Baptist Press
By Chris Turner, posted October 23, 2024 in Disaster Relief
LIMESTONE, Tenn. – Craig Ponder’s first impression of the ATV four-wheeler gang congregating in the church’s parking lot was not good.
“I thought they were a bunch of tourists coming to check out the flood damage caused by Hurricane Helene,” he said. “I was wrong, and I’ve since apologized. They were people coming to check on family members and friends cut off and stranded on the other side of the river.”
Ponder is pastor of New Salem Baptist Church, set atop a hill near where the Nolichucky River normally meanders through a countryside that could appear in a “Beautiful Landscapes” calendar. However, the usually placid Nolichucky became a destructive force on Friday, Sept. 27, ripping its way downstream through four East Tennessee counties and washing out four of six bridges in the area, damaging the other two. Snapp Bridge, near the church, held its ground but took significant damage.
“Brothers from the Mennonite community on the other side went to work almost immediately and got the bridge passable,” Ponder said. “That opened a way for the ATVs to get across.”
Within 36 hours, New Salem became a drop-off point for supplies, and by Sunday afternoon, the pavilion adjacent to the church was like a warehouse stocked with diapers, flashlights, batteries, gloves, shovels, Pine-Sol, water, canned goods, peanut butter crackers, dish soap – you name it, and it arrived. And if it wasn’t there, God was in the process of sending it. More Here
