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‘I could write a book about what God’s done,’ says Tennessee Pastor after Helene

Pastor Dewey Moede

Photo From Baptist Press. Volunteers at New Salem Baptist Church, Limestone, prepare for distribution a wide variety of donations the church has received and that will go out to the surrounding area where flooding from the Nolichucky River caused extensive damage. New Salem is one of many local churches in upper Northeast Tennessee that have rallied to serving their communities and other churches that were destroyed by flooding. Photo by Chris Turner

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.

Members of Crossroads Cowboy church in Greeneville pick up supplies from New Salem Baptist Church in Limestone that will be ferried to people airlifted by helicopter to people still cut off by washed out bridges and roads. New Salem is a key distribution point near the Nolachucky River where flooding caused extensive damage including washing out four of six bridges in the area and damaging the other two. Photo by Chris Turner

 

“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

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