Fresh Expressions Respond to Hurricane Helene
A Special Cross-Post from Luke
As many of you know, my role in the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church is to cultivate and coordinate our Fresh Expressions movement. On September 27th, Hurricane Helene reached our region and left a path of death and destruction on an unfathomable scale. According to the latest numbers, 95 North Carolinians have lost their lives and 92 others are missing from floods and mudslides. For this week’s newsletter I wanted to take an opportunity to share with you the stories of a few of the everyday people who are responding to the disaster in their community. I originally published the article on our conference website. Thanks for allowing me to veer off topic this week, we’ll be back to spiritual listening next time.
Heading West on I-40
On Wednesday morning I drove west on Interstate 40, trying my best to keep up with Ben Rogers, who was pulling a WNCC Disaster Response trailer behind his pick-up truck. The trailer was packed with 700 pounds of meat, the bed of the pickup was filled with seasoned oak wood, and my little CRV was filled with 100 backpacks loaded with supplies. As we headed west, we passed Exit 118 where a new billboard sponsored by Western North Carolina United Methodists and Episcopals reads, “Hate Divides, Love Unites.” Watching the Disaster Response trailer pass the billboard I thought about how these words had been put into action each of the 11 days since the flood waters rose.
Not far down the road we started seeing signs of Helene’s destruction: downed trees along the highway, debris left behind from risen waters, a mudslide that had crossed the interstate. For an hour we passed exit signs pointing to communities where devastating flooding had changed lives forever—Lake James, Rutherfordton, Old Fort, Black Mountain, Swannanoa, East Asheville, Bat Cave, Biltmore, Canton, Clyde—miles and miles of communities ravaged by floods. The expansive impact of Helene sank in as Ben and I drove on to Waynesville.
Holy Smokes Feeds Waynesville
As of October 1st, there were four confirmed deaths in Haywood County. Businesses along Frog Level were heavily damaged and pockets of houses throughout the county were demolished by floods. Jed Tate, a United Methodist Deacon and Pastor of Faith UMC said, “It almost feels random. I called all my church members and 9 out of 10 said, ‘We’re totally fine.’ But then the tenth one had lost everything.”
We pulled up to First UMC Waynesville, which has become a hub of relief for the community. Groups of people gathered on every corner of the large property. In one parking lot the WNC Repair Café set up an area for people to bring their chain saws and generators to be repaired by volunteers. Essential supplies were distributed to community members on the sidewalk in front of the church. In the church basement a disaster response team met to receive instructions for their next task. Upstairs in the gym a large group prepared food for distribution.
Ben backed the trailer up to the basement entrance and a group of young people lined up to help unload. Ashten McKinney, a local artist and fresh expression leader at First UMC Waynesville, greeted us. I had met with Ashten at the church only three weeks earlier; they had applied for a grant to start a fresh expression called Holy Smokes. This was Ashten’s fourth fresh expression they had started in just a few months. The others included a pub theology group at Frog Level Brewing, a coffee shop gathering, and a dog park gathering. The idea behind Holy Smokes was to smoke meat as a way of building community—to feed people’s stomachs and souls. I was amazed at Ashten’s heart for God and their neighbors, and how quickly they were cultivating spiritual communities of belonging for people disconnected from church. Like paint on a canvas, Ashten was artfully creating beloved community.
As pictures and stories began to emerge from the mountains, I reached out to our fresh expression leaders in impacted areas. Ashten wrote back: “Just left the church! Had the smoker out today and gave out 75 sandwiches. Waiting to get more pork so I can keep feeding people! Any meat, oak, or supply donations you could rally would be amazing.” I passed the word on to our fresh expressions network down the mountain and posted on Facebook, and the donations began pouring in.
After the weekend, we had collected $2,100 in monetary donations, 350 pounds of meat, and a load of firewood. We bought as many Boston butts as Ashten had freezer space for and set out up the mountain. As the donations poured in Ashten wrote to me, “I’m going to be able to feed so many people!”
Unhoused Folks Supporting Unhoused Folks
Once the trailer was unloaded, I met up with Jed Tate. Jed is the pastor of Faith UMC and he also leads a fresh expression at the Bethel House, a small ministry center serving people experiencing homelessness in Waynesville. Jed is a quiet leader and a Deacon through and through. He’s passionate about the good news of Christ being good news for the poor and the oppressed. Every week he spends time at the Bethel House building relationships and leading spiritual conversations with the people who come through the doors.
At Faith UMC, Jed and I unloaded 100 backpacks filled with supplies for unhoused folks in Waynesville. The backpacks included water, food, toothbrushes, and other supplies. What made these backpacks extra special was that they were packed by unhoused folks in Uptown Charlotte.
Word on the Street is a network of fresh expressions anchored at Assurance UMC in Huntersville. One of the fresh expressions meets at Hope Chapel, a simple little chapel in the shadows of the skyscrapers in Uptown. It has become a spiritual home for people staying in nearby homeless shelters. The week prior, a group of unhoused folks at Hope Chapel packed these backpacks and prayed for their unhoused siblings in the mountains. I was deeply honored to transport such holy cargo.
Deep Time Serves Water, Coffee, and Support
After unloading the backpacks I set off for home. As I passed Asheville, I saw an 18-wheeler with a trailer full of potable water. The flood waters of the French Broad River in Asheville destroyed whole neighborhoods, killed at least 40 people, and wiped out city infrastructure, including the city’s water supply. As of this Wednesday, 24,330 residents of Asheville were without water and 238,967 were with limited water due to pressure issues.
In the heart of West Asheville sits Trinity UMC, the home of Deep Time. Deep Time is a social enterprise and fresh expression incubator whose mission is to employ, celebrate and create a spiritual community with people impacted by incarceration. In the aftermath of Helene, Deep Time utilized their community connections to provide relief to their neighbors. In the past two weeks, Deep Time staff have coordinated distribution of water (both for drinking and for flushing toilets), food, and of course hot coffee. They have cooked meals for a homeless shelter that houses families, and delivered resources to at-risk neighbors who were stranded and running out of food and supplies. Trinity UMC has been a hive of relief activity in their neighborhood.
Dustin Mailman, the associate pastor of Trinity UMC and the founding pastor of Deep Time, wrote, “Acts 4 has been enfleshed throughout our West Asheville neighborhood in this time of tragedy.”
“Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.” -Acts 4:32-33 (NRSV)
Mailman reflected, “We kept our proximity at the margins, eyes fixed upon the Christ amongst the poor, and kept our ears listening to those who are most silenced in the rubble: we provided space for processing, resourcing, and sharing of coffee.”
In the past two weeks the people of western North Carolina have experienced unprecedented loss and trauma. Lives have been lost, homes and businesses destroyed, lives changed forever. Throughout these mountain communities is the evidence of death and destruction. And yet, in each of these places—amidst mud and debris—you will find testimony to the resurrection.
The week before Hurricane Helene hit, Deep Time hired 3 justice involved and justice impacted individuals in their Sojourner program - a 6 month ministry and work experience that offers Christian spiritual formation, workforce development, and community health support. The impact of the hurricane has limited access to resources for these new hires, and they are asking for financial support to assure that they have what they need. Purchasing coffee through Deep Time's website and contributing to their digital offering plate are the easiest ways to offer support.