Valerie Young, Synod Executive and Stated Clerk of Synod of South Atlantic, reflects on solidarity visits to areas impacted by Helene and Milton
by Rich Copley | Presbyterian News Service
COLUMBIA, South Carolina — As a synod executive based in Texas and now Florida, Valerie Young is exceedingly familiar with hurricanes. The striking thing about the one-two punch of Hurricanes Helene and Milton is the breadth of the area severely impacted by the storms.
“The impact has not just been on the shores of Florida, it’s not just been in the mountains of North Carolina,” said Young, Synod Executive and Stated Clerk of Synod of South Atlantic, referencing places that have been in the headlines following the storms. “It is also been in places like Augusta, Georgia, where we were yesterday. The damage, the impact of those storms is incredible.”
The Rev. Jihyun Oh, Stated Clerk and Executive Director of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and Valerie Young, Synod Executive and Stated Clerk of the Synod of South Atlantic, survey hurricane damage at Siesta Key Chapel in Sarasota, Florida on Oct. 23, 2024. (Photo by Rich Copley)
Young was speaking toward the end of her time on a Presbyterian Disaster Assistance solidarity journey to visit mid councils and churches impacted by the storms. Over 10 days, PDA Director the Rev. Edwin González-Castillo and Associate for National Disaster Response the Rev. Dr. Jim Kirk visited nine of 13 affected presbyteries in five states, including the three that comprise Synod of South Atlantic: Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. The PDA representatives continued to North Carolina and Tennessee following their time in Synod of South Atlantic.
“For me, as the synod leader, it’s incredibly important to demonstrate to people that we care, to show them that we love them and that we are with them through the recovery,” Young said of the journey, which she was on for seven days. “And it’s so important to have PDA here because it’s a demonstration that the entire church cares … sharing the grace and love and their presence.
“PDA’s presence is incredibly important, not just now, but for the long haul. It’s going to be a long recovery, not just the physical, structural recovery, but the spiritual and emotional recovery. It’s going to take some time, and it’s incredibly important to have people in PDA who understand what that looks like and how those things come across, how they manifest themselves, and how we can be there for one another and take care of ourselves and take care of each other.”
Along the way, Young, González-Castillo, and Kirk saw destruction and damage still having a major impact weeks and even a month after the storms hit, from church buildings just starting to be repaired from the impacts of flooding and wind, people forced out of their homes for a long time or for good, high piles of debris, including thousands of trees which could be seen lining the roads from Florida through South Carolina.
Valerie Young, Stated Clerk and Synod Executive of Synod of South Atlantic, speaks to leaders in Foothills Presbytery at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Greenville, South Carolina on Oct. 29, 2024. (Photo by Rich Copley)
Many of the severely impacted locations are not widely known, Young said, and part of the importance of PDA and its visits is to give the disaster relief agency, which also sent National Response Team members to several presbyteries in the days after the storms, an idea of where human and financial resources are needed most for long-term recovery efforts.
For Young, it goes back to the Journey Statement Synod of South Atlantic adopted earlier this year.
“That Journey Statement says that the synod embodies the grace and love of Jesus Christ, cultivates authentic community, and inspires impactful ministry,” Young said. “We’ve seen that. We’ve seen that on the ground. … We’ve seen that those pastors, those communities, those church communities that realize it’s important to help find the things in the community that are not being addressed as a result of the impacts of the hurricane and find ways to do that.”
That is work that will take years, and Young said PDA support is a key to the church’s involvement.
“Helene impacted a huge swath of the country … and the way that PDA operates is through the funding of generous givers,” Young said. “If we don’t give, they can’t show up, they can’t provide the resources for the long-term recovery for everyone impacted.”
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.
See stories about PDA’s Solidarity visits from Presbyterian News Service at pcusa.org/news.
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