Holiday Spirit

Merry Christmas!

If I say that enough, maybe I'll get in the holiday spirit. I'm getting there. Being in the mountains with a dose of snowflakes helped me. 

Does that help you?

How about this? The reason I was in the mountains, the reason for the season?

Here we are, several members of my church, me on one end, my husband on the other. The purpose of our being at Newland United Methodist Church was to serve a meal to the people of their small Appalachian town. Hurricane Helene tried to squelch the joy of Christmastide. She might have walloped a blow, but she didn't destroy the spirit of recovery. Helene arrived in late September, so by now the immediate needs of the mountain communities have been patchworked enough to get by. What the people need now, now that winter is setting in, is sustained support that warms their hearts as well as their tents or damaged homes. A good, warm lunch fits the bill.

The Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church has worked tirelessly to aid in recovery. Many of our own churches were damaged, yet we reached out to others first, to assist in any way we could. For years congregations across the area prepared flood buckets and sent them off to hurricane-stricken areas, never imagining we would be the ones who one day needed them. Helene struck on a Thursday night. Here we are the following Monday, in the dark from lack of power, packing flood buckets to send. 

So many of us worked with our neighbors to clear brush and remove downed trees from roofs. We checked on each other and took meals to those who had no electricity. Our minister called each member of our congregation for a wellness check, asking what we could do to help them recover. One member pulled a trailer stuffed with clothing and household items we collected to Asheville, the largest city that Helene devastated. Another collected hay for farmers who lost their supply to the floods. Another delivered wood to a Tennessee state park for the locals without heat to help themselves to a wood supply. 

Happy birthday Jesus. This is our church's present to you this year. Matthew recorded your comment about this in chapter 25, verse 40: 

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 

Merry Christmas to all,

Catch of the day,

Gretchen