God's Presence Felt Among Military Personnel Assisting with Hurricane Helene Recovery

When Hurricane Helene swept through the Southeast in September, compassion organizations such as Convoy of Hope, Samaritan’s Purse, and others descended quickly into the region, supplying food, water, tarps, generators, and other essential disaster relief materials literally by the truckload.

In addition to material goods, chaplains and ministers provided the essential “listening ear” for people to share their stories and release their emotions — a step towards allowing emotional healing to begin.

Yet, it wasn’t just civilians who faced trauma resulting from the death and devastation Hurricane Helene brought — a quiet group in the background has also been dealing with the traumatic events: the men and women of the Army and Air National Guard.

U.S. Air Force Chaplain Matthew Klimis, endorsed by AG U.S. Missions’ Chaplaincy Ministries, and his Religious Affairs Airman, Senior Airman Brigette Toumou, were assigned from Eglin Air Force Base, located between Valparaiso and Fort Walton Beach, Florida, to travel to North Carolina, partnering with the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations.

Klimis, who began his ministry career as a church planter and later a jail chaplain, felt called to the military chaplaincy, joining in 2020. Now 39, God has expanded Klimis’ impact to reach far beyond Eglin Air Force Base.

“There were guard units from eight different states here assisting with hurricane relief in a joint recovery effort,” Klimis says. “We were sent to connect with them, hear their stories, provide godly counsel, and conduct worship services.”

Although the guard units assisted in distributing aid, they also conducted search and recovery of those killed in the disaster. As Klimis notes, sometimes personnel “encounter things not natural to the eye and have to process that” — a not-too-vague reference to what mudslides and roaring, debris-filled flood waters can do to those caught in their grasp.

“One of the things we communicate to those searching is that they’re doing families a service,” Klimis explains. “The focus isn’t so much on what they are doing, but why they’re doing it — to bring dignity, honor, and respect to families. They were helping God bring healing and consolation to the families.”

Klimis says that most of his days were spent driving back and forth across North Carolina, visiting guard units, and bringing God’s presence wherever he went.

“Our ministry is a ministry of presence,” he says. “What’s unique is that many of the units are ‘hidden’ in plain sight, but we find them — we show up, which communicates the message, ‘God sees you, God’s here for you, you’re not alone.’ In most instances, the military doesn’t send in active-duty personnel, but in cases like this, our presence communicates that God cares and the military cares about you.”

Klimis says that their assignment is to minister to guard personnel and civilian first responders (anyone with a badge). However, on those instances of divine encounters, he walks through those open doors as well.

“I was filling up at a gas station and a local man came up to me, tears in his eyes, and said, ‘Thank you guys for coming,’” Klimis says. “We started talking and I asked him how he was dealing with all of this, and I ended up praying for him as we were pumping gas. There is a huge appreciation for our presence — people often are fighting over who’s going to pay the bill for us when we stop at a Chick-fil-A or some other restaurant.”

Klimis and Toumou are not the only military personnel ministering in North Carolina. The pair led in the training of two Religious Support Teams, enabling the teams to travel 4,300 miles to nine remote locations, providing 132 counseling sessions and 12 worship services to 3,800 guard members.

“At one of the last visits we made, we brought a portable speaker and held a worship service followed by Communion — it was in the middle of the nowhere,” Klimis says. “It was the coolest thing, celebrating Communion in a situation and place where that’s the last thing they (guard members) would expect.”

Although Klimis’ assignment drew to a close on Oct. 21, he says that a portion of the guard will remain, with some assigned to continuing to distribute aid to victims.

“There’s a drive-up distribution station that is conservatively the size of two football fields filled with food, blankets — everything you can imagine, including approximately 30 tons of bottled water,” Klimis says. “So far, they’ve distributed 850 tons of relief supplies to more than 16,000 individuals.”

IMAGE: Chaplain Matthew Klimis (third from left, seated).

Dan Van Veen

Dan Van Veen is news editor of AG News. Prior to transitioning to AG News in 2001, Van Veen served as managing editor of AG U.S. Missions American Horizon magazine for five years. He attends Central Assembly of God in Springfield, Missouri, where he and his wife, Lori, teach preschool Sunday School and 4- and 5-year-old Rainbows boys and girls on Wednesdays.