Where Is God in Disaster? A Gospel-Centered Response

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Let's pray.

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Let us pray.

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Let us pray.
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[00:08:02] Let us pray.
[00:08:22] Let us pray.
[00:08:42] Let us pray.
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[00:10:02] The Gospel of St. John the Baptist
[00:10:26] Let us pray.

[00:10:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
I mean, I have a good German group down at my roots.
[00:11:04] So a little Einfesterburg is considered hot.
[00:11:08] Good morning, friends!
[00:11:10] Welcome to Williamson's Chapel.
[00:11:11] It's good to be with you this morning.
[00:11:13] For those of you who are visitors with us, we're so glad that you're here.
[00:11:17] My name is Reverend Tony Ruth Smith.
[00:11:19] My husband Wes and I are the senior co-pastors here, and it is a joy to welcome you all to worship this morning.
[00:11:24] If you're worshiping with us online, we're so glad that you're here, and hopefully you will know God's goodness in this morning and in our worship.
[00:11:32] We'd love to greet you.
[00:11:34] So those of you who are in the room, we hope you'll greet on the way out.
[00:11:39] There will be a greeter standing there to the left that would love to help you find a place of connection.
[00:11:42] We hope you'll stop by.
[00:11:44] And those of you who are with us online, if you'll go to our website and go to the I'm New, I think it's a place where you can contact us.
[00:11:50] And Pastor Monica Hummel would love to welcome you.
[00:11:53] She's not here today, but she talked about Mary yesterday.
[00:11:56] So we celebrate Morgan and Ryan in their marriage.
[00:12:00] It's been a rough year for Pastor Monica, so to have some rays of light in the midst of the darkness is always a good thing.
[00:12:07] So, friends, in the last three weeks, we've been reflecting on your curious questions.
[00:12:11] This is what we're doing all fall.
[00:12:13] Thank you so much for your questions.
[00:12:14] They're real fun, and your couchers really appreciate that.
[00:12:18] So, we have been thinking about suffering.
[00:12:22] We've been asking you questions.
[00:12:23] Why do bad things happen to good people?
[00:12:25] Why is there suffering at all?
[00:12:27] What do we do when we find ourselves in the midst of suffering?
[00:12:30] And reflecting on those previous questions, and this year, today, this morning, remembering that one year ago today, we were living into the aftermath of Hurricane Philippe and its impacts in western North Carolina, and we had the chance, just last year, for us to wrestle up close and personal with that question, where is God when disaster strikes?
[00:12:50] When the bad things happen, where is God?
[00:12:53] Some of you may know, some of you may not, I'm a native of Western North Carolina, Avery County, my home is Little Falls, and my family has lived for generations in a little place in Lower Asia County called Ingalls, right on the Toe River, that was damaged deeply.
[00:13:08] My mom and my sister lost a neighbor in the storm.
[00:13:12] And my home church, my mom, my sister, my extended family, we have been engaged in rescue, recovery, and relief since day one.
[00:13:22] And this morning we're going to reflect together and share a bit of that story of Hurricane Elaine and how we've seen that at work.
[00:13:28] Today we want to begin worship as the psalmist so often began in the face of suffering with a lament.
[00:13:35] Today's cult worship was written by a clergy member of the Western North Carolina Conference.
[00:13:39] And we shared as part of an all-conference worship this past June.
[00:13:43] And as we participated in that worship service, I was sitting next to my mom, and we did this whole worship, and I looked over, and she was in tears.
[00:13:51] And she said, I did not know how mad I just needed to cry.
[00:13:55] I just need to admit.
[00:13:57] So as we join this morning, may we all open our hearts to those who lost loved ones, who lost homes and livelihoods, and those who today remember one of the hardest days and how God is carrying them through it all.
[00:14:09] So let's stand together.

[00:14:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
O Triune God, Creator of mountains and valleys, Christ who calms the storm, Spirit who breathes over chaos, we come with heavy hearts.

[00:14:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
We lift our eyes to the hills.
[00:14:47] Our help comes from the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth.

[00:14:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
The winds have torn through the forest and field.
[00:14:57] Waters have risen in hollow and street, and the stones of our sanctuaries have shifted.

[00:15:07] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
The earth groans, and suddenly the rivers rage, and so do our souls.
[00:15:31] God of mercy, God of comfort, hold us in this broken place.
[00:15:51] From the storm and from the waters, raise us up in love and praise.
[00:15:52] We grieve for all that is lost.

[00:16:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
Homes, harvests, sacred places, dreams long planted, now uprooted.

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
How long, O Lord, will you forget us forever?
[00:16:33] Yet your mercies are new every morning.

[00:16:37] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
Holy Spirit, breathe courage into weary hearts, strength into builders and healers, hope into those who have lost so much.

[00:16:50] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
Grant us together that we may be built with justice, serve with compassion, and live with reverence.
[00:17:11] God of mercy, God of comfort, hold us in this broken place.
[00:17:37] From the storm and from the waters, raise us up with love and grace.

[00:17:39] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
In the ruins where compassion,

[00:17:39] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
Oh God who makes all things new in mountains and hollows small towns and great forests in your church and through your people bring life from the ruins

[00:18:07] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
We believe in the resurrection.
[00:18:10] We will be repairers of the breach, restorers of the streets to live in until all storms are stilled.
[00:18:19] Amen.

[00:20:32] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Amen.

[00:21:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Good morning, church.
[00:21:47] Good morning.
[00:21:47] I'm going to ask that you turn and greet your neighbor with a piece of Christ this morning and answer this question.
[00:21:52] Not where you live now, but when you think about growing up, what is, what's home for you?
[00:21:59] Where was home?

[00:21:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
What was home?
[00:22:09] ... ... ... ... ...
[00:22:38] ... ... ... ...
[00:23:17] of all nations, O Thou of God and of the Son, Thee will I cherish
[00:23:52] Now my soul's glory in joy hath crowned.

[00:24:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
Jesus is pure, who makes the woeful heart to sing.

[00:25:29] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
Where is the sunshine?
[00:25:50] There's still the moonlight And all the twinkling starry oaks
[00:25:59] Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer than all the angels ever.

[00:26:34] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Let us pray.
[00:27:53] Amen.

[00:28:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
As we prepare to hear the word, please join with me in the prayer for illumination.
[00:28:48] God of all power, open our ears, our eyes, and our hearts with a spirit of wisdom and revelation.
[00:28:57] Help us to hear your voice, to see your face, and to receive with joy your truth.
[00:29:05] In Jesus' name, Amen.
[00:29:11] The word today comes from Psalm 63, verses 1-8.
[00:29:15] O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
[00:29:28] So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary.
[00:29:32] Beholding your power and glory, because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
[00:29:40] So I will bless you as long as I live.
[00:29:42] I will lift up my hands and call on your name.
[00:29:46] My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips.
[00:29:53] When I think of you on my bed and meditate
[00:29:57] On you in the watches of night for you have been my help and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
[00:30:06] My soul clings to you.
[00:30:08] Your right hand upholds me.
[00:30:11] The Word of God for all people.
[00:30:13] Thanks be to God.

[00:30:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Let us pray.
[00:30:33] Gracious and faithful God, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of every heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer.
[00:30:43] Amen.
[00:30:47] So one year ago today, Hurricane Helene ripped through western North Carolina and dropped 30 inches of rain, 30 inches of rain on the ridges
[00:31:01] And the rain came down the mountain and it cut deep rivets into the mountain and it caused landslides and ripped up old growth trees and displaced rock and it sent it all down into the rivers.
[00:31:18] into the New River and the Elk River, the Tow River, the Linville River, the Catawba and the Nolichucky, the Broad and the French Broad Rivers.
[00:31:27] And these rivers overran their banks and they tore out trees that had once shaded the lazy rivers and they flooded homes and churches and businesses, destroyed bridges and roads and isolated thousands.
[00:31:42] The power was out for three weeks in most places.
[00:31:48] It all started on Thursday.
[00:31:49] My sister actually reminded me that it had rained all day Wednesday.
[00:31:53] Rained all day Wednesday from another storm.
[00:31:56] and it started raining from Helene on Thursday and I was keeping a constant check on my family in Avery County.
[00:32:03] I grew up, as I told you, in Linville Falls and my mom and my sister are still there.
[00:32:07] And by two o'clock on Friday afternoon, I lost contact with my mom and my sister.
[00:32:12] They had lost power, cell signal was not great.
[00:32:16] And the last that I heard from them, my sister was headed down our road, maybe a quarter mile from our house, to be with a neighbor.
[00:32:25] You need to understand when I tell you that, that we live nowhere near water.
[00:32:29] Now, there's water down on the rivers, but where I am from in Linville Falls, there is no water anywhere near anybody.
[00:32:36] So you would have thought everybody would have been okay, except that the water caused a mudslide in my neighbor's backyard.
[00:32:45] And the mud came down just as he was standing on a side porch looking at the rain, and it knocked the porch off the house, and it trapped him underneath all of the debris.
[00:32:55] and my mom was at the house with his wife and she had come to our house and my sister and my nephew were down at his house trying as best they could to help keep him awake as he was going into shock from being trapped underneath the debris.
[00:33:10] They couldn't remove the debris without risk of it falling, collapsing even more and they had called EMS but EMS was having to cut their way literally with chainsaws up the mountain to even get up the mountain in the middle of the storm.
[00:33:25] On the 28th, I was to officiate a wedding.
[00:33:28] So happy anniversary to Bailey and Luke Kaufman.
[00:33:31] And that day I had no word all morning from my family, but we were beginning to get images.
[00:33:37] The rains had stopped and we were starting to get images of flooding from Boone and hearing terrible stories coming out of Lake Lure and Chimney Rock and Asheville.
[00:33:47] And my cousin Allen, who lives in Lower Avery County on the Tow River, on what is generally known to people that live around there as Phillips Hill, is a prepared sort of guy.
[00:33:58] I'm not gonna say more than that, he's just a prepared sort of guy.
[00:34:01] And so he has all the things.
[00:34:04] He's ex-military, he had lots and lots and lots of MREs and all the things.
[00:34:10] And he also had a generator and a Starlink.
[00:34:14] and that's not something at that time, not a lot of people had generators or Starlink.
[00:34:18] Now you hear them a little bit more commonly in the mountains now but a year ago, Alan was one of very, very few.
[00:34:25] That generator and the Starlink enabled them to keep satellite internet service and that meant that I could text them.
[00:34:32] And so I was texting them and finally able to reach them to see if they could find out anything about my mom and my sister and we waited for the answer.
[00:34:43] Hours later, I was getting ready for that wedding when my sister finally called me.
[00:34:47] Seems that my cousin had gotten his son on a motorcycle and they had taken a motorcycle seven miles up the mountain to my mom's house.
[00:34:56] You had to ride motorcycles because you could not get through in cars.
[00:35:00] And that's how they were gonna rescue lots of people in the coming days.
[00:35:04] And they brought my sister down to their house to see how they could work out how to get my mom, who is 80 years old, off the mountain.
[00:35:12] I'd heard from my sister then that at seven hours they had waited for the EMS to come and to be there with our neighbor.
[00:35:19] Seven years they stood in the rain and they had finally been able to get him free and taken him to the hospital where he subsequently died of his injuries.
[00:35:28] It was just devastating.
[00:35:30] and I could hear the devastation in my sister's voice but she was matter of fact because we had things that we needed to get done we needed to get mom off the mountain and I said what else do you need and she put me on the phone my cousin he said we need gas we need water and we need cash and so I was running around in heels and a dress getting ready to go to a wedding and I called my neighbors
[00:35:51] and God love them.
[00:35:53] There they are, you're right there.
[00:35:54] I called my neighbors and I said, I need gas cans, what do you got?
[00:35:58] And another neighbor handed out cash and we got water and we left it on the porch of here at the church while Wes and I went up to this wedding and my nephew came and picked them up and took them up the mountain.
[00:36:11] And we waited.
[00:36:13] And a trip that would normally take, round trip, four and a half hours took seven.
[00:36:19] and I don't know that I've ever sought a deeper sigh of relief than when I got my arms around my mom that night and the incredible sense of guilt as other people I knew were waiting and still hadn't heard because they didn't have the access that I had to someone with a Starlink and my cousin told me, he said, send us names, we'll go out on our motorcycles and we'll find everybody we can.
[00:36:40] Disasters happen often, friends, but not all that often in our own backyard, impacting deeply and personally the places that we grew up or that we remember visiting, that we'd been to Linville Falls or Grandfather Mountain, we'd been in Asheville, we'd gone tubing down the French Broad River, we'd been to all these places, we'd been at Chimney Rock, we knew these places.
[00:37:02] and everyone knew someone in Western North Carolina and so it put a face, put all of us face to face with suffering and the loss of our actual neighbors.
[00:37:12] And it made us bump up against that question that everybody asks at some point, where is God when the bad stuff happens?
[00:37:20] It's been a long year for many people and there have been stories of devastation and stories of hope.
[00:37:25] And in July, some of our staff took a little road trip up to Lower Avery County to Phillips Hill and Pine Grove United Methodist Church where I grew up and Altamont United Methodist Church that was flooded out and destroyed by the floods, a place I actually caught the bus for about seven years of my elementary school years.
[00:37:45] We talked to my nephew and to my cousin and we looked back at the impact of the storm and how God has been at work in it all.
[00:37:52] And we wanted to share that story with you this morning.
[00:38:34] When I was a little girl, we come down to the Toe River.
[00:38:44] This is the Toe River.
[00:38:45] And this is the part that I don't know how to describe is the damage that was done all along here.
[00:38:49] There were trees all through here that are now gone.
[00:38:53] And the twisting of the metal.
[00:38:55] This bridge was...
[00:38:57] You can still see the damage of that bridge.
[00:39:01] And this campground across the way here was completely destroyed.
[00:39:04] It looks completely different than it did in my childhood.
[00:39:06] There weren't big rocks in it like this.
[00:39:08] There were trees alongside it.
[00:39:09] And the devastation of home just being destroyed is...
[00:39:13] It's unspeakable and then it still looks like this 10 months later.
[00:39:16] It's really hard.

[00:39:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
Yeah, also you can really see that this riverbed used to not be this wide.
[00:39:22] It used to be about 10 feet more narrow, but now the river just is wider and that's just going to be a fact for probably forever until something like this makes it a little wider.

[00:39:46] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]:
a lot of people consider this spot home and a place to come to so everybody in our immediate community and family flocked here just because we wanted to all see each other and speak to each other that's at least how I felt you know we didn't have any power any cell service and if you didn't have a star link on a generator which is very specific and nobody has a star link or prior to the flood nobody had one there was no way to call in and check there started to be folks you know I guess
[00:40:14] In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
[00:40:43] Help people that are literally in their muddy pajamas.
[00:40:45] And this barn was packed full, shelves all the way up.
[00:40:50] It became a very intense operation.
[00:40:52] Basically a grocery store.
[00:40:54] All the young men or abled folks, part of our community and like Aaron and myself, would go out and check on people and we would get these, we called them work orders, we'd write them on a sticky note, write who they were and when they were going to be back because we didn't have, you know, any self-service or things like that and that was every day.

[00:41:18] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
God bless you!
[00:41:49] and more.

[00:42:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
so this is most of you all recognize this this is the pavilion at pine grove where we serve meals from september through march the ladies are still doing meals one day a week here and they also have this is amanda food bank so one of the things that we deal with in lower avery county is that it's a food desert
[00:42:24] and so this is helping feed people in this area of the county that are not going to get food or you know we just forget the things that that make getting food possible like you have to have reliable transportation and money to pay for the gas and so this is something that's continuing to happen here at pine grove i know for me personally i've definitely like i would say before the flood

[00:42:54] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
I wouldn't have called myself religious in any stance and now I very much feel like I am.
[00:43:00] I feel like I had something that...
[00:43:06] I mean I was in Colorado a week before the flood and had from completely separate circumstances flown up here
[00:43:17] to be here for the flood and I for me I can't really see any other way but that being the hand of God that really it got me up here and has the flood I know that has fully changed the direction of my life and I can't really say anything that made that happen but but the Lord and the community

[00:43:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
I will cry but now I'll sing

[00:44:42] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
This building probably could not have been restored.
[00:44:46] Could not have been.
[00:44:47] The total cost was somewhere around $400,000.
[00:44:50] This thing was a mess.
[00:44:55] And the Methodist Church saved it.

[00:45:21] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
I'll give credit for that last song.
[00:45:22] That's Carter on the drums and Wes on the guitar along with a guy named Jesse who's a blind musician at Altamont United Methodist Church and he's the one singing when we went up to Altamont.
[00:45:35] I'm acquainted with Psalm 63.
[00:45:39] First singing a choir anthem called, Yet Will I Sing, and it goes like this.
[00:45:44] Oh God, you are my God and I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints and I'm weary.
[00:45:50] I will lift up my hands for you have been my rock and your right hand upholds me in a dry and weary land where no water is, yet will I sing.
[00:46:01] O God, you are my God, I adore you.
[00:46:03] I have looked upon you in your sanctuary.
[00:46:06] I have seen your steadfast love is better than life.
[00:46:10] My lips will praise you, and I will bless you, yet will I sing.
[00:46:16] That is what the people of Western North Carolina have learned in the face of tragedy and loss, and it is the work of all faithful Christian people.
[00:46:26] To learn to see God saving your grace at work in the storm, whatever that storm might be, whether it's Hurricane Colleen or if it's a personal storm or an emotional storm or a mental storm or a relational storm, whatever your storm may be, to see God at work in the storm and to find your voice to still sing praise to the one who holds you up through it all.
[00:46:50] In the midst of the loss, God reveals himself, not in saving us always from the hardest things, but in the hands of strength that lift us, in steadfast loving kindness that arrives carrying propane tanks and warm food weeks and weeks and weeks after the storm, in the faces that will remind us that we are not forgotten or abandoned in our suffering, not ever.
[00:47:16] We cannot worship God without knowing that we can worship God when circumstances are in our favor and when they are not.
[00:47:26] So where was God during Hurricane Helene?
[00:47:29] God, my friends, was in the community.
[00:47:33] God was in all of you, in your hands and in your feet, in your kind words and your generosity with your time and your money and your resources, not just on September 28th, but in all the days that have come since.
[00:47:46] My cousin, Craig Fugate, was the director of FEMA for eight years under President Obama.
[00:47:52] And I called him about two days after the storm just to ask him some questions, and he said, Tony Ruth, the first responders are not FEMA.
[00:48:01] The first responder is the community.
[00:48:04] That's the first responder.
[00:48:06] And he said, and you need to know that this isn't, he said, you can't hear it now, but you'll hear it, and he want you to remember it, he said, the real healing will take years and years and years.
[00:48:19] So let me tell you some of the impact that you all have had, the United Methodist Church and specifically this church have had in Western North Carolina.
[00:48:29] The Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church received an offering from all of the churches and from churches actually around the country and received $5.8 million to assist with long-term recovery efforts.
[00:48:41] So what's that been used for?
[00:48:43] It's already helping to repair church buildings that were damaged by floods.
[00:48:47] I did not know the United Methodist Committee on Relief, which is one of our big sort of national arm of the United Methodist Church that does disaster recovery, they give grants, but their grants are used for people's homes and things like that.
[00:49:01] They are not used for churches.
[00:49:02] I had no idea.
[00:49:03] I learned something new this year.
[00:49:04] So that $5.8 million is doing things like helping Altamont repair their church building.
[00:49:12] so that they could have a place to worship again.
[00:49:15] That is a little church, a little country church that y'all literally has a breakfast on Sundays or Saturdays once a month and has for years in order to help pay the bills.
[00:49:26] That's not a big church.
[00:49:27] They don't have a lot of money.
[00:49:28] And the conference spent $400,000 repairing that church.
[00:49:32] One of the members there, I saw her at Christmas time, and she came up to me with the biggest smile and pride on her face.
[00:49:39] She said, I'm so glad we're United Methodist.
[00:49:41] The church, the conference is going to pay to restore our church to its original condition.
[00:49:46] Thanks be to God.
[00:49:48] We're already helping to repair homes and rebuild homes from Ashe County all the way down to Haywood County.
[00:49:54] Churches and homes, specifically homes that were damaged and are either under or uninsured.
[00:50:02] Y'all know this, if you don't have flood insurance, you're just out of luck.
[00:50:08] And FEMA is not intended to be insurance to rebuild a whole home.
[00:50:11] It's only gonna be a portion of that.
[00:50:13] So what do you do if you have that portion but not the rest?
[00:50:16] So that's what we're using all that money for.
[00:50:19] The conference has a three to five year plan that includes hiring and deploying disaster recovery managers who will work with people who are falling through the cracks and cannot repair their homes without help.
[00:50:30] And you gotta have these people because I don't know if y'all have met mountain people, but we're a stubborn ornery sort.
[00:50:38] And we are most likely to say, no, there must be somebody else that needs it more than me.
[00:50:43] I'll be all right, you take care of somebody else.
[00:50:46] And so you need people that are local.
[00:50:48] You need to employ local people that can have that relational impact there.
[00:50:52] In the Appalachian District, which is the district that we are part of here at Williamson Chapel that extends from Morville up through Allegheny, Alexander, Wilkes, Ashe, Watauga, and Avery counties, we've done several things.
[00:51:06] The first was that we provided 300 meals, three days a week for six months in Lower Avery, Pine Grove, and Newland neighborhood tables.
[00:51:15] and for the first about three months of that, those meals were cooked down here.
[00:51:20] We did some of that cooking, you all did, here and took it up to the mountain.
[00:51:24] After Christmas, we were able to start using local businesses so we could invest in the local economy and the conference paid for those meals so that these businesses were getting business, they were being able to pay their staff and being able to stay alive and afloat.
[00:51:38] We continued to do another meal a week for the next six months.
[00:51:42] Those tables just actually ended this past week.
[00:51:44] That work, both of those tables revitalized Pine Grove and Newland churches, I can tell you for sure, and helped them to bear witness to the love of God and the promise to the people that they are not forgotten, that they are seen, and that we all remember.
[00:52:00] Here at Williamson's Chapel, we received an offering from you all of $96,461.
[00:52:05] That is an impressive offering.
[00:52:09] So where did all that money go?
[00:52:12] What'd we do?
[00:52:12] What'd we do with it?
[00:52:13] Well, the first $15,000 of it we sent to that conference offering that went into the $5.8 million, and we just this week sent another $15,000 from that fund to the special offering that the conference is doing today.
[00:52:26] So we've sent $30,000 to the Western North Carolina Annual Conference to assist in our efforts.
[00:52:32] We also sent $10,000 to the United Methodist Committee on Relief for grants that will help
[00:52:37] in all of these places as well.
[00:52:40] At Christmas time, we sent $10,000 for a little project called We Need a Little Christmas that was actually the brainchild of someone here at Williamson's Chapel said, man, if I were sitting up in the mountains and I'd been looking at mud for three months, I'd need to look at something else for a second.
[00:52:54] I would need one more thing that I can't put anywhere because my house is destroyed.
[00:52:58] What am I gonna do with it anyhow?
[00:53:00] And so we gave gift cards and experiences off the mountain like, you know, hotel stays, Great Wolf Lodge, going bowling, just getting out movie tickets, just getting out of the mountain for a minute to have a little respite.
[00:53:13] And that was all given to impacted families.
[00:53:16] I saw a friend from high school posted that they needed warm coats for students at Avery High School.
[00:53:22] Kids that didn't have warm coats because they'd lost theirs.
[00:53:26] And in three days you all managed to purchase 101 coats for a total of $2,700 that we sent up to put warm coats on the backs of kids in Avery County.
[00:53:39] We made and packed and sent 300 flood buckets up to the mountain.
[00:53:46] A lot of the items in there were donated by you all, but the things that we couldn't get, we spent about $9,200 on items to fill up those flood buckets.
[00:53:56] And those are used to help muck out homes.
[00:53:58] They're just the stuff you need to just muck out.
[00:54:01] Get rid of the mud and Clorox wipes and clothesline and just all the things that you need.
[00:54:07] We sent 10 to 15 truckloads of supplies that were taken up to the mountains that included these flood buckets but also propane stoves and clothes and water and food and gas and generators and all the stuff that you just need.
[00:54:19] My home church Pine Grove experienced just a little bit of flooding in their basement but you all know that if water hits
[00:54:28] My word just lost me.
[00:54:30] What happened to me?
[00:54:32] Drywall.
[00:54:33] It just soaks it up like a sponge.
[00:54:35] So we spent $700 fixing some drywall down in the basement at Pine Grove and then the gentlemen that were working on that from this church saw another totally unrelated to the storm problem and they said, we can fix that.
[00:54:49] and they fixed it for them.
[00:54:50] We paid for that.
[00:54:51] About 140 volunteer hours were sent to help keep Pine Grove warmer, safer, and drier.
[00:54:57] We at Williamson's Chapel, there were three meals a week at Pine Grove.
[00:55:00] We took care of one of those.
[00:55:02] We committed to one of those every week for six months.
[00:55:05] We spent $13,000 providing food and supplies for those tables, feeding 150 people a week.
[00:55:10] Some of those people were the folks at the post office in Spruce Pine.
[00:55:15] So here's things you don't think about.
[00:55:17] There were several post offices in these local communities that were completely flooded out.
[00:55:21] And think about the sheer number of mailboxes by the side of the road that were gone.
[00:55:27] How are people gonna get their mail?
[00:55:30] So the US Postal Service was working really hard to locate people and get them their food and everybody was centralized down at the Sprucebine Post Office and we sent, I was probably 20 or 25 meals every single day down there to them from Pine Grove.
[00:55:47] We spent hundreds of volunteer hours serving at those tables weekly.
[00:55:51] So many of you went up.
[00:55:53] Tony went up and tinkered with every loose doorknob at Pine Grove Church.
[00:55:57] Thanks, Tony.
[00:55:59] And fixed it up.
[00:56:01] We really appreciate it.
[00:56:01] And all y'all got to meet my mama, which is just a good time.
[00:56:04] I mean, if you're gonna have a bonus, at least you get to meet Martha.
[00:56:06] Anyway.
[00:56:07] This summer, we sent 28 youth and adults to spend a week outside of Asheville at the Lester Charge, which is just outside of Asheville, helping repair homes.
[00:56:16] They helped a woman who lived in a trailer that she had just bought.
[00:56:21] And her roof was torn off and she had a lot of damage.
[00:56:24] One group came in and they replaced her roof, but the inside was still just trashed.
[00:56:30] But insurance wouldn't cover it because they had touched it before insurance looked at it.
[00:56:34] and FEMA wouldn't cover it because they had touched it before anybody looked at it.
[00:56:39] And so, you know, I don't know what you're going to have people do.
[00:56:41] I mean, anyway, so we helped fix this trailer up.
[00:56:46] We spent $3,240 of that money that you all gave for supplies and then this week we sent another $7,000 to the Lester Charge to just support their ongoing work, loving their community and taking care of them.
[00:57:00] We now have about $10,000 left of that original 96 that we are keeping here on hand so that we can send teams up to do relief and recovery in the weeks and the months and the years that are to come as we are sending up work teams.
[00:57:15] Friends, compiling all of that this week just left me in awe of you all and of the United Methodist Church.
[00:57:21] I'm a child of Lower Avery County.
[00:57:23] I grew up tubing the Tow River and I heard God's call in the pews of Pine Grove United Methodist Church.
[00:57:28] And I am so full of gratitude for you and how you have been God's face to my people, the people that taught me the love of Jesus and taught me what it meant to be a servant of God.
[00:57:44] I am so thankful for how you have been the face of Jesus to them.
[00:57:48] I spent about an hour on the phone yesterday with my sister and she was just unpacking all her memories of that time.
[00:57:56] There's traumatic loss there for so many people.
[00:58:00] There's the trauma and honestly the weather this week is not helping anybody's cause up in the hills.
[00:58:05] My sister said I don't really have time to do it but I feel like I need to like stockpile a bunch of stuff.
[00:58:09] What if we lost power again?
[00:58:10] Well that's called trauma response.
[00:58:12] Once you've been through it, you go through it again.
[00:58:14] And my cousin gave out, I mean, thousands of MREs and cases of water, and I'm sure he's replenished all of that with every intent to be there in the storm again.
[00:58:30] Total sidebar, my cousin's in the lumber business.
[00:58:33] Do you know how much timber was lost in western North Carolina?
[00:58:37] So he's doing all that and lost a lot of his own livelihood in the process.
[00:58:45] Nothing can take away the losses that the community has felt, that continues to bear.
[00:58:50] But that pain has been eased and grace has been offered again and again by the generosity of people that are showing up and making all the difference.
[00:59:02] I experienced loss early in my life, friends.
[00:59:05] I have long known that God does not cause the awful storms that come our way.
[00:59:12] Whatever mumbo jumbo you were told in your childhood about how God causes everything, no.
[00:59:19] No.
[00:59:22] No.
[00:59:24] God does not cause hurricanes and natural disasters to smite people.
[00:59:29] That's not how that works.
[00:59:31] But God does work in every circumstance for redemption.
[00:59:39] God does not waste a good crisis.
[00:59:41] He uses it as an opportunity to draw us closer and help us to know redemption and new life.
[00:59:46] The trick is we have to be willing to see it and join God in that redemptive work.
[00:59:51] So thank you for joining in the last year.
[00:59:55] Friends, there is so much yet to do.
[00:59:56] The rule of tens is absolutely true.
[00:59:58] We spent 30 days in rescue.
[01:00:00] That aid station on Phillips Hill sent motorcycles up into the hills and hollers of Avery Mitchell and Yancey counties for 30 straight days meeting need.
[01:00:10] And finding people, little people in their houses up in the hills, and they didn't wanna come out, they weren't gonna leave their property.
[01:00:16] Now, y'all hear me, ain't nobody leaving their property.
[01:00:22] I mean, if you've been up, you know.
[01:00:24] But they were well happy to accept a meal or a propane gas tank or some canned food, some help along the way.
[01:00:32] They did that for 30 days.
[01:00:33] We've been 300 days in relief.
[01:00:35] That campground you saw at the very beginning of the video, that campground just opened yesterday for the first time.
[01:00:44] We've been spending 300 days assessing damage and restoring businesses and keeping people fed, and we're just at the beginning of 3,000 days, almost eight and a half years of recovery.
[01:00:56] We here at Williamson's Chapel are gonna be part of that.
[01:00:58] We've already signed up for two weeks to head up the mountain to assist in rebuilding.
[01:01:02] There's gonna be a code here on the screen.
[01:01:04] I'm gonna encourage you to scan it or reach out to Kevin Ward, and on this is just an opportunity for you to say, hey, I'm willing to help.
[01:01:10] You're not committing to anything.
[01:01:11] You're just saying, hey, I'd be willing to go.
[01:01:14] Maybe your business will say, if you're gonna go do some sort of aid or recovery,
[01:01:20] You get a week of paid, a paid week to go do recovery like that, charity work and help.
[01:01:26] So maybe you can do that.
[01:01:27] Maybe you say, I can't do that, but I've got other things I'm willing to do.
[01:01:30] So come and serve with us.
[01:01:31] We're signed up for one weekend.
[01:01:33] I think it's in February and one in April.
[01:01:36] Get your warm coat.
[01:01:37] It's gonna be cold in February, but you can be cold with other people who are cold, amen?
[01:01:44] If you'd like to support ongoing recovery efforts, the Western North Carolina Conference is doing another special offering today.
[01:01:50] You can give to that Conference Relief Fund.
[01:01:52] That's in our church app.
[01:01:53] When you go to give, on the drop-down menu, it says Conference Relief Offering.
[01:01:57] Your $96,000 that you all gave was above and beyond your giving last year, and we are so grateful for it.
[01:02:04] Friends, in every single storm that you face, whether it's Hurricane Helene or whatever storm you're in right now,
[01:02:10] In every storm you face, you have a choice to see only the storm and its destructive power or to choose to look to see God in the storm with his powerful steadfast love offering you hope and peace in it all.
[01:02:27] To choose the latter, friends, is an act of defiant faith in the goodness of God that will never fail us, not matter what, not ever.
[01:02:36] It is to say, friends, yet will I sing.
[01:02:40] Yet will I sing.
[01:02:43] Amen and amen.
[01:02:45] Let's pray.
[01:02:50] Gracious and loving God, for your hand at work protecting, in the last year we are so grateful.
[01:03:01] For the 103 families who today remember someone that they lost in Western North Carolina,
[01:03:07] We ask your grace and your hope and your peace to abide with them.
[01:03:13] For the hundreds, even thousands, God, who are still displaced outside of their homes or are still trying to figure out how they're gonna make the ends meet, we pray, God, for help.
[01:03:26] We pray for hope to guide them.
[01:03:32] We pray for the work of not just the United Methodist Church but the Baptist Church and the Lutheran Church and the Catholic Church and everybody who is Presbyterians and non-denominational, everybody that's been up in the mountains and is still up in the mountains trying to make a difference.
[01:03:47] Rebuilding and helping people who are so devastated being the face of Jesus, the face of hope for them.
[01:03:54] We pray for the trauma that many people are still carrying and we ask God that you will send wisdom and comfort to them.
[01:04:00] We thank you for the privilege of being your hands and feet in the world and we pray God that in this storm, in our storms, in every storm,
[01:04:09] We would have the kind of faith and courage that can look for you at work.
[01:04:14] And believe, God, that you will use everything in our life to draw us closer to you and to help us to experience your goodness and your love even in the worst of circumstances.
[01:04:26] Thank you, God, for your provision.
[01:04:28] Thank you for allowing us to be your hands and feet.
[01:04:31] May we continue to be so, God, for your glory and for the building up of the kingdom of heaven.
[01:04:37] It's in your name that we pray.
[01:04:39] Amen.
[01:04:42] I wanna tell you that barn that you saw in that video, that barn was built by my grandfather, my great-grandfather.
[01:04:52] and my daddy tended cattle and my aunts milked cows in that barn and some of that piles and piles of stuff that you saw was stuff that you all donated that we took up and that was taken into all the hills and hollers on the backs of motorcycles helping people who were in need.
[01:05:11] I'm so thankful.
[01:05:12] You can see, friends, the power of your giving through Western North Carolina and the generosity in this body that has made a big difference this year.
[01:05:20] Your giving for the hurricane efforts was and is above and beyond your tithes and your offerings, and we hope you will see how we have been faithful stewards of all of that, that we have faithfully stewarded every penny to go to help somebody who was in need.
[01:05:34] So friends, in gratitude for how you have seen God at work in your storms, and in adoration and praise of the Lord, we invite you to share your gifts through the offering this morning.
[01:05:46] You can scan to give online, you can put your offering in the offering plate or mail it in.
[01:05:51] If you put it in the offering plate and you would like to give to a portion of what you're giving today to the conference relief effort, you just need to make sure you write that on your envelope so that we can allocate it appropriately.
[01:06:04] And we hope you know that it matters and that God is honored in everything we give.
[01:06:11] Now, Dawn is going to play one of my very, very, very favorites as we worship to God in the offering.

[01:07:21] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Let us pray.
[01:07:54] The Gospel of the Lord
[01:09:11] The Gospel of the Lord.
[01:10:29] Praise God who on earth seems more,

[01:11:21] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
Our closing hymn is Leaning on the Everlasting Arms on page 133 in the hymnal.

[01:12:07] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Jesus Christ, Savior, Savior, Savior, Savior, Savior, Savior, Savior, Savior, Savior, Savior,

[01:12:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
Leaning on Jesus, Leaning on Jesus, Safe and secure from all the lies.

[01:13:15] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Leaning on Jesus, Leaning on Jesus, Leaning on the everlasting light.
[01:13:17] What have I to say?

[01:14:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
You can get involved in what's happening coming up soon here at Williamson's Chapel.
[01:14:09] Next Saturday at 5.30 we will be having UWF, United Women of Faith, will be...
[01:14:18] Hosting our spaghetti dinner.
[01:14:21] Proceeds will go to benefit Bridge of Hearts, a local mission that takes birthday gifts and hygiene bags for students in local elementary schools here in Iredell County.
[01:14:32] Also started moving into Lincoln and Rowan Counties.
[01:14:36] Just a really wonderful and important mission that we will be supporting.
[01:14:41] The cost will be $25 for adults and $10 for children, which is, you couldn't go anywhere on Saturday night for dinner for much less than that, and the proceeds will go to Benefit Bridge of Hearts.
[01:14:55] You'll also have bingo and a silent auction and wonderful fellowship.
[01:14:58] So you can scan the code to register.
[01:15:00] Also, is it tonight is the first rehearsal?

[01:15:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
Our first rehearsal is today from 2 to 4.
[01:15:09] If you're interested in joining with us, we would love to have you come check it out while you guys do show up.
[01:15:11] Come talk to me after worship today.

[01:15:13] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
So that's a wonderful opportunity.
[01:15:15] This will be, I think, our third year doing Messiah, and it's excellent.
[01:15:20] It's an amazing way to prepare for Christmas.
[01:15:22] So contact Pastor Kerry if you have questions about that.
[01:15:26] And then one more announcement.
[01:15:29] Next Monday, not this coming Monday, but the 6th at 7 p.m., we'll be having a prayer and healing service in our chapel.
[01:15:36] So if you have something that you want your church to be in prayer for, a need that you carry with you, or just a time when you want to have people pray with you and for you, next Monday the 6th at 7 p.m. And also don't forget that next Sunday is First Food Sunday.
[01:15:53] So bring food here to the church with you.
[01:15:55] Get it to some hungry folks.

[01:16:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Thank you all for your faithfulness and for your generosity.
[01:16:06] Thank you for your curious questions.
[01:16:08] Thanks for digging into your faith and being willing to ask the hard things.
[01:16:11] Thank you for being the hands and the feet of Jesus.
[01:16:14] And I pray that this week you'll be looking for a place to do that.
[01:16:17] Maybe that'll be signing up to help out with something in the mountains or maybe it'll be something right here in Mooresville.
[01:16:23] that you'll think about First Food Sunday or you'll go serve with Bridge of Hearts or Feed in Sea or the Christian Mission that you'll engage in our community that you might be the face of Jesus to somebody in the middle of a storm.
[01:16:35] And now may the Lord bless you and keep you.
[01:16:37] The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.
[01:16:39] The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
[01:16:43] In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.
[01:16:46] And before I leave, Carter made that video.
[01:16:48] Thank you, Carter.