November 2015 Midmonth - First Presbyterian Church

November 2015 Mid-Month E-News
First
Presbyterian
Church
2210 N. Herritage St., Kinston, NC 28501
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NO PLANS FOR THANKSGIVNG LUNCH?
Join others at 12:00 noon in the church Fellowship Hall for a shared meal. Turkey,
ham, and beverages will be provided with an opportunity for you to contribute toward
their costs. You can also help by bringing a dish or dishes of your favorite
Thanksgiving foods to share. Sign up in the back of the sanctuary or call the church
office before noon on Wednesday, Nov. 25 if you, family and/or friends would like to
be part of this happy occasion.
 For the Messiah
performance, FPC
members are asked to park
in lots off Parrott Street,
across from the church.
All FPC members who
are able are asked to sit in
the choir loft.

If you can help during
the week before the
performance (Nov. 30 Dec. 4) with set-up or last
minute details, or if you
can come early to the
performance (5:00 p.m.
on Dec. 5) to help, please
contact the church office
at 252-522-1291.

Neicy (Knee – Cee) Magwood has been working in the Environmental
Services Department of Providence Hospitals in Columbia, SC for some 27
years. I have only been here 2 weeks. When I told my new supervisor Roger
about the Emergency Clean Up Bucket that FPC Kinston had sent to
Columbia with me he said, “She is the one.” Neicy has two daughters. One is
26 and lives with her, and the other is 18, and is a freshman at the University
of SC, majoring in Biology. Both daughters were home for the weekend
because of the weather.
The week of October 6 and the one that followed would forever
change Neicy and her family’s life. The first floor of their Columbia
apartment was flooded and a total loss. Neicy showed me on my office wall
how high the water was. It was at the door knobs and higher. The two girls
were sleeping on the sofas on the first floor as Neicy began to watch the water
in the normally placid creek near their home rise. She walked out on the porch and saw the water rising to the
stoop and said “Girls we need to go.” In the crisis of it all Neicy slipped and fell bruising her tailbone that has
left her on restricted duty. To add salt to the wound the family moved what they could in the quickness of the
moment and locked the upstairs rooms when evacuating, but burglars broke in while they were gone and took
jewelry, electronics, and other items. The renter’s insurance replaced the tv and compensated for the jewelry
and items upstairs, but replaced nothing downstairs because of flood damage. Neicy, like many in Columbia,
SC are finding out, did not have flood insurance. The 1,000 year flood had devastated the midlands of South
Carolina, but also communities east like Manning has marked this region forever as I am sure Hurricane Floyd
did Eastern NC in 1999, but we are, as I remember, #SCStrong.
I have driven the neighborhoods myself and you watch as the piles in front of people’s homes and local
businesses grow taller with refuse by the day. Some businesses in the areas I will mention shortly had water
lines above the roof. They have to rip out all building materials down to the studs and roughly 4 feet high, and
then pile on top the personal belonging saturated by the flood waters. Forest Heights and Forest Acres are two
neighborhoods directly adjacent to the hospital I now work in. Along with Fort Jackson Blvd and Garner’s
FerryRdarea they were hard hit. I have heard countless stories f devastation, but those stories are also laced
with the hope of survival and rebuilding. They are laced with the echoes of the 2 greatest commandments
“Love God and Love your Neighbor as Yourself.”
Neicy was helped through our Employee Benevolence Fund here at Providence Hospital as were
others. Before Roger and I carried the bucket downstairs for her, because of her temporary ailment from her
fall, I showed Neicy my picture of FPC Kinston that you all had signed, and a picture of my ordination day
with Wanda and others in it. I told her of Hurricane Floyd in 1999, and the rebuilding of Eastern NC. She had
never heard of Kinston, NC, but said, “I am glad I have heard of it now.” Neicy told me she was grateful to
God for the help of so many in helping she and her daughters rebuild. I am grateful for her 27 plus years of
service to Providence Hosptials, and after losing everything she showed up to work the next day with a smile
on her face and love in her heart.
Thankyou FPC Kinston. Although we are parted by geography our collective ministry still continues.
Lisa C. Hermann
Rev. Lisa C. Hermann, MDiv, BCC
Staff Chaplain
Providence Hospitals
Columbia, SC
(803)256-5676
Lisa's email: [email protected]