“A lot of these homes where people were being helped, people were committing their lives to Christ. There was revival, there were prayer and worship services in the muck in people's front yards every day. It wasn't just about rebuilding homes.”
In the fall of 2024, Hurricane Helene became the deadliest hurricane since Katrina, responsible for taking at least 250 lives and doing massive damage. After the remnant of Helene had passed, Courtney Daily tried to get a sense of what happened in her eastern Tennessee neighborhood. And she felt led to first check on an elderly family friend named Jerry (pictured above).
“We found Jerry, he was standing in his yard. He was in about two feet of mud, and the whole back half of his house was gone! It had washed away, and all of the contents of his home were gone. His garage was gone. He had nothing but the clothes on his back and he had one vehicle left that hadn't washed away, but it was stuck - in second gear - covered in mud. And when we found him, he was just standing in his yard crying. Jerry was 69 years old, he was about to turn 70, and he was a dear family friend. And he said to us, ‘I don't know what I'm going to do. I had no flood insurance. I have no savings. I've lived in this house the majority of my life.’” Courtney shares, “That night my husband and I just prayed one of the most heart wrenching, tearful prayers we've ever prayed, just begging, God, ‘please give us a way.’”
Major money need
“We knew it was probably a hundred grand commitment to rebuild his house, to give him everything he needed. And it seemed impossible. But we know, Matthew 19:26, with God, all things are possible. And we prayed, 'God, if there's any way, please help us get the money, whatever we need to build back Jerry's house.' And then my husband added on, ‘please let us get him back in his house by Christmas,’ which I thought was really bold. That was a lot of faith. So, we prayed and the next day we went down to help him,” but the Lord had already arranged things at Jerry's house. “God had sent everything we needed, the work crew, the materials. We had over a hundred people at his house that day!”
Blessings were about to snowball
“And by the time we left Jerry’s that night, we were so moved watching God's people move that I made a video. I had 600 followers on my author Courtney Daily Facebook page. Okay. I was a nobody. And I just made this little video crying my eyes out, talking about the miracles that God had sent us that day. And God made the video go viral. It got over 5 million views and I started getting thousands of messages from people all over the world, not just the United States, all over the world, wanting to donate and help and rebuild Jerry's house, people volunteering, flooring or work crews, or all sorts of different things. And we set up a fund through our church and people could donate there and everything just started pouring in. And we had Jerry's – God had Jerry's - entire house built back with everything he needed from the furniture, his clothes, a vehicle donated - a new vehicle, everything he needed… by December 18th … before Christmas! Yes!”
God had much more in store
“Well, we had so many building materials and so many donations pouring in that we started moving down the street because we were like, ‘whoa, this is way more.’ And there were so many needs, so many people had lost everything. So, we started going down the street and asking different homeowners, ‘Okay, what did you lose? What do you need? How can we help?’ And every time we stepped out in faith and said, ‘Let's help this family,’ God came in behind us and just paved the way. He fixed everything for us. And today we have helped 14 families repair and rebuild their homes. And then a few months ago, we started our 15th house, which is a complete tear down and rebuild for a single dad and his two daughters. And our motto is, every time we start a new house, we're like, okay, this is our last house. Okay, this is our last house, but God keeps sending funds and work crews and building materials. And now our motto is, we'll stop when God stops because this is not our plan. This is obviously his plan.”
A spiritual challenge and revelation
“We felt like it was probably around Christmas time when it really hit. It was like spiritual warfare. The devil was coming against us because a lot of these homes where people were being helped, people were committing their lives to Christ. There was revival, there were prayer and worship services in the muck in people's front yards every day. It wasn't just about rebuilding homes. And Satan was mad. We were feeling it. He was coming after us and we were discouraged. I had terrible anxiety and burnout, and we were overwhelmed. And I got really sick. I was in bed for about two weeks. [Normally], I don't go to bed. I don't take naps, I don't stop. I think God put me in bed for two weeks. And I really think during that time it was to show me, ‘Hey, look, you're in bed, but my work is still going’ because I was just a passenger and I was trying to do everything on my own, not realizing, ‘Hey, God's the one who belongs in the driver's seat. He's the one who's running this whole thing.’”
This had to be God
Besides the myriad blessings, the Lord reached out with a very specific assurance and confirmation for Courtney.
“There are so many stories. There has been something almost every single day for the last year. But some of my favorites around Christmas time when I was going through all that anxiety and it was just a really dark time. One of the Facebook followers sent me a message, and she said, ‘I feel like God was nudging me to send you this song.’ And it was the song, 'Still Waters.' I'm sure you've heard it. I had never heard it before. And the song is all about how that God's going to walk with you and lead you by still waters. And if you're afraid or you're having anxiety or whatever, you just need to lean into him and let him shepherd you. And the first time I heard the song, I just cried my eyes out.
But there was another major reason for that particular song - and it had God's fingerprint
“I felt like it was a message from God. Well, it was about three weeks later that we had moved across the river. We were done with Jerry Street. And it wasn't just our church. Other churches had adopted these different homes down the street. And we moved across the river because there was another couple working on 24 homes single handedly by themselves. And I told my husband, I said, ‘I'm so overwhelmed. I don't know if I can keep going. And I feel like God wants us to keep going.’ And I remember crying saying, ‘I don't think I can keep doing this.’ And then they [the other couple] said, ‘If you'll just take this one house, it's the worst house. And if you could take this off our plates, it would help us so much.’ So, we go to look at the house. It's awful. The floors were falling in.
We knew we were going to have to take off the whole back half of the house. And we're in there and I'm taking videos, my husband's doing measurements, we're looking at everything. And we got back in the truck and my husband said, ‘How much money do we have left in the church fund?’ And I said, ‘I don't know. Let me text the church secretary.’ And as soon as I said it, my phone dinged and it was a message from the church secretary and she said, 'You wouldn't believe the way the donations are pouring in. We've gotten $5,000 just today.' And I held out my phone and showed it to my husband, and I just cried. And we started driving down the road and we got to the end of the street and I said, ‘Stop... the sign!’” Courtney, in awe, recalls, “The road that we were starting on, the new house we were taking... was on Stillwater Circle, like the song Still Waters!”
In our complete podcast interview just below, Courtney shares another God story, where it appears God, Himself, ordered a heat pump to be delivered to a woman in desperate need!
Renewing Your Faith in the One
Who Hears Every Prayer
In addition, Courtney has authored a book describing the amazing blessings and obvious God-focused miracles that have taken place. Though the book itself is for sale, Courtney explains the e-book is available for free to anyone who wants it.
