Church of God Partners and Pastors Play Key Roles in Recent Tragedies
In the last two weeks tragedy has struck in three different ways in a small pocket of southeast Tennessee and northeast Alabama. All three of the tragedies made national headlines and the local Church of God pastors, agencies and affiliates were prominent in relief and recovery.
On November 21, six elementary-aged students died in a school bus crash in Chattanooga. Pastor Kevin Wallace of Redemption Point Church, assisted families and conducted one funeral for a six-year old victim. He also served on a pastor’s coalition to coordinate a prayer vigil that week and continues to assist in counseling the children and parents in need.
Ten days later, fire broke out in the hills of the Great Smoky Mountains where Phillip Morris serves as pastor of Parkway Church in Sevierville, Tennessee. One family of five at the Parkway Church, the Reeds, tragically lost the mother and two daughters to the fast-moving inferno. Morris acted as a spokesperson, as well as counselor to three other families in the church who lost their homes.
Also assisting with the Smoky Mountain fires was Operation Compassion which established disaster relief sites at the Seymour, Tennessee Church of God with Pastor Scott Turner, at the Purpose Church of God in Pigeon Forge with Pastor Joel Arwood, and with Pastor Tom Sterbens and the New Hope Church in Kodak. Product was sent from a number of OC’s local and regional partners, including Pastors Gerald McGinnis and Paul Harris from the Knoxville Dream Center, Daniel Murch and Transition Furniture, Larry Miller and Steps for Families, and Crystal Springs Water.
That same week, numerous tornadoes touched down in Alabama and southeast Tennessee counties, including McMinn County where John Gentry has served as county mayor for over ten years. A tornado wreaked havoc in the city of Athens, Tennessee, destroying or damaging 30 homes and businesses and injuring two dozen people. Gentry, a Lee University graduate, stepped into his leadership role, including being featured on national news addressing the tragedy.
In that same line of storms, the small city of Rosalie, Alabama was ravaged by a tornado that killed three people and injured ten others. The Rosalie Church of God was destroyed and Operation Compassion, as they did with the tornadoes that struck Tennessee counties, is deploying several trucks of products and supplies to the area to assist.
–Cameron Fisher, Church of God Communications
