From the Pastor’s pen…
Hurricane Helene Update

Dear Church Family,
 
I wanted to provide an update to you on our partnership with Water Mission and our Hurricane Helene Relief efforts.  On Saturday following the storm, one member of the Water Mission team drove a 26 foot truck with 30 generators and one living water treatment system to our parking lot.  We decided to partner with them to help provide clean and safe drinking water and to provide power to families who would be without it for some time.  On Sunday, three other Water Mission staff members arrived and took two trucks to distribute the generators we had to families in remote areas in Sugar Grove and Cove Creek.  On Monday, we received another shipment of 25 generators that were assembled by the Reformed University Fellowship Campus Ministry and all given to families in need that day.  On Tuesday we had a line at 8:30am in front of our church doors that winded toward our parking lot.

                                            
We began with about 30 volunteers on Monday, September 30 and have increased to 290 volunteer/opportunities since yesterday.  As I write this over 50 volunteers are assembling 370 generators in our parking lot.  To date, Water Mission has supplied 1,100 generators in Western North Carolina – 875 within Watauga, Ashe, Avery, and Mitchell counties, and 225 in the Asheville area.  Not only have we supplied generators for power, but we contracted work with three local electricians who agreed to install transfer switches in homes so that these generators could be hooked up to a home breaker box that can help pump in well water and power up essential items in the home.  In addition to the generator distribution, Water Mission has installed seven living water treatment systems.  These systems provide between 5-10,000 gallons of clean and safe drinking water per day in areas that have been hit really hard.  To date they have been installed at:
 

1. Henson Chapel UMC – Cove Creek, NC (Watauga County)
2. Warrensville, NC (Ashe County)
3. 2 systems are at Parkway Fire and Rescue, Spruce Pine, NC (Mitchell County)
4. Bald Creek School Road, Burnsville, NC (Yancey County)
5. Roy-Cort Recreation Park, Burnsville, NC (Yancey County)
6. Seacoast Church, Asheville, NC (Buncombe County)

Last Saturday we had a helicopter land on our church property operated by retired veteran service members, to deliver a living water treatment system to us.  And every day we see other military helicopters flying over our church building distributing important items with other organizations like Samaritan’s Purse here.  Needless to say, there’s been a lot of good work done to care for the least of these within our local communities and beyond. 
                         
I’m so grateful to all of you who have taken the time to volunteer and who have donated to Water Mission and to our church Hurricane Relief Fund.  We are blessed to have other congregations from near and far who have reached out with the love of Christ to ask how they can help.  We are grateful for their partnership in the gospel of Jesus Christ and for how wide and deep the Body of Christ is in times like these. 

As you can see, so much has been done in a short amount of time to provide care to those in crisis.  We continue to partner with Water Mission as they assess the needs of our communities and beyond.  I’ve included a screen shot of the people who have received a generator through our distribution as of yesterday.  This continues to grow as we continue our work. 
                          
                       

If you would like to donate to Water Mission for their work in Western North Carolina, you can do so by going to their website: https://watermission.org 

If you would like to contribute to First Presbyterian Church’s ongoing Hurricane Relief efforts, you may do so by clicking the blue button below.

All monies received are caring for folks who truly need help. My father shared with me that one of the employees where he works received a generator and a battery pack here at FPC, and that she returned to work with tears of gratitude for the help she received. There are countless others who’ve expressed the same gratitude – hope in the face of hopelessness. That’s the work of God through God’s people. May we give thanks to God for being a conduit of that work together! I implore your continued prayers for the families who are still struggling in our area, but also for those who will be impacted by Hurricane Milton in Florida. May we continue to care for and reach out in Florida.  May we continue to care for and reach out in love to our neighbors.

Grace and Peace, 
Pastor Jeff