taught from a young age that there is a limited supply of _____

The vision of this organization is to tackle some of the perceived scarcities in the world and turn them into abundance.  The first areas to target will be food and workforce.  Through the Horticulture Fellowship program, participants will learn to grow food and will gain work skills as they help to increase the abundance of food available in Asheville and Buncombe County.  Upon graduation from the program, they will be more employable and yet they could choose to start their own business.  Many people see homeless people as a problem, a drain on society’s resources and something to push aside.  However, these are people with hopes and dreams and skills.  These are people with potential to contribute to society if given the chance.  Someone in the 15th century said something that I wish we would all recognize. We could bring this to mind any time we see a homeless person or a poor person visiting a food pantry.  “There but by the grace of God go I.”  The truth is we are not superior; we are not better; we did not earn our good situation.  And anything we have could be taken away in a heartbeat.

Looking into the future we will partner with other organizations to tackle affordable housing, affordable and available transportation, and help start small businesses to employ more people.  Through it all we will trust God to give us direction and funding.