Pictures don’t even capture it

By Jeff Becraft

 

This past weekend, I went with a group of guys to Black Mountain Home for Children in Black Mountain, North Carolina. On the west campus of Black Mountain Home was the third largest landslide in North Carolina that happened during Hurricane Helene. We went in to help with a few work projects, and as part of the weekend, to encourage Black Mountain Home and their mission of rescuing kids from violence, neglect, abuse, human trafficking, the whole nine yards… and to help them in some small way with all the great things that they are accomplishing. (BMH is obviously close to my heart because I bring them up frequently.)

We stayed on west campus in a building that was not destroyed and we were just maybe 100 yards from where the landslide came through. As part of the day, we were moving totes filled with kitchen supplies that were being stored in a trailer over to another trailer on main campus that was going to be used in the near future. Where the trailer was on west campus was up by the dining hall. The dining hall was a beautiful building. In fact, it was booked out through 2026 for weddings.

But on that faithful day back in September 2024, when the landslide came down, the right side of the dining hall was completely demolished.

That morning, there was a college group that was staying at west campus, about 35 of them. This was early in the morning, about 8:30 am., and the storm was getting worse. Trees were snapping off. Staff called them and said, “Hey, you need to get to the dining hall to get away from the trees.” They move into the dining hall. While they are there, one of the students looks out and says, “The trees are coming.” And there came the landslide.

They went running out of the building for their lives and went into the side parking lot on the left side of the building. The landslide came through, wiped out the right side of the building, the part of the building also where the bathrooms are. Amazingly enough, no one was in the bathroom during this time. Here are these very-much-shaken-up college students out there in their pajamas and what not, some of them are just in bare feet.

The staff of Black Mountain Home did a heroic job. Not only did they have a landslide, but now there is a river, and we are talking white water, running down where the landslide came through. This has the college students cut off from getting off west campus or to get to any place that they could stay. The staff had to get a rope to go across this now flowing river. It is about knee deep but it is white water. They have to walk these college students through the river to get to safety. One of the staff was out in the middle helping guide students across and was getting hit with rocks bigger than a grapefruit flowing down from the landslide. Thankfully, everyone got out. There were no injuries (other than a twisted ankle from somebody running out of the building) and there was no loss of life.

It was a miraculous moment for everyone to be safe.

While we were helping with these totes, at the very end, a few of us walked behind the dining hall and walked out into where the landslide had come through.

Pictures cannot even describe it.

I had seen pictures on Facebook. I even came home and showed my wife pictures I had taken, and I just kept saying over and over again, “This doesn’t even come close to capturing it. It was just absolute devastation. Boulders bigger than me, trees… giant trees… just everywhere.”

The reality was much, much greater than what pictures could ever show and plus, for us, we didn’t live there. We had only seen and heard things from afar. That’s not quite the same as when you’re right in the middle of it.

It was just a sober awakening to realize that we may think we know what someone is going through, but in reality, we do not. But standing out there in the middle of that landslide, with two other people out there with me, we just kept saying, “Wow, pictures don’t even begin to capture this.”

And so, let’s remember, as we’re dealing with people on a day-to-day basis, we may think we know what a person is going through… but in reality, we do not. It could be much greater than what we see on the outside.  And we may not fully realize the devastating effect that it is having on their life.

So let’s be kind and compassionate and patient when dealing with one another. What we are seeing may not even scratch the surface.

 

Jeff Becraft is the Director of Our Place of Hope and the Director Emeritus for Youth Corps and has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. Our Place of Hope is a paradigm shift for people living with mental illness that encourages them to regain meaning, purpose, and hope for their lives. You can connect with Jeff at  [email protected].