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This week, we'll hear from our International Missions Coordinator, Ken Whitwell, who has been instrumental in creating a meaningful connection between Perdido Bay Methodist Church and the town of Steinhatchee, Florida, which you will hear about below. We greatly appreciate Ken and the Grumpy Old Men group for leading the effort to encourage and provide help to Steinhatchee. It is our prayer that the recipients of the funds, labor, meals, goods, tools, and more will know that the reason for this generosity is the love and care of Jesus Christ.
Hurricane Relief Mission Teams
On September 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane near the small fishing town of Steinhatchee, FL with sustained winds of 140 mph and an historic 22 ft storm surge. Many residents (including those NOT in a flood zone) had more than 6 feet of water through their homes and lost nearly everything.
Steinhatchee is a small community located on the Steinhatchee River about an hour east of Tallahassee and is popular recreation spot known for its fishing and scalloping beds. Perdido Bay Methodist Church has several connections to Steinhatchee with family members and close friends, and as such, decided to “adopt” the town after the storm. This would ensure and enable our church to directly assist hurricane victims in need. With access to a house in Steinhatchee unaffected by the storm to work from, PBMC has sponsored 10 trips to Steinhatchee to provide immediate relief supplies, building materials, and manpower to clean up and rebuild homes and lives. We were even able to quickly build a handicap ramp for a quadriplegic resident in order to access his FEMA trailer. Your generosity with thousands of dollars and hundreds of man hours has made an enormous impact on the town and its residents struggling to recover and get back to normal – something we Florida Panhandle residents know about all too well. Additionally, we have been blessed by the generosity of local businesses such as Ace Hardware in Perdido as well as Pittman Lumber Company in Milton, who have donated and/or given us construction matrials at cost.
Last week a group of 12 from PBMC went back to Steinhatchee to once again let them know they were not alone and not forgotten during the long recovery process. We brought a midday meal and tools that were collected over the last 2 months to giveaway to anyone needing help rebuilding. The response to our event was amazing! We gave away 27 gallons of Brunswick Stew (made by our own barbecue expert, Tom Endress), 400 cookies, 18 loaves of bread and a trailer full of tools in less than 2.5 hrs. The community and its residents were thrilled with the generosity of food and tools, but mostly they were so impressed and appreciative of our mere presence. People were amazed that we did not forget about them and that we cared enough about then to keep coming back to offer help. Repeatedly, we had to answer the inquiries… “so your church came all the way over from Pensacola to help us?”
There were so many moments, so many emotions, so many stories to share. A man who makes his living as a contractor and lost most of his tools received a brand-new chop saw and stand, had to excuse himself to go cry in the parking lot. A woman was giddy with excitement to pick out her own screwdriver set so she did not have to ask her husband to search for them when she wanted to do her own household repairs. A man asked if he could just ‘borrow’ a shop vac for the afternoon to clean his and neighbor’s houses - he could bring it back when he was done. He took home a brand new one. A woman was so happy to be able to take her elderly mother (unable to attend the event) her favorite meal of Brunswick Stew. It was the best she has ever eaten! The stories went on and on….
Thank you, Perdido Bay Methodist Church, for being the church that has a heart for missions, that has a desire to serve and to make a difference in this and many other communities.
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