Cornerstone Assembly of God lends helping hand to relief workers

April 19-- Apr. 19--While many of the trucks and tents are gone from area parking lots and storefronts, the work of volunteer relief agencies that arrived in Craven County in the wake of Hurricane Florence continues to impact those still reeling from the storm's fury.

At Cornerstone Assembly of God church in James City that work began 10 days after the storm tore through the area last September. While families displaced by the storm were still taking refuge in the church, the Christ in Action disaster relief organization arrived at its doorstep seeking shelter for their 400 volunteers. According to Cornerstone Pastor John Watford, the team would go on to log 19,000 man hours, muck out 272 homes and remove numerous trees fallen across yards and houses.

By the end of December, another group of volunteers, the Fuller Center Disaster Rebuilders arrived at the church. The Fuller Center teams rebuild damaged homes at no cost to homeowners, with a focus on helping low-income elderly citizens as well as single mothers without sufficient insurance. Watford said the group recently finished several homes for young Marine families impacted by the storm.

"We just finished one for a family with four kids under the age of four. They lived in a donated 24-foot camper for seven months until we just recently turned the home back to them," said Watford. "And we recently turned a home back over to a grandmother where there were nine living in their 1,000-square-foot house that had been flooded out."

Watford said approximately 40-50 disaster relief volunteers have called his church home each week since the storm, with as many as 105 sheltering there at once. He said 55 new Fuller Center team members were scheduled to arrive on Easter Day, many having recently worked in flooded areas in Louisiana and Houston.

Finding a home for those volunteers proved to be a challenge. While Cornerstone Assembly of God church was spared during the storm, its adjacent sanctuary suffered more than $1 million in damage when heavy winds nearly destroyed its metal roof. The Fuller Center volunteers helped gut the structure and mitigate for mold. The sanctuary currently provides sleeping quarters for male volunteers while female members sleep in the church, both groups coming home each night to cots and mattresses donated by The Red Cross and other organizations.

"These people come from all over the nation, they pay their own way here. And then they actually pay $125 to be here, which covers their food and tools, everything they may need to do the work," explained Watford.

According to the pastor, the average age of the Fuller Center volunteer workers is 65.

"These are phenomenal people, great attitudes, hard working. I saw a guy who was over 80 grab a piece of 4-by-12 sheetrock by himself and carry it to the second story of a house," said Watford.

In addition to a damaged sanctuary, Watford also had to contend with the church's kitchen facilities, which proved far too small to feed the number of volunteers on hand each day. When Bosh of New Bern heard about the problem, the company donated industrial grade stove, sink and refrigerator units to the church.

"Somehow Bosh heard about what we were doing in the community and they sent some representatives over here and they said, 'We see what you're doing and we want to help.' They ended up donating all the kitchen equipment we needed in order to feed the different volunteers that are coming in," said Watford.

With more than 40 years of pastoring experience, 13 of them at Cornerstone Assembly of God, Watford, a New Bern native, has seen more than his share of sorrow and loss. Watford's father, a South Carolina police officer, was killed in the line of duty.

"My mother raised four of us by herself; it was a difficult time," said Watford. "In those times you didn't have all the social services that are offered now."

Watford spent 20 years living in New Orleans and helped assist in disaster relief efforts there following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He currently works as the state Disaster Coordinator for the NC Assemblies of God and serves on the Craven County Disaster Recovery Alliance.

Watford said his past experience has proven invaluable in dealing with Craven County's post-Florence recovery.

"As a pastor for a long time I know a lot of people who know a lot of people, and that enables us," he explained. "Right now as we speak, even though it's Easter week, we have several crews right now in Riverbend and the Havelock area."

Watford said work crews housed at his church are, on average, turning back one to two restored houses every week to homeowners.

"It's amazing," he commented. "Most of them we're building ramps for them because they're elderly. And then we go in and remodel so they have handicap bathrooms and so the kitchens are designed for people who have wheelchairs."

According to Watford, 24 families in his congregation were affected by the hurricane. "I've got one family of six living in the corner of another family's basement. I have family's just right now that are getting roofs put on their house."

Even in the face of their own struggles, the members of his church have stood fully behind the recovery efforts, said Watford.

"The people here at the church, their attitudes are right, their hearts are right,' he commented. "This isn't something the pastor has pushed, the people here are into it. If you take care of the widow, you take care of the poor, you take care of the orphan, God will take care of you."

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