‘This place looked awful’

PC(USA) congregations impacted by Helene and Milton have arrived at different solutions for moving forward

by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service

Pastor Bobby Musengwa (center) of Maximo Presbyterian Church in St. Petersburg, Florida, talks about the church’s experience with Hurricanes Helene and Milton with Valerie Young (left), Synod Executive and Stated Clerk of the Synod of South Atlantic, and the Rev. Jim Kirk, Associate for National Disaster Response for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. (Photo by Rich Copley)

LEESBURG, Florida — Just a few days before visitors from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, the Synod of South Atlantic, the Presbytery of Tampa Bay, together with the Executive Director and Stated Clerk of the General Assembly for the interim unified agency, the Rev. Jihyun Oh, arrived at Maximo Presbyterian Church in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Thursday, the church’s pastor, the Rev. Bobby Musengwa, told visitors, “this place looked awful.”

Hurricanes Helene and Milton damaged the Alegria Montessori School badly enough that the church had to terminate the lease, a terrible blow to the dozens of international students attending school there. Without access to the sanctuary, the congregation had to get creative worshiping in-person and online from church offices. “The intimacy of the worship experience is really important to us,” Musengwa said. “God knows what we need.”

“It’s a perilous hour for us,” Musengwa told the visitors. “Thank you for being with us.”

“We’re here so you know you’re not alone in this process,” the Rev. Edwin González-Castillo, PDA director, told Musengwa. “PDA works in communities affected by these disasters.”

Musengwa said that one way PDA has helped was to “help us understand we can ask for things from [the Federal Emergency Management Agency].”

Ruling Elder Patricia Brown, interim music director for Maximo Presbyterian Church in St. Petersburg, Florida, played the church’s piano, which was in the flooding from Hurricanes Milton and Helene, but not destroyed. (Photo by Rich Copley)

A number of church staff and members stopped by the church to speak with those on the solidarity visit, including Patricia Brown, the church’s interim musician, who took to the grand piano in the damaged sanctuary to lead visitors in singing the refrain to “Lift High the Cross.”

Oh then asked those gathered to pray with her: “God of our history, you promise you are a God present with us who will never forsake us. We’re grateful for ways you have accompanied this community through the process of grief and loss. Fill them with your Spirit and send your Word in ways that uplifts them. We pray, O God, for recovery efforts to be swift. We pray for endurance, O God. We pray these things in Christ’s name, amen.”

The Rev. Doug McMahon, Director of Religious Life and Chaplain at nearby Eckerd College, which is related to the PC(USA), said Eckerd’s 1,850 students are due back on campus this weekend after taking four weeks of online instruction following the hurricanes. While many faculty and staff lost their homes to the winds and floods, the “spirit of resiliency is good,” he said. “It’s hard to see them go through that, but there are so many stories of people helping one another.”

Church on the Bayou

The Rev. Lissa Bradford, who serves the church, and Lynn Hoy, clerk of session and treasurer at Church on the Bayou in Tarpon Springs, said church leaders have decided they will sell the flood-damaged church and its 5.5 acres, largely as a result of the church not being able to afford insurance premiums. “There was 22 inches of water in every building. That never happened before,” Bradford said. “The estimated cost to make everything safe is $100,000 and we don’t have it. We weren’t insured for that kind of a loss.”

“Reality being my favorite place to be, we’re going to sell the campus,” Bradford said. For now, the church is nesting in the Presbyterian Church of Palm Harbor. Bradford says her role is “to just do the next right thing.”

Representatives from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, the Office of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Synod of South Atlantic, and the  Presbytery of Tampa Bay met with leaders of the Church on the Bayou in Tarpon Springs, Florida, which suffered major damage in Hurricanes Helene and Milton. (Photo by Rich Copley)

“Whether or not to order poinsettias for Christmas is not high on my list,” she said. “The tone of my mission is to make the smartest decisions so we can help more people around us. That’s where my heart is, and Lynn and I share that passion.”

With the Rev. Dr. Holly Dillon and the Rev. Bill Wildhack serving in Presbytery of Tampa Bay leadership positions, “we feel very held,” Bradford said. “There are other congregations way worse off than we are. We are enormously hopeful and gratified no lives were lost,” although Hoy’s home was lost, Hoy confirmed.

Among the 16 presbyteries in the Synod of South Atlantic, 11 have churches that were damaged, said Valerie Young, Synod Executive and Stated Clerk.

First Presbyterian Church in Leesburg

Members of First Presbyterian Church in Leesburg acted fast to get water out of the basement, saving the flooring, said John Caldwell, who handles maintenance and other duties at the church. Twenty volunteers turned out last weekend, some with chainsaws, to clear  debris from around the church campus. “There was water in places it’s never been,” he said. “If we’d waited on the restoration companies, the floor would have been bad. We saved a lot of stuff.”

John Caldwell, Maintenance Engineer for First Presbyterian Church in Leesburg, Florida, talked about dealing with the consequences of Hurricanes Helene and Milton at the church. (Photo by Rich Copley)

The cleanup crew included 80-year-olds and grandchildren “picking stuff up” and clearing the property, he said. The Rev. Olivia Haney, interim co-executive presbyter of Central Florida Presbytery, marveled at how churches in the presbytery got to work following the hurricanes.

“When we were checking on people, a retired minister said, ‘This is not our first rodeo. We know what to do,’” she said.

“After Hurricane Andrew,” Caldwell said, “this was just a weekend.”

Kathy Broyard, executive director and emergency management specialist for the Florida Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Network (FLAPDAN), talked to members of First Presbyterian Church of Leesburg, Florida, about how they can work with the organization. (Photo by Rich Copley)

Kathy Broyard, executive director and emergency management specialist of the Florida Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Network, known as FLAPDAN, explained some of the preparedness, response and recovery work the network does. “We have a strong network here in Florida to get resources to people as fast as possible,” she said. FLAPDAN also “provides a liaison to PDA to give them information on the ground.”

“We’ve received multiple communications from people asking, ‘How can we help?’” González-Castillo said. “Our hope is to continue to show up” through PDA’s National Response Teams and other volunteers.

“Our commitment is for the long-term,” said González-Castillo, a pastor in Puerto Rico seven years ago when Hurricane Maria battered the island. “We’re still sending volunteers there,” he said. “That’s the promise we have.”

“If nothing else,” Young said, “know people across the Synod of South Atlantic are in prayer for you.”

Read a previous report by Presbyterian News Service on PDA’s solidarity tour here.