YANCEY COUNTY, N.C. — The sun shines like a halo over the broken belfry. Its bell now sits silently on the ground, near the tattered hymnals and Bibles.
The South Toe River, clear and tranquil now, blasted away the walls of Hall’s Chapel Baptist Church in Yancey County, N.C.
But the storm’s unholy water could not wash away sacred ground.
“Like any community, it was a social place,” said Holt Whitson, the longtime pastor of the church, built nearly a century ago.
The remote hills and hollers are dotted with lovely little churches that serve as gathering places.
“And it broke the community’s heart when they came down here and said the church was destroyed,” Whitson said.
If water could move mountains, Whitson knew his faith could, too.
“They said, ‘Holt, what are we gonna do?’ I said, ‘I want you to put a banner out there and say we’re gonna have a service Sunday,’” he said.
And that’s what they did.
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The congregation hung a white cloth out front with the words “Service, 11 a.m. Sunday.”
A week after the storm, the 35 or so members gathered in the parking lot, bowing their heads and lifting their voices.
“We needed to come together,” Whitson said. “We needed to see each other. We needed to shed some tears and hug people’s necks.”
They know the church is more than bells and walls and pews.
“Well, we’re gonna rebuild,” Whitson said.
But government funds and insurance likely won’t pay for the rebuilding project, he said.
Estimates for building a new church would run around $350,000.
Whitson said through Facebook and a GoFundMe page, people have donated $20,000 to the effort.
There’s something else the floodwater could not wash away: the power of the people to give.
“We share each other’s burden,” he said. “We try to be benevolent and helpful in times of need.”
Volunteers have already donated manpower and supplies to repair the church’s fellowship hall, where the congregation can gather until a new sanctuary is built.