By Kristen Thomason

Mars Hill Baptist Church has a designated fund to help those impacted by flooding and natural disasters. In years past, the church sent this money out of state. Now, for the first time, they are distributing the fund locally. Located in western North Carolina directly north of Asheville, Mars Hill was hit with flooding, fallen trees and power outages as a result of Hurricane Helene.

As soon as the rain stopped, members of Mars Hill Baptist started doing what they could to meet the needs of their community. Like all good Baptists, they began with feeding people. They held an impromptu potluck on the church lawn. Members emptied their freezers and volunteers grilled enough meat to feed 300 people.

“A woman brought cheese and crackers and some meat, and she said, ‘I have the stuff for a charcuterie, I was supposed to have a meeting at the college, can I set it up?’ And she fixed it all up on a platter and set it out by a stack of moon pies we had out there,” Senior Pastor Tommy Justus said.

In the generosity and camaraderie of those who gathered to eat that day, Justus says he had a glimpse of something holy.

“Nobody worried about who was in that line, about waiting, and everybody was patient and helping each other out. There were people of all colors and backgrounds and spoke all kinds of accents, and people were eating together. Something like that will be the Kingdom of God I think…There was something that was powerful.”

Justus began to consider what else the congregation could do for their neighbors. “In the middle of this devastation, God left us blessed. The question is what do we do about it? How do we make the kingdom of God come now?” Mars Hill Baptist offered ice and water to the community as well as housing to four people who had nowhere else to go. Justus himself opened his own home to anyone who needed a hot shower.

The church expanded their ministry to the nearby town of Marshall, N.C., which was especially hard hit by Helene. “We drove up to Skyline Drive to look down at Marshall and it was terrible. We saw single wide trailers floating down the river.”

Located along the French Broad River, Marshall received five months’ worth of rain in three days. Flooding in the town reached 27 feet, far surpassing the 1916 record of 22 feet. The flood waters destroyed the town hall and left homes and buildings deluged with mud.

Mars Hill Baptist is helping the town of 1000 residents begin the cleanup process. Volunteers from the church donned muck boots and grabbed shovels to remove mud from downtown Marshall. They also delivered CBF Disaster Response Cleanup Buckets. “They are like Home Depot five-gallon buckets…They’re designed for cleaning in disaster situations with products and rags, etc,” explained Justus.

The CBF Disaster Response Cleanup Buckets are modeled on those distributed by disaster response agencies such as UMCOR (United Methodists) and Church World Service. Each five-gallon bucket contains useful supplies such as cleaning products, gloves, masks and trash bags. A list of specific items and directions for assembling these cleanup kits is available on the CBF website. Churches are responsible for purchasing the necessary items for the cleanup buckets and delivering the finished buckets to a designated contact.  CBF hopes to have 2,000 Disaster Response Cleanup Buckets to distribute to people cleaning up after hurricane Helene.

When it comes to helping those in need recover from a natural disaster, pastor Tommy Justus says, “Prayer is important, but it’s not where we stop.” Congregations who would like to assemble cleanup buckets should contact CBF Disaster Response at DR@cbf.net.

Your gifts to CBF Disaster Response help change lives and make stories of hope like this possible. Please give generously at http://www.cbf.net/hurricane-relief.