EUBANK, Ky. (KT) — Two years ago, when Clay Herd was pastor of Licking River Baptist Church in Salyersville, Ky., flooding practically paralyzed the community. 

Then, an angel on wheels from a church in Hendersonville, N.C., rolled up to the church loaded with water and other desperately needed supplies. Herd did not even know the pastor at the time, he said. 

“He was a friend of a friend,’’ said Herd, now the pastor at Eubank Baptist Church in Eubank, Ky. “I used to be at Trenton Baptist Church in Todd County and the pastor there now was good friends with that guy. We connected through that avenue. He called us the next day and showed up.” 

That gesture was not forgotten though. And now it was his opportunity to return the favor. 

Hendersonville is in western North Carolina where Hurricane Helene has created havoc with massive flooding. The death toll in the area is rising daily as the communities try to recover from the nightmare. Shaws Creek Baptist Church in Hendersonville is where the pastor who brought the supplies to Licking River Baptist Church serves. 

“I wish I could take credit for this, but I can’t,” Herd said. “We have phenomenal volunteers here who said, ‘We need to do something and here’s the plan.’ I said, ‘Even better, I don’t have to plan it.’” 

Herd’s connection with Shaws Creek Pastor Collin Terenzini was not the only connection for Eubanks Baptist Church.

“Our church here has connections in Hendersonville,” Herd said. “One of our deacon’s families is out there. It kind of all came together.”

The deacon family’s church is on the south side of Hendersonville and Shaws Creek is on the west side.

“We’re leaving tomorrow (Tuesday) to supply both churches with relief supplies,” Herd said. “Collin was able to help us two years ago in that situation, never thinking the role would be reversed. No way we would have known. We are just trying to be Christ-followers. Our hope is to help Collin the way he helped us. They sent thousands of dollars’ worth of stuff. To be able two years later and do it for him, I felt like God orchestrated that meeting to repay his church.” 

The Eubanks pastor said they have looked up routes and it will be about a six-hour journey and not through typical roadways since many are impassable. Also, they are taking pickup trucks instead of a trailer because of the fragile state of the infrastructure. 

“We are coming with ways to minister to the community much like they did for us (at Licking River),” Herd said. “Shaws Creek had some damage. We want to prop up both these churches. We don’t know if we will be successful. I don’t know if we can make it fully there but we’re going to try.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Mark Maynard serves as managing editor of Kentucky Today, the news journal for Kentucky Baptists. This article was originally published at Kentucky Today and has been republished with permission.)