By Carolyn Krause
In April 2025, First Presbyterian Church of Oak Ridge donated $30,000 of its former Belize Fund to the Holston Presbytery. The purpose was to provide relief to individuals in northeastern Tennessee who suffered damages to their homes from flooding induced by Hurricane Helene last year.
The donation was made for two reasons. Our church is no longer actively partnering with Living Waters for the World and communities in Belize—a country in Central America—to install and maintain systems that provide clean drinking water to its residents. Also, the church’s Social Concerns Committee has added disaster assistance to one of its missions.
Rebecca Nunley of the Holston Presbytery Disaster Relief Team has provided information on how the $30,000 donation was spent.
“Two Baptist churches, one from Nashville and one from Murfreesboro, both named Grace Baptist Church, went together to build three houses in 100 hours in Washington County,” she said. “They needed $20,000 to complete the construction. The Disaster Relief Team of Holston Presbytery thought this was an excellent way to use the money you had entrusted to us.”
As for the remaining $10,000, she said, “Our presbytery had several churches in the center of the storm damage, and they requested funds for several different projects. Erwin Presbyterian and Cave Creek Presbyterian each received $5,000 from the Oak Ridge donation. These churches helped families by offering them gift cards, purchasing tools for a business owner who lost his shop in the flood, and providing funds for a homeowner who rebuilt a garage to become his home.
“We understand we will be at this work for years to come. Initially, we looked for smaller unmet needs and now are turning to supporting home building in our area. We work with case workers who evaluate family needs and ascertain whether folks we can help are truly in need.
“We appreciate the work of First Presbyterian Oak Ridge and your kind generosity to support the great need of our area. Your donation certainly helped meet a wide variety of needs of the Hurricane Helene victims in the Holston Presbytery area.”
The hurricane’s heavy rainfall and flooding caused widespread power outages and significant infrastructure damage in northeastern Tennessee, including the destruction of houses, businesses, a hospital, roads, and bridges. As in the case of Belize, Social Concerns Committee members saw that the challenges in the Holston Presbytery region are related to water issues. Peggy Bertrand Terpstra, co-chair of the Social Concerns Committee who had been active with her husband Dan in many Belize mission projects, said, “the committee is pleased that our $30,000 will be used to help families who lost their homes to the hurricane’s devastating flood damage get new homes, thanks to many volunteers.”