Last week we had the pleasure of hosting a mission team from Seneca Presbyterian Church from Seneca, SC. This team of nine adults spent three full days working on a large variety of projects, mostly in our Disaster Assistance Center (DAC). They were one hard-working bunch! Multiple times throughout their stay at Ferncliff, our staff remarked how quickly they were going through the projects we’d set up for them. They were able to complete a very impressive amount of work, including:

• Inspecting or assembling 946 hygiene kits, 1,080 school kits, 85 emergency cleanup buckets, and 40 welcome backpacks
• Inspecting 43 period packs, a brand-new type of kit from Church World Service (CWS)
• Organizing 2,000+ pounds of kit supplies in our warehouse
• Assisting the maintenance staff with building a shade structure for our preschool and re-finishing a sidewalk by Williams Lodge

Whew!

We awarded this team the “Kit & Caboodle Award” in honor of a unique achievement for a mission team at Ferncliff – they are the first mission team to have inspected/assembled all five of the CWS kits! However, this group’s time at Ferncliff is notable not just for their industrious work ethic and kit-packing prowess. They were called to serve at Ferncliff for a specific reason.

In April of 2020, Seneca, South Carolina was hit by a devastating EF3 tornado. Seneca Presbyterian Church received pallets of CWS kits and supplies to aid in their recovery. And so they felt convicted to come to Ferncliff to serve mainly on projects in the DAC as a way to “pay it forward” for the kits they received in their own community. This group demonstrates what we have seen time and time again in the aftermath of disasters – the desire to help and the motivation to serve – this time for very personal reasons.

Amazingly, the Seneca Pres mission team also had another rare opportunity: to see in real time where their impact would go.

During the week, we received a huge shipment request from CWS to aid in Hurricane Ian recovery: 1,500 emergency cleanup buckets, 1,500 hygiene kits, 1,500 tubes of toothpaste, and 36 period packs. That’s 44 total pallets and a whopping 30,137 pounds of kits and supplies! We prepared the shipment, and it included some of the hygiene kits, buckets, and period packs that the Seneca Pres group assembled or inspected. The shipment went out on Friday to Arcadia, Florida.

All groups and individuals who donate supplies and kits or package kits in the warehouse are making a major impact. Their efforts keep our warehouse stocked so we can be ready to respond to disasters at a moment’s notice. But sometimes kits stay in our warehouse for several months, depending on the need and the requests we receive for shipments, and we don’t always know which group assembled the specific pallets of kits that are shipped. It’s rare to receive a shipment request as a group is preparing kits, so groups usually don’t get to know where “their” kits are going. We are thankful and blessed for the immediate impact the Seneca Pres mission team could provide!

Thank you to Richard Caldwell and the rest of the Seneca Presbyterian Church mission team members for their efforts! May our paths cross again!

For more information about DAC operations and mission team opportunities, check out our website.