Written by Christiana Johnson, Managing Attorney, High Country (Boone)
On a November evening in Watauga County, I pulled into the parking lot of a Lutheran church where community members were gathered. I said hello to a Methodist pastor who, four days after Helene, had invited me to her church to speak on FEMA as she walked in between rows of people eating a free meal. Today, I listened as a local Baptist leader helped facilitate the meeting, alongside local nonprofits, businesses, and concerned community members. We were gathered to answer a simple, but difficult question: How do we help?
As I sat, listened, and participated, I could not help but wonder at the unity in the room. In a world that currently felt so polarized, here we were, setting aside religious and political differences to work on something that we all agreed on: our beloved mountain area needed help, and we wanted to be a part of providing it. And it felt, sitting there in a church basement on a cold winter evening in the High Country, that we knew we were stronger together.
In the wake of Helene, I told several people that when disaster strikes, you tend to see the true colors of a community. And what I saw in rural western North Carolina in the months following Helene humbled me and made me proud to be an adopted member of the community.
For many people, their faith is the catalyst for their work. Exhibit A: Myself. After graduating law school and clerking, there were those that didn’t quite understand why I wanted to work for a legal services organization. Some days, I didn’t quite understand it either. But when I spoke at my law school graduation and shared that the world didn’t really need more attorneys, but it needed more justice seekers, mercy lovers, more humble walkers with their God (Micah 6:8), I meant it. My faith compelled me to action because of scripture’s emphasis on looking after the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, the abused, and the outcast.
I could not count the number of people who ran after justice, clung to mercy, and walked humbly as they carried the burdens of others after Helene. That cold November evening was just one of many gatherings across the High Country in which individuals came together to serve those in desperate need. To play any part in this community’s relief efforts was the honor of a lifetime. And just as the survivors’ stories will replay in my mind for years to come, so will the images of those who gathered around folding tables in church basements.
