wfn.org | Church helps community pick up pieces after tornadoes

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

April 24, 1998     Contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
{249}

NOTE: This story can accompany UMNS #250 and #251.  

By Cathy Farmer*

NASHVILLE (UMNS) -- When the first falling tree whumped to the street in
front of  the Rev. Mike Waldrop, narrowly missing his car, the
ex-fighter pilot's reflexes had him reversing gears and swiftly backing
away.

"Then a tree fell behind him too," said his wife, Becky.

Undaunted, Waldrop abandoned his car at 12th and Forrest and made his
way on foot to East End United Methodist Church at 1212 Holly St.,
several blocks away. He arrived to find the steeple bent, the doors
sucked open by wind, and some minor damage to the roof and parsonage.
But East End was spared the devastation that the April 16 tornadoes
inflicted on neighboring churches in East Nashville.

Waldrop and the members of his church quickly took an active role in
putting their neighborhood back together.

Randall Ganues, Tennessee Conference Council on Ministries Director,
said he and Bishop Kenneth Carder and Nashville District Superintendent
Garie Taylor inspected the hard-hit area on the following afternoon,
April 17. They discovered that a power outage was hampering the
churches.

"Bishop Carder told me to get the biggest generators we could find,"
Ganues said. "We needed one at East End and one at the Community Care
Fellowship." The two 50-kilowatt generators were hauled down from
Clarksville, Tenn., and parked outside East End and Nancy Webb Kelley,
the United Methodist church that houses the Community Care Fellowship.
Community Care feeds and cares for many of Nashville's homeless.

"It cost us $1,260 to rent them for one week, but it was worth it,"
Ganues said. "Community Care and East End were able to keep their
programs running.

"I remember a young policeman who drove up in his squad car and said
he'd heard they were serving dinner at the church. I told him to go on
in," Ganues said with a smile.

The Tennessee Conference "couldn't have been more responsive," Becky
Waldrop said. She described how churches  from all over Middle Tennessee
have helped out, sending non-perishable food and teams of volunteers to
canvass the neighborhood and clear debris.

On the Sunday following the tornado, East End worshipped in the
sanctuary - sections of which were cordoned off to protect pews that
were vulnerable to falling coal dust. Church members gave thanks for
their deliverance and the fact that no one was killed. One woman,
hugging her child, said that trees may have been knocked down, houses
destroyed and church buildings devastated, but those things most
precious to us were spared.

# # #

*Farmer is communications director for the Memphis Conference of the
United Methodist Church. 

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
Releases and photos also available at
http://www.umc.org/umns/