ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. (WJHL) — A local church has been hosting dozens of volunteers who are helping with Hurricane Helene recovery six months after the storm.

Grace Baptist Church in Elizabethton is currently hosting 60 volunteers. The church has been hosting as many as around 120 at a time.

Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief has been stationed at the church since October and continues to help those needing repairs from the hurricane.

“We have completed 155 jobs since we have been here. This is just since January,” Coordinator Kaye Thomas said. “We actually came in October and did recovery, which means that we tore the flooded areas out of the home. Whatever needed to be done.”

April Hardin is one of many who have received assistance.

“I wouldn’t wish this on anybody. It’s been a really big ordeal,” Hardin said. “But with organizations like them, I mean, they’re a Godsend.”

Some volunteers doing work right now came from as far as Minnesota and Ohio. Pastor Gary Bragg is volunteering along with 12 members of his Harvest Baptist congregation from Wapakoneta, Ohio.

“Part of my team is in a church and we’re putting drywall on in the church fellowship hall, and in the kitchen, and in some other rooms, and then they’re mudding that, and then that will be sanded,” Bragg said. “And then we were picking up trash in other places, we’re painting in some homes inside. Today we started pulling off a floor that was really wet. We done some masonry work. We put in a couple of doors, three doors, in fact.”

Those three doors are in Hardin’s home.

“They’re a great, great organization. They’ve helped me so much,” Hardin said. “They got me approved for my sheetrock, my insulation, my subfloor, and today they hung a couple of doors for me. And then they’re going to send another crew back to tape and mud and sand for the sheetrock.”

Hardin’s house had to be gutted and treated for mold. Although her house remains uninhabitable, she hopes to move back in soon with the help of volunteers like Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief.

“It’s very uplifting,” Hardin said. “It’s very emotional that there’s so much hope out there that people want to volunteer their time.”

It’s something Coordinator Kaye Thomas says is what they are called to do.

“Jesus told us to be his hands and feet, and that’s what we’re doing here on this Earth is just sharing his love in knowing what we can do to share that love that Jesus had for us,” Thomas said.

Volunteers usually stay for a week at a time, some returning once a month or every few months.

“And an amazing thing is we’re going to be here just for five days and these people still have to deal with it week after week and month after month and maybe in a year’s time,” Bragg said. “And we’ll go back to our merry way and but we’ll be closer now that we got to see it visually and we got to do a little bit for five days.”

“It makes us more thankful because we’ve really seen some real problems today and we’ve seen where the river really made a lot of damage and we think how grateful we are and our situation in Wapakoneta.”

Thomas said the group will remain in the area until all the work is finished. She encourages anyone who still needs work done to call 615-969-0410 for help.

Donations can be sent to the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board online. 100% of donations go completely towards recovery efforts.