Today in the Mission Yearbook - ‘This place looked awful’

PC(USA) congregations impacted by Helene and Milton have arrived at different solutions for moving forward

Pastor Bobby Musengwa (center) of Maximo Presbyterian Church in St.
Petersburg, Fla., talks about the church’s experience with Hurricanes Helene
and Milton with Valerie Young (left), synod executive and stated clerk of the
Synod of South Atlantic, and the Rev. Jim Kirk, associate for National
Disaster Response for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. (Photo by Rich
Copley)

Just a few days before visitors from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, the Synod of South Atlantic, the Presbytery of Tampa Bay, together with the Executive Director and Stated Clerk of the General Assembly for the interim unified agency, the Rev. Jihyun Oh, arrived at Maximo Presbyterian Church in St. Petersburg, Florida, the church’s pastor, the Rev. Bobby Musengwa, told visitors, “this place looked awful.”

Hurricanes Helene and Milton damaged the Alegria Montessori School badly enough that the church had to terminate the lease, a terrible blow to the dozens of international students attending school there. Without access to the sanctuary, the congregation had to get creative worshiping in-person and online from church offices. “The intimacy of the worship experience is really important to us,” Musengwa said. “God knows what we need.”

“It’s a perilous hour for us,” Musengwa told the visitors. “Thank you for being with us.”

“We’re here so you know you’re not alone in this process,” the Rev. Edwin González-Castillo, PDA director, told Musengwa. “PDA works in communities affected by these disasters.”

Ruling Elder Patricia Brown, interim music director for Maximo
Presbyterian Church in St. Petersburg, Fla., played the church’s
piano, which was in the flooding from Hurricanes Milton and Helene,
but not destroyed. (Photo by Rich Copley)

Musengwa said that one way PDA has helped was to “help us understand we can ask for things from [the Federal Emergency Management Agency].”

The Rev. Doug McMahon, director of Religious Life and Chaplain at nearby Eckerd College, which is related to the PC(USA), said Eckerd’s 1,850 students are due back on campus this weekend after taking four weeks of online instruction following the hurricanes. While many faculty and staff lost their homes to the winds and floods, the “spirit of resiliency is good,” he said. “It’s hard to see them go through that, but there are so many stories of people helping one another.”

The Rev. Lissa Bradford, who serves the church, and Lynn Hoy, clerk of session and treasurer at Church on the Bayou in Tarpon Springs, said church leaders have decided they will sell the flood-damaged church and its 5.5 acres, largely as a result of the church not being able to afford insurance premiums. “There was 22 inches of water in every building. That never happened before,” Bradford said. “The estimated cost to make everything safe is $100,000 and we don’t have it. We weren’t insured for that kind of a loss.”

“Reality being my favorite place to be, we’re going to sell the campus,” Bradford said. For now, the church is nesting in the Presbyterian Church of Palm Harbor. Bradford says her role is “to just do the next right thing.”

Among the 16 presbyteries in the Synod of South Atlantic, 11 have churches that were damaged, said Valerie Young, synod executive and stated clerk.

Members of First Presbyterian Church in Leesburg acted fast to get water out of the basement, saving the flooring, said John Caldwell, who handles maintenance and other duties at the church. Twenty volunteers turned out last weekend, some with chainsaws, to clear  debris from around the church campus. “There was water in places it’s never been,” he said. “If we’d waited on the restoration companies, the floor would have been bad. We saved a lot of stuff.”

Representatives from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, the Office of
the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Synod
of South Atlantic, and the Presbytery of Tampa Bay met with leaders
of the Church on the Bayou in Tarpon Springs, Fla., which suffered
major damage in Hurricanes Helene and Milton. (Photo by Rich
Copley)

The cleanup crew included 80-year-olds and grandchildren “picking stuff up” and clearing the property, he said. The Rev. Olivia Haney, interim co-executive presbyter of Central Florida Presbytery, marveled at how churches in the presbytery got to work following the hurricanes.

“When we were checking on people, a retired minister said, ‘This is not our first rodeo. We know what to do,’” she said.

“After Hurricane Andrew,” Caldwell said, “this was just a weekend.”

“Our commitment is for the long-term,” said González-Castillo, a pastor in Puerto Rico seven years ago when Hurricane Maria battered the island. “We’re still sending volunteers there,” he said. “That’s the promise we have.”

“If nothing else,” Young said, “know people across the Synod of South Atlantic are in prayer for you.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

• Jackie Carter, Project Manager, Media & Publishing, Communications Ministry, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
• Katie Carter, Manager, Faith Based Investing, EDO, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

Thank you, Lord Jesus, that in you the old has passed away and all things become new. Amen.