Our local Wesleyan members worked tirelessly day and night, offloading, sorting, packaging, and sharing – all with the knowledge that they too were victims of the crisis with no shower waiting at the end of the long day. We were at times overwhelmed as semi truck loads of water and materials arrived. We partnered with local schools and sister churches of various denominational stripes to get supplies out to the needy. These tireless brothers filled 200 five-gallon buckets and distributed them to those standing in line with them at filling stations, up and down streets to neighbors where church members live, to addresses of shut-ins, and finally to the local men’s homeless shelter around midnight before travelling back home to begin collecting even more supplies. The first Sunday afternoon Joe and Jim arrived in Charleston from Harpers Ferry, W.
We received tons and tons of bottled water on scores of pallets. If we had the larger containers, they could be filled from water supplies in other water districts that were not affected. We asked for larger containers to speed the delivery system with which our relief effort started. The most vulnerable people needed food supplies that could be prepared with little or no water. People needed paper products since the water was unsafe to use for cleaning or cooking. The Body of Christ reached out to its hurting members. Many delivered supplies to the crisis zone, while others shared the reality of our plight with their congregations and took a special offering. Pastors and churches from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, and North Carolina contacted us to see how they might provide assistance. Tears welled up in his eyes as we insisted the provisions were God’s act of concern for him. Those serving said, “Because Jesus loves you, Robert Lee, and so do we.” He claimed to be undeserving of such love. He seemed moved when given water, paper plates, and plastic ware, and asked why we were doing it. Robert Lee, a local man, stopped by needing water. Three Mile Wesleyan Church distributed an additional semi truck load of relief in cooperation with 2 Million Bikers to DC and Truckers of America. Grace Wesleyan in Culloden, W.Va., coordinating with the Kentucky-Tennessee District, brought 30,000 bottles of water to the western portion of the do-not-use zone. From there water moved to Elkview through Three Mile Wesleyan and to Boone County through Nellis Wesleyan. Faith Community Church in Charleston served as a hub for the distribution effort due to easy access from Interstate 64. Saturday morning cars and trucks filled with water and supplies began to come. But then more water began arriving from Wesleyans and others in Virginia and the other surrounding states. The need was overwhelmingly for our limited ability to respond at first. We carried it in bottles, large and small, and buckets. Each local Wesleyan church reached out through our established networks of fellowship to get water into the homes of the elderly, the ill, and those with babies and young children. The poorest and most vulnerable were the least able to get safe water.
#CLEARVIEW CHURCH CHESAPEAKE VA DRIVERS#
The five Wesleyan churches in the affected area began to locate safe water sources, containers, and drivers to transport it to our communities in need. Wayne MacBeth mobilized the information channels even more widely, especially to Wesleyans in the states surrounding West Virginia. Word reached Wesleyan headquarters and Rev. Greg Reynolds and he relayed the urgency of this crisis to sister churches in West Virginia and Virginia, who have since then stepped forward in a big way. We contacted Shenandoah District Superintendent Rev. No water was available.įriday morning, the five Wesleyan churches in the do-not-use zone mobilized to serve literally a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name. Medical procedures were cancelled at area hospitals. By the eleven o’clock news, schools, daycares, hotels, restaurants, and most businesses had closed their doors indefinitely. Within minutes of the public declaration there was a rush to the stores and the shelves were stripped of bottled water. The only residential use deemed safe was flushing commodes. The contaminated water posed a hazard to human health if used in cooking, bathing, brushing teeth, and even cleaning and washing clothes. West Virginia American Water Company placed all 300,000 customers under a do-not-use water warning. The large amount of MCHM had overwhelmed the water treatment facility and contaminated the entire system. It was leaking from a storage facility into the Elk River upstream of the water intake that supplies residents of nine West Virginia counties. On Thursday evening, January 9, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin publicly announced that the licorice smell in the tap water locally came from the coal-cleaning chemical mixture, crude MCHM.
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