My story today "A journey and a homecoming" was a bit off the beaten path for me.

For one thing, it took place 12 hours away (or, if you're in a caravan led by a 26-foot truck towing a car and driving almost 800 miles in a steady downpour, 16 hours). And it took place in a part of the world that seemed more like a third-world country than somewhere in the United States a place where an old pop-up camper at the side of the road can be called home and where only a lucky few have any kind of employment.

But this wasn't a surprise. I went expecting poverty, and I'm sure that what I saw, passing a few run-down trailers on winding, rocky roads, wasn't the worst of it.

What was a surprise was that, as easily overlooked as Calf Creek Hollow, Ky., could be, it's far from overlooked at the moment. Since ABC aired the "20/20" special that introduced America to Homecoming Church of Jesus Christ, which pastor Elmer Harris began 11 years ago to serve the poorest of the poor, offers of help have come from all over the country (The donations Journey Church members collected from in and around St. Joseph made up the largest delivery the church has seen so far).

I'm sure to some extent this speaks to the power of the media, that a few minutes on national television has drawn so much attention to a tiny church hidden away in Appalachia. But I also think there's something bigger behind all this.

There's something behind the fact that one of the members of Journey Church, who hates leaving home but felt strongly he was supposed to be a part of this mission, happens to have experience laying carpet and arrived in Kentucky to find a piece of carpet to lay, thanks to a donation from a man in Ohio. There's something behind the fact that a man from Rockport, Mo., donated windows and doors not knowing they'd arrive in Calf Creek Hollow not long before another group was scheduled to arrive to help construct additional buildings at Homecoming Church. And there's something, too, behind the fact that Kathy Moore who spearheaded Journey Church's mission kept feeling an urge to bring flowers, only to find that Mr. Harris' wife, Betty, had had a vision that the church would one day be surrounded by them.

I look at these pieces and others that have come together without human planning and see God bringing much-needed aid to a place among the least likely to receive it, at a time it's least likely to come. With the entire nation facing an economic recession, it's amazing that now is when this onslaught of help has arrived.

And there will be more. Mr. Harris expects five or six loads of food each month, coming from all over the country, at least through August. He's heard, too, from a woman in Florida interested in bringing a factory to the area to create jobs there.

It's too soon now to know how this will all turn out. But being there last week, I sensed I was witnessing a small piece of a much bigger plan for answering a prayer Homecoming Church has been praying for years: that God would send someone to help the poor.

It turns out he sent a lot of someones - and maybe this is just the start.