Kentucky by Heart: First Christian Church mission takes action for those affected by W. KY tornados

By Steve Flairty
NKyTribune columnist

For a group of folks at the First Christian Church (FCC), in Versailles, what happened in another part of the state poked at their deepest feelings of compassion. They responded by taking action.

On the evening of Friday, December 10, 2021, the force of a violent EF4 tornado in Western Kentucky produced savagely unforgiving property damage to the communities of Mayfield, Princeton, Dawson Springs, and Bremen. Even worse, according to the Courier Journal, as many as 80 deaths across Kentucky were recorded because of the catastrophe.

Almost immediately, help began to come from within and outside the area. Besides governmental agencies, churches, and individuals offering financial and volunteer help, much support came from private organizations such as the Salvation Army and Red Cross. Much good was done then and is still being done, but almost three years later, much remains to do in returning the area to some point of normalcy, and with hopes of even better.

On the week of August 25, six representatives of FCC traveled to the Mayfield area to participate in a building project sponsored by the Christian-based Samaritan’s Purse International Relief organization, commonly called “Samaritan’s Purse.”

John Thompson, a church member who organized the trip, has been involved in such outreaches in the past, including when he and church members helped with disaster relief in Mayfield two years ago, soon after the tornado hit. “Samaritan’s Purse has disaster relief, where they go in immediately after the disaster and clean up,” he said. That is what the FCC group did then. But on this latest outreach trip, the group had a different task—helping build new houses.

“There was so much money donated to Samaritan’s Purse for that specific area that they bought land, developed New Hope Acres Subdivision–building 60 brand new homes less than two miles from downtown Mayfield,” John said. The new homeowners of the two, three, and four-bedroom houses were formerly renters who were displaced because of the tornado system, and few, if any, had owned homes previously. And all together, he noted, “by the end of the month, Samaritan’s Purse will have finished 80 homes… very nice houses.”

The FCC group was split up and worked at different houses in the development. Their main work assignments were doing caulking and painting, plus getting doors ready for use.

And if a volunteer has no such experience beforehand? “They’ll teach you,” John explained. Well-qualified project managers are around for guidance, along with having “tool trailers” available, John said, “that have every conceivable tool that you would need, (and) the job foreman can tell you where it is in the trailer, and you can go out there and get what you need.”

The outreach operation is expertly organized, and is focused on a strong Christian spiritual orientation throughout the process.

Arriving on Sunday afternoon, the FCC group spent the nights at a local church, where cots were provided for sleeping, along with facilities for personal use. Breakfast was provided each morning and dinner in the evening, courtesy of the church.

John described the daily schedule like this. “We start the morning getting up about six. Breakfast is served at seven. We (then) fix our brown bag lunches to bring to the job site. Whoever does devotions picks out a song and a prayer. By eight o’clock or before, we’re on the work truck.”

Then there is more spiritual focus…

“As soon as we get to the work site, before you do anything, we’ll have a prayer,” John continued. “At lunchtime before the meal, and after we’ve loaded the truck and while getting ready to go back to church, we’ll pray again. After dinner, we have a ‘share’ time. We’re supposed to minister to the (new) homeowners as much as doing the work.”

Group member Mary Sue Mitchell said she has “always liked to do things like this,” and has participated in similar outreaches in Louisiana and other places. She praised Samaritan’s Purse as “so organized, nice, with everything ready for you… (and) they feed you really good,” she said, grinning. Though she considers herself “unskilled,” she was taught how to put in door knobs, use a drill, and paint properly.

With the experience, Mary Sue mentioned the benefit of growing closer to others who made the trip, which was facilitated by free time in the evenings with card games and such. The volunteers also gained better understanding of the difficulties faced by tornado victims while listening to their stories. With the help received by mission groups such as these, the new homeowners “are certainly very appreciative,” said Mary Sue.

Celia Thompson, another veteran of such trips, said that Samaritan’s Purse “is one of the best groups we’ve ever worked with.” Also, as others, she learned how to install doorknobs and locks. She called it “interesting” in putting a lock on a “saferoom” door (which is heavier than a regular one). Saferooms are being installed in all the new homes built in this subdivision to provide protection from possible future storms. Also, Celia is happy that Samaritan’s Purse “gave the homeowners a Bible” and, that when each house was started, the weekly groups wrote inspiring words in a journal book for the new owners, passing it along to incoming groups as the house was being built.

Celia looked forward to the nights of fellowship with other group members. “We had fun even though we were tired,” she said.

Chris Wiley, who joined the FCC outreach group from another church, noted the joy of people going from “renters to homeowners” and remarked specifically about how special it was seeing one family with four boys, ages about two to nine, receiving their new home.

Senior minister at FCC, Marcus Lynn, is proud of his church for “continuing to send people after disasters to help with cleanup and reconstruction. We’ve been doing this almost every year since before Katrina.” The church has ministered with groups such as Samaritan’s Purse (though not exclusively) in North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, New Orleans, and Western Kentucky and has also made international trips, including to Haiti.

“The amazing thing,” continued Marcus, “is that most of the people are retired and could be doing any number other things, and I’m always overwhelmed to see people take vacation time to do things like this. It says a lot about their dedication to Jesus and their commitment to loving their neighbor, wherever they live.”

Well over three thousand volunteers — from all parts of the U.S. and beyond — have worked in the area with the organization, with hundreds volunteering more than once.

Reflecting on the week with the FCC, Chris Wiley remarked: “We didn’t go at it at the same pace as younger ones might have, but I’m just thankful we were able to do it. You hear so much bad news. It’s good to hear some good news.”

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