Joel Boyers is the owner of Helistar Aviation, which offers helicopter and airplane services in the Nashville area, from aerial tours of Music City to weddings, corporate events, commercials, and even Easter egg drops. He knows the mid-Tennessee topography very well. So, when a powerful flash flood struck rural communities, it happened that Joel was up in a helicopter helping his fiancé, Melody, get a check ride for her own helicopter license. That’s when he got a call “from a woman (in Pennsylvania) who was very frantic and she sounded distraught, said she got a call from her brother in Waverly, Tennessee, (60 miles west of Nashville) who said he was trapped on a roof with rising floodwater. And his two daughters were with him.” She begged Joel to go help them. “So, immediately I felt guilt because I knew it would be easier to say, ‘no.’” But Joel told her he would “at least try.”
And try, he did. “The weather was really horrible on the way there. I followed Interstate 40 out. Really, really horrible…had the (helicopter) doors off…and “I actually prayed on the way there…and something just told me that, like, ‘it was going to be okay.’ That God was going to be with me. It’s going to be okay.” With that shot of confidence, and all his aviation experience, “I wasn’t really that nervous. It just felt like working, like rolling up your sleeves and getting to work.”
When it comes to faith, Joel explains “I actually was a non-believer up until about two-and-a-half years ago,” but credits God with making some “pretty major changes in my life.”
Armed with that faith, Joel plucked 17 people from rooftops and other uncomfortable places. One flood survivor he helped told him about a girl clinging to a tree, with a dog. They found her, still holding that dog she had rescued, and got both to safety.
It wouldn’t be fully known until some days later, but 22 lives were lost in the dramatic flood that floated cars and wrecked homes.
In our podcast below, Joel shares how his faith has grown as God has directly answered prayers. He also tells us how people he rescued responded, including one fellow who simply said, ‘Thanks for the ride, man.'
