Personal From the President
Helping with Tornado Relief
Earlier this month on Dec. 11, EF4 tornados with wind gusts of 190 miles per hour tore a swath of destruction through Kentucky and adjacent areas killing 77 people. Thankfully, none of our brethren were hurt; however, some did sustain damage to their property. I have spoken with Paducah pastor Doug Collison who has visited with those who have suffered loss and we talked about this in last week’s podcast (ucg.org/inside-united-podcast/inside-united-podcast-226-doug-collison-recent-kentucky-tornado-update). Stories of courage, compassion and care abound.
I was the pastor in this area from 1974 to 1981, and seeing this devastation in familiar territory was personally painful. On Facebook, I received notifications from people I had known long ago who were marking themselves “safe.”
Our members Craig and Carolyn Evans of Mayfield, Kentucky, live 100 yards from what was the edge of the monstrous funnel with deafening and violent wind. Exceedingly low atmospheric barometric pressure shattered windows in their home. Fortunately, they and their daughter Rebekah were not harmed. A nearby electric substation along with a city water tank were destroyed. But, people quickly came from far and wide to these communities with gasoline generators and fuel as well as food and water. Teams of volunteers have come into the devastated areas to clean up debris. A tree fell on the Evans’ home, but volunteers came by in a few days and removed it. Victims are still dazed by this sudden and unexpected calamity.
Craig and I have spoken and written to each other. They are so thankful for everyone in the Church coming to their aid and people calling to caringly check up on them. They are thankful, too, for the guardian angels who protected them from blowing debris and live electric wires from fallen power poles.
I would also like to report on a relief effort from Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Sadieville, Kentucky, by Gregg and Rebekah Drury of the Cincinnati East congregation. He explains how the United Church of God organized and delivered relief to devastated areas in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Four years ago the Drurys lost their own home to a tornado and felt compelled to help those who went through what they did.
Gregg Drury explains: “The first of the donations began coming in from the families of teammates on our daughters’ school basketball teams. Through the course of the week, donations came in—either given to us in person or anonymously left on the porch. Local businesses in our community of Leesburg, Ohio, became donation collection sites. Our local efforts culminated with a gift from a small church that donated nearly $2,000 of goods which were purchased by the pastor and his wife and delivered to us in a 15-passenger van with the seats removed. The overwhelming outpouring of support by our local community was incredible—and also quite daunting—as we could not have anticipated the sheer volume of what we were now responsible to transport from Ohio to Kentucky. We also knew that we had not yet even begun to collect donations from our United Church of God congregations.
“After a short conversation with Cincinnati pastor Steve Myers, he graciously gave us the use of the church truck and trailer for our efforts. On Dec. 18, a massive team of willing members jumped in and loaded donated items from cars, trucks, briefcases and backpacks into the bed and cab of one truck until it could hold no more and then turned to loading the second truck and the trailer. We left Cincinnati and headed for our second pick-up location from collections from the Lexington, Kentucky, members. Elder Kerby Burton met with us and we managed to pack another car full of donations into the trailer and received a wonderful monetary gift for fuel from a member named Mary.
“It was at this point, with myself and my father-in-law on either side of the trailer literally holding in as many of the items as we could while Mr. Burton quickly closed the trailer door to keep the goods inside from spilling out into the parking lot, I was reminded of Christ’s words in Luke 6:38: ‘Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you’ [with no space left for more].
“We continued on to our final stop just outside Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Here we met with Dr. David Evans and his family, who managed a collection drive from Indianapolis, Indiana. Dr. Evans had an overwhelming outpouring of support from his chiropractic office staff and clients, concerned community members, and from the UCG Indianapolis congregation, that he needed to rent a U-Haul trailer to contain it all. This was in addition to his vehicle overflowing so much that the water packages had to be stacked and strapped high on a truck rack. The next morning, we caravanned together with our three full trucks and two bulging trailers to our final destination in Bowling Green.
“We met early in the morning with Erin, the owner of Old School Cross Fit located on the edge of downtown Bowling Green. She had organized volunteers who assisted with the unloading process. Out of her compassion and generosity, Erin converted her gym into a localized warming and distribution center. The gym has showers and laundry facilities where she allowed community members affected by the multiple EF3 tornados to come and heat themselves, to eat a meal, shower and wash some clothes, and then take from the donated items whatever they needed. As Erin rolled open the overhead door entrance to the building, one could see the separated and organized areas of donations that they had already collected and were distributing. The donations that we brought multiplied their stockpile many times over. Their gratitude for the donations was manifested with their deep hugs and messages of thanks that they gave over and over again. Erin’s goal of distribution didn’t stop just at her center, however. She and her group of volunteers worked to put together delivery bags and boxes that they personally took into the hardest affected areas, some of which are poverty-stricken. What an incredible act of selflessness!
“As with many tragedies, whether it be tornados, floods, hurricanes, fire or the like, there is an outpouring of support in the immediate days that follow a tragedy such as this. But, as time marches on and the devastation falls out of the daily news cycle, the ongoing needs of these communities can easily be lost and forgotten. Having been through a similar circumstance, the ongoing process for the members of these communities to put their lives back together is an incredible task. Speaking only from personal experience, managing multiple insurance claims simultaneously (home, contents and auto) while attempting to remain focused at a full-time job, manage the construction project of rebuilding a home and maintaining some semblance of normalcy for family with school, work and the other day-to-day events can be disconcerting and intimidating. There will be ongoing needs for the Bowling Green and Mayfield communities for years to come. In many circumstances, insurance coverages may only apply to a portion of needed repairs—if insurance was in place at all. Others may need longer-term rental car funds or extended temporary housing while waiting for the home repairs to be completed. Many may need a generator or some other short-term items to simply provide nominal power to their home. The ongoing physical needs are important, but equally as important care for long-term emotional needs. Providing support for the trauma of losing loved ones, the loss of security and stability of a home will be hard to fill.
“While working closely with Mr. Victor Kubik, it has been brought to our attention that LifeNets alone raised $14,000 in the first week from their website campaign. Good Works is doing the same. Thank you all for your wonderful showing of love for our brethren affected by these storms, but also for their neighbors and friends in those communities who may have been affected even worse. Please continue to give as you are able. Our love and compassion for others cannot stop at the boundaries of our organization as we are called to ‘love our neighbors as ourselves’ and your donations to LifeNets and Good Works help to fulfill that call.”
If you would like to contribute financially to help those impacted by the Kentucky tornadoes, you can make a donation to either Good Works at ucg.org/members/service-projects/disaster-relief or LifeNets at lifenets.org/lifenets-help-for-december-11-2021-kentucky-tornado-victims.
Organizational Change in Women’s Services
A transition is taking place in the personnel of Women’s Services. This area, which has been overseen by the President’s Office, has been serving the needs of our ladies since 2011. Lisa Fenchel has been the coordinator for the past nine years but is moving to a new position at Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati. We sincerely thank her for her service and are sorry to see her go.
Coordination of Women’s Services will be continued by co-leads Kay Schreiber from Colorado and Barbara Welch from Cincinnati. Both women have extensive experience in the pastoral ministry and have been active in programs relating to the interests of women. They both look forward to continuing the various activities that have brought so many together, such as the popular Women’s Enrichment Weekends held around the country. Kay and Barbara look forward to sharing more details in the near future about opportunities that you can be involved in. Please feel free to reach out to either of them or directly to me.
Finally…
My prayers are with all of you for God’s certainty in these seemingly uncertain times with all their trials. I find solace, comfort, and hope in the heartfelt sincere words of Jesus Christ: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me” (John 14:14).
