Mission Yearbook: Black Mountain Presbyterian Church continues providing recovery and relief

In late September, Hurricane Helene swept across the southeastern United States and brought unprecedented devastation to the mountain communities of western North Carolina and elsewhere. Black Mountain Presbyterian Church found itself the hub of a massive disaster relief effort, providing a staging ground for recovery teams and serving tens of thousands of meals, just days after unveiling the church’s new mission statement — or question, rather: Has everyone been fed?

Representatives of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance visited Black Mountain
Presbyterian Church in Black Mountain, N.C., in October to see the work the
church has been doing to respond to the impact of Hurricane Helene. The Rev.
Mary Katherine Robinson is second from the right. (Photo by Rich Copley)

Several months later, much of the world has moved on to more recent disasters, more current events, and the threat of new crises. But for those who bore the brunt of Helene’s impact, recovery and rebuilding continue to be a slowly unfolding, daily reality. And while the day-to-day work has evolved, Black Mountain Presbyterian Church continues to minister in the aftermath.

On Sunday, Feb. 2, Kitty Fouche, a church member, offered an update on the church’s relief efforts during a congregational meeting. Her report was later shared on the church’s Facebook page. As of the report, Fouche said the church had received funds in support of relief efforts from 4,558 donors from all 50 states and the District of Columbia totaling $2,870,632.

“People from states who are well acquainted with hurricanes responded, like Louisiana, who donated a collective $21,000, and Florida, who gave $166,000,” Fouche reported. “Residents from California, not knowing what lay ahead for them, donated just shy of $284,000.”

In fact, the Rev. Mary Katherine Robinson, the church’s pastor and head of staff, shared that the largest single donation — $250,000 —came from a church in San Diego. A member there had lived through the devastation of the 2004 wildfires there and wanted to support other churches recovering from natural disasters.

Reflecting on how the church first became so involved in relief efforts, Robinson noted its strategic location. The church sits on the edge of downtown Black Mountain, across the street from the fire station and the police station. That street also leads to Montreat Conference Center and Montreat College.

Since all the emergency personnel were operating nearby, the church became the best hope for getting any cell service. Once church staff and members were able to leave their homes, they came to the church and began offering cold water from their melting ice machine, then grilled frozen hot dogs on the church’s propane-powered grills. Others eventually brought food from their own thawing freezers.

The Communion table at Black Mountain Presbyterian Church in North
Carolina has been engraved with the church’s mission statement, “Has
everyone been fed?” The new mission statement was unveiled just days
before Hurricane Helene hit. (Photo by Rich Copley)

“We would allow people from the community to come in — some people we didn’t even know — but they showed up and they wanted to help … some of the people that I don’t have the same views as politically, socially,” Robinson said. “It just took an opening of our heart to allow these people to come in. And it’s transformed their life as well.”

Robinson explained that she felt her role as head pastor in those early days was to remind everyone to approach the situation from the perspective of abundance, trusting that there was enough for everyone.

For days, the church fed hundreds of people. It housed first responders and collected and distributed supplies. As the operation grew, Black Mountain Presbyterian Church partnered with Montreat for additional storage and with a local restaurant called the Railyard for serving meals.

In the first weeks after the storm, the work was around the clock. Entire families of church members showed up to volunteer. So did countless older members. A slew of young adults began getting involved by day three.

Black Mountain Presbyterian Church’s associate pastor, the Rev. David Carter Florence, explained that they tried to discern what they could do that was traditionally pastoral work alongside being a distribution center and base for relief efforts. In the end, they tried to do it all.

The people of Black Mountain Presbyterian Church remain as committed as ever to the “mission question” they embraced and then embodied right as Hurricane Helene hit.

“Has everyone been fed?” Fouche asked again as she closed her report to the congregation. “No,” she answered. “Feeding is an ongoing necessity. We can’t stop. Thank you to all our partners in Christ’s service.”

Layton Williams Berkes, Editor, Communications, Interim Unified Agency (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

• Hansel Lopez, Dishwasher, Stony Point Center, Interim Unified Agency 
• Gabe Loredo, Archives Technician, Presbyterian Historical Society  

Let us pray:

Gracious God, we hear your call to love our neighbors, and we know that you intend for us to care for both their physical and their spiritual needs. Help us to respond to this hungry, thirsty world with love that pours from the river of living water that you have placed in the hearts of those who believe. In the name of Jesus Christ, who is living water for our bodies and our souls. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Black Mountain Presbyterian Church and volunteers bringing ‘beautiful spirit’ to feeding and supporting the community

‘It’s bringing strangers together and making them friends’ following Hurricane Helene

November 26, 2024

Extending assistance to the community has included not only 

supplies but emotional support as well. (Photo by Mary 

Katherine Robinson/Black Mountain Presbyterian Church)

In the midst of the devastation from Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina, Black Mountain Presbyterian Church (BMPC) has become a refuge for those seeking food and comfort in a time of crisis.

Pastor Mary Katherine Robinson and Associate Pastor David Carter Florence are among the Good Samaritans who have been tending to the needs of community members coming to the church for assistance in the wake of Helene, a powerful storm that hit the area in late September.

While hundreds of meals have been served, the church also is providing another much-needed ingredient: compassion.

After historic flooding and other damage, some people “just need a hug,” Robinson said. “They need a shoulder to cry on. … There are some that lost everything that they have.”

Helene wreaked havoc from Florida to southern Appalachia. It was blamed for more than 200 deaths across multiple states and necessitated emergency rescues to save the stranded.

“Swannanoa was just hit so hard because the Swannanoa River runs through it, and the powerful force of the river took stone homes with strong foundations that had been there for centuries, it swept them away,” Robinson said.

Because of the magnitude of the disaster, the church knew the needs would be great, so members and friends decided to begin mobilizing to act.

“It’s the poor places in town, the places near the creeks and the rivers that flooded, and so I feel like we’re really caring for the least of these and the people in our community that cannot get out of town,” Robinson said, noting that some people “don’t have $1,000 to go somewhere else,” and some just prefer not to leave.

BMPC’s willingness to help is just one example of how people have come together to assist others in the region. Many others, including First Presbyterian Asheville and Grace Covenant Presbyterian in Asheville, also have gone to work assisting their neighbors.

The church is a Hunger Action Congregation of the Presbyterian 

Hunger Program with an established commitment to making sure 

people are fed. (Photo by Mary Katherine Robinson/Black 

Mountain Presbyterian Church)

“One beautiful thing about Black Mountain Pres is we have like 53 retired Presbyterian pastors and mission partners,” Robinson said. “We are gifted in that and so a lot of people serving in the line are some of our retired pastors, or just pastors that live here, so they have a beautiful spirit and are trained well to reach out to people” who need someone to listen.

Providing services during the storm is in keeping with BMPC’s mission statement, “Has everyone been fed?” and also reflects the church’s longstanding commitment to addressing hunger and poverty as a Hunger Action Congregation of the Presbyterian Hunger Program.

“After our second day of feeding, we really began to get organized and mobilized, and so we’ve become a distribution center as well, and we’ve had to get an extra warehouse because of all the supplies,” Robinson said.

Various parts of the church have been used as part of the operation. For example, the narthex has been used like a store. “People come and they give us a list of what they need, and we have volunteers go and pick up all their needs and bring it to them and then we’re using our fellowship hall kind of as a little bit of a warehouse.”

Representatives from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance have visited the church (and multiple other Helene-impacted areas), and people who aren’t connected to a church have been coming in to volunteer.

“It’s bringing strangers together and making them friends, and that’s beautiful to watch,” Robinson said.

Referencing Psalm 42, she went on to say, “I really feel like even in the midst of such disaster, the human spirit is resilient and beautiful, and we are seeing the best of it here at the church.”

In addition to the volunteerism, messages of concern and donations have flowed in, helping to cope at a difficult time.

“Grief is very much mingled with gratitude for all those people that are reaching out and helping us through this hard time,” Robinson said. “We are so very grateful.”

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is one of the Compassion, Peace & Justice ministries of the Presbyterian Mission Agency. To donate to hurricane response, click here. To contribute to Black Mountain Presbyterian’s Hurricane Relief Fund, go here.

Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Daily Readings

• Morning Psalms 12; 146
• First Reading Zechariah 11:4-17
• Second Reading 1 Corinthians 3:10-23
• Gospel Reading Luke 18:31-43
• Evening Psalms 36; 7

Today’s Focus: Black Mountain Presbyterian Church supports community after Hurricane Helene

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Rachel Anderson, Mission Associate for Strategy and Implementation, Global Connections, Presbyterian Mission Agency 
Shelby Andrews, 1001 Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Mission Agency 

Let us pray

Gracious God, our constant prayer is that you will nurture the seeds of faith in our lives, pouring out your grace and mercy upon us as we grow in discipleship together. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Black Mountain Presbyterian Church tackles food insecurity

Hunger Action Congregation says ‘service is our mission’

December 7, 2022

Black Mountain Presbyterian Church in North Carolina is involved with multiple projects in the community to help feed the hungry. Those projects include this ecumenical garden across the street at a Baptist church. (Photo courtesy of Black Mountain Presbyterian Church)

When Margo Smith thinks about Black Mountain Presbyterian Church’s commitment to addressing food insecurity and other community needs in western North Carolina, she is reminded of an engraving inside the church’s sanctuary.

“The words engraved on our Communion Table at the front of the sanctuary are ‘Has Everyone Been Fed?’ This message is the reason why I joined BMPC,” Smith said. “It is hard to feel self-satisfied when we are continually reminded that service is our mission.”

BMPC, which is located in the town of Black Mountain, about 15 miles from Asheville, North Carolina, is among more than 100 churches that have earned the distinction of being called Hunger Action Congregations of the Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP).

Addressing hunger has been a big focus of Black Mountain Presbyterian Church for many years. The church, which is also an Earth Care Congregation, is located in an area where the price of housing can be a hardship for those who have few dollars left after paying for a place to live.

“Even if you live in Montreat or parts of Black Mountain that are very nice areas, you can’t drive into town without realizing there’s need everywhere,” said Smith, a longtime member of the Mission Committee who chairs the Strategic Planning Committee and is also on the session. “You are not isolated from need in the community.”

Much of the work that BMPC does is through collaborations with various groups and religious organizations in the area, which has multiple active denominations.

“It’s hard to find somebody who isn’t involved in social action,” Smith said. “We have a concentration of good, old Calvinist Presbyterian folk, and you know, service to mankind is service to God.”

Teens take part in a program to help feed families for Thanksgiving. (Photo courtesy of Black Mountain Presbyterian Church)

One of the ways that BMPC gets involved is by helping to support Bounty and Soul, a local organization committed to providing nutritious food and wellness education, and the Swannanoa Valley Christian Ministry, which offers crisis services, ranging from a food pantry to utility assistance.

“We’ve had a close connection with both of those organizations from the beginning of the organization and throughout all of the things that have gone (on) since, including Covid,” Smith said.

Bounty and Soul, a nonprofit partner of BMPC founded by Ali Casparian, shares hundreds of boxes of local food with the community each week at their free Fresh Food Markets.

“We believe that our community is at the center of all of our work and so to be in this movement together helps us to better reach a broader span of our neighbors,” said Karla Gardner, director of community engagement for Bounty and Soul. “As a whole, our community can thrive and be healthy (and) be connected if we’re all partnering together.”

One way that happens is through volunteers from BMPC, Gardner said. “Volunteers are a critical part of our work in continuing to share food with our community. Just in the last two years our community has doubled during Covid. Not only are we sourcing record amounts of food, but we also need the volunteer support to keep things moving forward.”

BMPC also helps to support Swannanoa Valley Christian Ministry, whether it’s through members volunteering, collecting canned goods, taking part in fundraisers, adopting families for the holidays or supplying furniture for transitional apartments, said Executive Director Cheryl Wilson, who also happens to be a BMPC member and ruling elder.

Black Mountain is “a very, very involved congregation with the ministry, which we are so thankful for,” Wilson said. The church is three to four blocks away, “so it’s a very close proximity and there’s a lot of retired Presbyterian pastors — my dad’s one — and missionaries, and so the hands and feet and the heart for others is just, I think, engrained in so many that are part of our congregation, and that just helps us to instill that in our young ones.”

Another way that BMPC is active in the community and tackling hunger is through gardening projects.

“We have a community garden where people get plots and do their own plot” and a portion of the produce goes to Bounty and Soul, Smith said.

Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Christine Long, Church Consultant, Tacoma, Board of Pensions
Patricia Longfellow, Senior Administrative Assistant, Presbyterian Women

Let us pray

Compassionate God, bless those who suffer. Support them in finding faith, hope, support, family, community, new beginnings and a new journey. Renew the strength of those who are called to care for their neighbors in need. Amen.