Generating power and hope

First Presbyterian Church in Boone, North Carolina, distributes 875 donated generators to its Helene-impacted neighbors

by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service

Representatives of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance visited with leaders from Salem Presbytery at Rumple Memorial Presbyterian Church in Blowing Rock, North Carolina on Oct. 31 to hear about work the churches have been doing to respond to the impact of Hurricane Helene in the presbytery. (Photo by Rich Copley)

BLOWING ROCK, North Carolina — The next-to-last day of the solidarity visit Presbyterian Disaster Assistance held with churches and mid councils affected by the September hurricanes focused on Salem Presbytery in north-central North Carolina.

In a meeting with PDA’s director, the Rev. Edwin González-Castillo, and the Rev. Dr. Jim Kirk, PDA’s Associate for National Disaster Response, at Rumple Memorial Presbyterian Church in Blowing Rock, church leaders in Salem Presbytery shared some of what their faith communities had been through since Sept. 26-27.

Lansing Presbyterian Church will celebrate its centennial in four years. The sanctuary is elevated and was not affected by Hurricane Helene’s floodwaters, said the church’s certified ruling elder, Mae Weed. But eight feet of water — within a foot of the ceiling — flooded the church’s fellowship hall, bathrooms, Sunday school rooms and its mechanical room. “It looked like everything was going to be a loss, but the mechanical room may just need to be inspected,” Weed said.

As soon as the floods subsided, the town’s grocery store “put everything on the sidewalk for people to take,” she said. The local winery became the place “where all the meals were served for the people helping out.”

“The outpouring of gifts and supplies has been absolutely wonderful and overwhelming,” Weed said. Still, many displaced people are staying with family members or living in their badly damaged houses. “They can’t afford to fix it and have nowhere else to go, and we’re coming up on mountain winter,” Weed said.

At Baird’s Creek Presbyterian Church in Vilas, many went without power for weeks, but “no one had a tree on their roof,” said Jinx Miller, a ruling elder at the church who also works with The Listening Post at Appalachian State University in Boone. Baird’s Creek’s pastor, the Rev. Keith Freeman, lives on the eastern side of Boone, while parishioners live west of Boone, where they were without cell service for many days. Besides Freeman, “I was the only one with cell service because I lived in Boone,” Miller said. “He and I did a lot of talking and praying on the phone.”

Miller lost most of the furnishings in her apartment, and so she’s staying with a member of the Rumple church and driving a car a friend loaned to her.

“Thank God the cat was saved,” she said. “It’s quite a feeling to be in water and hear things falling and breaking all around you. The connectivity of the good old Presbyterian Church has been so prevalent throughout all this.”

The Listening Post, which is served by 35 volunteers and provides the Appalachian State University community with a chance to be heard, asked Miller and others to work extra hours following the hurricane. That they did until classes at the university resumed.

Tony De La Rosa and the Rev. Edwin González-Castillo tie their prayers to a line in front of the Rumple Memorial Presbyterian Church offices as part of its Messages on the Wind art project. (Photo by Rich Copley)

Donna Hines, a ruling elder at Mount Jefferson Presbyterian Church in West Jefferson, said the church experienced minor damage from the storm. “Because the bulk of our membership is older, we went where we were needed,” Hines said. “Those of us with phones tried to check on those we hadn’t heard from.”

The church turned its basement over to Western Youth Network, which serves at-risk children. “For 2-3 weeks,” Hines said, “we had the pitter-patter and joyful sounds of children in the basement.”

“For every heartbreaking story, it was a matter of hours before the counterpoint story would come in, stories about feeding and stepping up,” Hines said. “That’s what got us through this.”

Because the church “had power, is centrally located and had internet” access, “it was warm enough to set up a place on our porch where people could come in and recharge and get potable water,” Hines said. “That was a big issue for a couple of weeks. People could come and rest for a little.”

Rumple Memorial, the host church for the gathering, already had a food pantry in its fellowship hall, said the church’s pastor, the Rev. Dr. Kathy Beach. “It’s not a food pantry anymore. It’s everything,” Beach said. “They are serving twice the number of people” as before the storm.

Church members “are liaisons to agencies, and we hear directly from them what they need,” Beach said.

The Rev. Dr. Jeff Smith, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Boone, shared the remarkable story of a partnership with Water Mission, a Christian engineering nonprofit where his wife works that builds safe water, sanitation and hygiene solutions in developing countries and disaster areas.

The Rev. Dr. Jeff Smith of First Presbyterian Church in Boone, North Carolina, talks about his church’s response to Hurricane Helene. (Photo by Rich Copley)

“It turned into a generator ministry,” Smith said, which started with the donation of 30 generators and ended up with 875. Volunteers assembled the generators, made sure they worked, then distributed them out of the church. Generators support wells, which can provide up to 10,000 gallons of water each day.

One day, a helicopter landed on the grass outside the church. “We’d never done that before!” Smith said.

Volunteers and staff “heard people’s stories and then prayed with them,” he said. “We had no idea how to respond. It was a Holy Spirit thing.”

The people for whom the church had been opened joined church members to distribute the generators donated by Water Mission. “It was nice to see the Body of Christ, regardless of denomination, work together,” Smith said. “Also, I didn’t have to hear anything about politics.”

“It doesn’t matter your status: If you don’t have power, you don’t have power,” Smith said. “It was a challenging time, but there were positive things to come out of it.”

Tony De La Rosa, general presbyter in Salem Presbytery, spoke at the North Wilkesboro Presbyterian Church gathering. (Photo by Rich Copley)

“What if our churches became safe spaces?” asked Tony De La Rosa, general presbyter of Salem Presbytery. Some residents “may not trust the government, but if we open up churches” to help neighbors, “maybe that would be more powerful in some ways.”

González-Castillo and Kirk spent part of that afternoon at North Wilkesboro Presbyterian Church, a church with locations in that community as well as nearby Wilkesboro.

“Presbyterians are very generous,” Kirk said, having already donated “a lot to PDA and a lot church-to-church.” The challenge with Hurricanes Milton and Helene is they damaged three synods, five states and 12 presbyteries.

Terry Schubert of Alamance Presbyterian Church and a frequent volunteer for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance spoke with PDA Associate for National Disaster Response the Rev. Dr. Jim Kirk after the meeting at North Wilkesboro Presbyterian Church. (Photo by Rich Copley)

“Disasters are the great equalizer. Everyone’s impacted initially, but everyone recovers differently,” Kirk said, describing the extended process by which communities establish long-term recovery groups following a disaster. “Because of volunteer labor, long-term recovery groups can leverage resources” to help their community become whole again. With Hurricane Maria, which González-Castillo experienced seven years ago as a pastor in Puerto Rico, the long-term recovery effort is ongoing, Kirk pointed out.

“On the presbytery level, you can match needs and resources,” Kirk said. “Our first point of contact is always the presbytery. Since the get-go, we’ve been in contact with Tony.”

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is one of the Compassion, Peace & Justice ministries of the Presbyterian Mission Agency. You can donate to help with the hurricane response of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance by clicking here.

Read previous Presbyterian News Service reports about PDA’s solidarity visit here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.