Doing justice in the aftermath of disaster

LOUISVILLE — When Chanda Williams and nine young adults from the First Presbyterian Church of Salem, New Jersey, reached hurricane-impacted Western North Carolina last May, neither she — nor they — knew what to expect. 

Least of all, how deeply their hearts would be broken by the devastation they witnessed — yet simultaneously uplifted by the region’s resilience.

When Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida in September 2024, the catastrophic storm quickly created a path of destruction through the southeastern United States and southern Appalachian Mountains.

In North Carolina — one of several states devastated by what would later be categorized as the deadliest hurricane in the contiguous U.S. since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 — the mountains were the hardest hit, leaving those residents who survived the unprecedented storm completely overwhelmed and all but hopeless.

“Shortly after the hurricane hit, the basic infrastructure was down, with no water in Asheville for 53 days and no power in many locations as well,” said Anne Waple, the Presbytery of Western North Carolina’s disaster recovery coordinator. 

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Waple, a ruling elder whose professional background is in climate risk management, is the first to fill this relatively new presbytery staff position since the area had been considered a “climate-safe region” prior to Helene. 

“It was just the bare minimum we could do at first trying to get people the basic necessities,” she said. “It took us until last spring to assess what kind of rebuilding work would even be possible since so many residents live in hard-to-reach valleys and on steep slopes. Even now there are still so many challenges.” 

Waple, with assistance from such local organizations as the United Methodist Committee on Relief, national staff in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s disaster recovery ministry, and willing partners across the presbytery, was able to get three host sites up and running by spring 2025: Canton Presbyterian Church, First Presbyterian Church in Spruce Pine and New Hope Presbyterian Church in Asheville. 

And helping to restore and rebuild lives and damaged homes in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene is just what financial support from the PC(USA) has made possible, primarily through Presbyterians’ generous gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing.

Centered in the prophet Micah’s call to do justice, One Great Hour of Sharing has been helping neighbors in need around the world for more than 75 years. The annual Offering gives the PC(USA) and other Christian denominations a tangible way to share God’s love by joining together to help eliminate the root causes of the world’s injustices. 

In addition to addressing disaster relief and recovery, One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) also benefits such causes as food insecurity, community development and immigration/migration.

Although the Offering may be taken anytime, most congregations receive it on Palm Sunday or Easter Sunday, which this year fall on March 29 and April 5, respectively.

For the PC(USA)’s disaster relief efforts in Western North Carolina, Williams and her group of 19- to 32-year-olds were placed last May at the New Hope Church host site.

Williams, who started doing youth ministry with her husband Matt in a variety of settings nearly 20 years ago, added young adults to her portfolio at the First Presbyterian Church of Salem in 2014.

“We’re facing a lot of challenges,” she said. “Ours is a historic, small, primarily older congregation in a once-flourishing, historic town, which is now a small city surrounded by farms. Because Salem struggles with poverty, drug addiction and gang violence, there’s plenty to do in our hometown. But I plan trips like this because a lot of our young adults are already involved with serving our community and I think it’s important for them to see other people in need to see what God is doing in other parts of the world.”

Like the Salem Church, New Hope is similarly a community of mainly retirees, one of whom, Elsie Reid, a retired attorney, was on hand to welcome and shepherd the volunteer group from New Jersey.

Elected as a ruling elder in 2025, Reid was asked to chair the church’s Outreach Committee and almost immediately to be one of the volunteer coordinators should New Hope be selected as a disaster relief volunteer host site. 

Once the church’s selection was confirmed, “two other experienced, talented, and hardworking women, Nan Riley and Susan Maveety,” joined the effort. Together with the Rev. Kim Wells, New Hope’s pastor, they serve as the Host Site Coordinating Team, relying on more than 70 church volunteers.

“Although we knew that raising funds was one way that our church could contribute to the recovery effort, we yearned for a tangible way to get involved to help our community heal,” said Reid. “Being selected as a volunteer host site was an answer to our search for engagement.” 

Despite the challenges that the congregation faced in preparing to be a host site — such as purchasing bunk beds and various accessories for the sleeping areas, upgrading electrical equipment, and navigating the permitting process in the City of Asheville — Reid said that “being part of the ‘community’ of helpers has been incredibly moving and uplifting.”

One of those indispensable “helpers” was the neighboring Givens Estates Retirement Community, about which Reid said: “Givens has provided not only essential shower facilities, but it has also made available its pool, towel service, gym and dining facilities to the disaster relief workers.”

Reid added that she and her husband, Cal, were particularly fortunate to have led the host team for the volunteer workers from Salem, who inspired them with their hard work and generous spirit.

Yet the young adults’ journey to volunteer in the region was not without its challenges.

Because Williams is a graduate of the PC(USA)-related Warren Wilson College in nearby Swannanoa, North Carolina, she said she “felt God pulling on her heart” to plan a mission trip to Western North Carolina. Although the young adult group had done previous service trips with organizations in West Virginia, Puerto Rico, and the Presbyterian border ministry, Frontera de Cristo, this was to be their first disaster relief experience.

But Williams said one thing that hadn’t initially dawned on her in choosing the location and in preparing, as a white woman, to accompany a predominantly African American group was the very real specter of racism.

“When I gathered my team together, I asked them to share any concerns or fears that they might have about the trip,” recalled Williams. “Across the board, it was concerns about racism. They had heard a lot of things from relatives who had experienced it in the South. Even though I know Asheville to be a progressive area, I assured them that we would be there as a group, and that if anything there made them uncomfortable, we would withdraw if we needed to. That was our pact and our understanding heading down, especially because we knew we were going to stay at an older, white congregation. I could see the apprehension on their faces.”

Upon their arrival, the group’s fears were quickly put to rest by the affirming, cross-generational and cross-racial welcome they received at New Hope.

“Not only were they accepted and warmly welcomed, but the congregation also bent over backwards to make sure that everyone was cared for,” said Williams. “And Elsie and Cal have stayed in contact with us. It’s a very special connection.”

Theirs wasn’t the only special connection forged in the Western North Carolina mountains.

Primarily assigned to work nearly every day with a homeowner named Sue, with whom the group had bonded, they were asked on their last day to report to a different site.

“Because we studied different Scripture passages each day related to service, one of the main things that came up for us was that there are never any answers ahead of time,” said Williams, “so we just showed up and said, ‘Yes.’ We didn’t know what would happen on any given day because things could change so drastically. But on that last day, even though we wanted to go back to Sue’s to finish our project, we said, ‘OK, whatever you need us to do most, that’s where we’ll go.’”

The group ended up going to the side of a mountain where they were asked to help move a man and all his belonging out of transitional housing in an RV into an area campground. He was badly injured, with broken ribs, and really struggling.

Williams recalled how everything that could go wrong that day did go wrong.

“We spent the morning with him having a difficult time,” she said. “The trailer hitch didn’t fit. It was raining the whole time. And then, by the time we got to the storage unit where he was supposed to store his tools, it was filled with someone else’s belongings.”

After the man had broken down in front of them, he told the group they could leave.

“He told me he just couldn’t handle the stress anymore and was ready to end things. He didn’t even have the down payment he needed for the campground,” said Williams.

Williams went to the truck with him, stayed with him, and messaged his caseworker with a partner organization. Although working together they were ultimately able to get him into another storage unit, there was still the matter of the down payment, which he simply didn’t have.

“On our trip,” Williams explained, “our group had been collecting money we called ‘God’s money.’ These are young adults who don’t have a lot of money to spare, but they wanted to give. Then we prayed about how God wanted us to be generous and to use this money. And even though we had already voted to give what we collected to a group in Asheville with a beautiful food ministry, when I told them what our new friend had said to me, everyone just gasped, and a couple people started crying. ‘I think God’s money is for him,’ and everyone agreed that this was where God was leading us.”

It was almost exactly enough for his first month’s rent.

“We gathered around him and gave him an envelope labeled ‘God’s money,’” said Williams. “We got to share with him how much God loves him and sees him, why God introduced him to us that day because we had a gift for him. We knew it was his. We had to pass it on. It was a very emotional moment for him and for our group.”

And the story didn’t end there.

Looking over at the church van, the man confessed that because he had an abusive experience growing up in the church, he got out, but always felt that he was missing something in his life.

“Today I have witnessed a true miracle in my life,” he told the group. “I am seeing God pull me back to him.”

Williams marveled at how all of this was totally unplanned.

“We didn’t even want to go move this man. We wanted to finish our work at Sue’s, but we just said yes,” she said. “It turned out to be one of the most impactful moments of the trip, a life-changing moment that showed them how God used our group. It was something we never could have planned. One of the most impactful themes of service was saying yes to God and being available to witness what he does.”

After staying on in Asheville for an extra day, where some of the young adults took their first nature hike and had their first sighting of a waterfall, they traveled the 10 hours home with a dog, newly christened “Clyde” for the North Carolina city where they had been working. The group confirmed with neighbors that they were trying to find a new home for the dog.

“The dog had been tied to a tree and was very neglected,” said Williams. “Today he lives in Brooklyn with one of our youth. He is well loved.”

One of the group’s young adults, Helena, captured their amazing experience.

“I could say a lot about my time in North Carolina, from the amazing hospitality to the beautiful people we met along the way,” she said. “To me, this experience was not just using our hands. We got to use our hearts. And through the heartbreaking stories and the peace and hope that came with them, I can say I was truly changed, and my faith was renewed in this experience. People worked with us, ate with us, and shared their lives with us, the good and the bad. That is the part that impacted me the most.” 

Looking back, Williams said that their group wouldn’t have had this experience without One Great Hour of Sharing.

“Gifts to the Offering make disaster relief and recovery work in partnership with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance very accessible for young adults from the inner city,” she said. “We paid a small fee per person for our lodging, and our oversight and project materials were all covered by the PC(USA). That had a big impact on allowing everyone to participate.”