The Fayetteville Tornado

 

The North Carolina District of the Nazarene Church has a disaster relief team.

It appears that unless you go in with something like this it becomes rather difficult to enter a disaster area. The Red Cross is supposed to be the coordinating organization but they were the least visible on the ground. The most visible were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons).  When I heard of this calamity on the television of thought, “Well, here’s a disaster and I won’t have to drive for twenty hours for or fly to Sri Lanka,  India or Haiti. It was less than three hours away so on Monday morning I got up at 6 and drove off to help.

I arrived before nine and met Pastor Mark Medley of the Fayetteville  Nazarene Church in the church parking lot where they were loading up the trailer. Originally, I had come with my prep knives to cook for them but once I got there it seemed that there wouldn’t be such a big crew so we ate at Subway and from the generous people who came along with water and sandwiches. One family (four teenaged girls) went around with their grill in the truck bed frying hamburgers and hot dogs for the various exhausted workers.  

What was left of Als Ford truck

The way this works is church first, parsonage next, church members and finally anyone else that might need a hand. Since the church and parsonage were untouched we went right to the area most affected, Cottonade a community of eight hundred homes near the Fort Bragg military base. Since we had not yet received our clearance we were turned away until after lunch when we made arrangements to meet church members Al and Rita Bledsoe at the check point. With them making request we rolled in.

Up to this point things looked relatively normal, that is until we turned the corner. It was amazing. I grew up in tornado alley so I have seen my share of the devastation left by tornadoes. This was a F3 and certainly not the worst it could have been but it looked like a bomb went off. Trees are wonderful things when they are standing. The Cottonade housing development will be without shade for many years to come. Hundreds, even thousands of one-hundred fifty year old, one-hundred fifty feet high pine trees were shattered half way down and others uprooted and hurled everywhere as though the were match sticks. Car after car and roof after roof were smashed.

Many people just sat on the porch and watched seemingly in shock. Several I talked to seemed distraught and there was an air of confusion, hopelessness and helplessness everywhere. All many people were doing is simply sitting and waiting for someone to show up and offer a solution or help. Trying to pick up twigs seems useless when there are ten trees the size of three telephone poles uprooted and tangled together in your front yard. God only knows what will happen to those who have no insurance. Some had already just took what they could and left their homes behind – what were left of them. It will be three-months before the power is restored.

Shades of “Tell It Like It Is!”

Many of our older friends will remember our early days in evangelism when we bought a Winnebago, procured a small circus tent that seated about two-hundred fifty people and traveled on the weekends from Maniwaki, Quebec to Orillia Ontario preaching the gospel from town to town and farmers field to farmers field. Those were fun but complicated days. I am older now and my life has slowed down a little – at least until last weekend.

The best we can under the prevailing circumstances.

One of the problems with teaching is that your students finally grow up, take on ministries of their own and unfortunately remember the stories that you told in the classroom. Such was the case when I got an email from Stephen Bounds on the other side of Charlotte.

Young people from Child Evangelism present the gospel.

Stephen and his wife Julie were in my evangelism and bible classes at Bethany some six or more years ago. They now have three children, another on the way and have lived in 17 different places since they were married. Stephen wound up overseeing the Plaza Baptist Church in the north Charlotte area dubbed with the regional distinction NO-DA (North Davidson).  NO-DA has an interesting reputation. On one side of the street you have the emmerging arts community. These folks have moved in, buying the older and at one time fashionable art-deco homes, remodeling them while on the other side of the street there remains WW II tract housing where as many as twelve or more African-Americans live with their extended families in two (rather small) bedroom homes. In effect, there are two communites in economic and cultural tension.

Here an unidentified man comes forward to get literature.

Stephen felt that he must do something to reach out to the surrounding neighborhoods so he invited me, Jeanne, eight  area churches and ministries like Child Evangelism Fellowship to join Plaza Baptist in a festival on their parking lot. Stephen went right ahead facing down the ominous weather forcast of rain, rain and more rain. Stephen is English so this may account for his lack of concern.  The weatherman was right. Nevertheless, the churches stood their ground and in the pouring rain continued all afternoon to preach the gospel in a variety of ways from clowning and worship groups to food and clothing give-aways to Hickory Baptist Church and their 2500 grilled wieners. In the picture below, it appears that I have had my fair share of wieners.

Preaching in the rain. Not a good day for drawing.

I did what I always have done when opportunity presents itself. I did drawings of both “Zaccheus” and then later “The Rich Young Ruler” and preached the gospel. I was once asked by a seminary professor of how I preached my last sermon. He inquired, “Was it expositional or topical?” In those days I didn’t know what those words meant so I just replied with the truth, “Loudly.” I preached “loudly” and in spite of the rain I got of attention and “Amen” agreement with what I had to say. The Baptists can be faulted for many things but one thing they are clear about, they know the old-fashioned, Bible gospel when they hear it.

Jeanne trying to stay dry.

I am home now, at least until Jeanne is on the mend. It was great to have her with me. Just like the old days when (it is not her calling) she went with me everywhere, supporting and encouraging. I will never take her for granted again. She has been the Lord’s “help meet” and my help mate.