WMU showers Christmas blessings on flooded Nichols community

The tiny community of Nichols dodged direct impact from October’s Hurricane Matthew but caught the brunt of tremendous flooding two days later. Water from the Lumber River surged through the town of 400 residents, destroying homes, vehicles and personal belongings. In the weeks since, government assistance and countless volunteers have helped residents in the recovery process.

Almost immediately after the disaster, women from 10 state Baptist associations in Region 4 of the South Carolina Woman’s Missionary Union organized a project to help Nichols residents. WMU members from Carolina, Chesterfield, Florence, Marion, Pee Dee, Santee, Southeast, Waccamaw, Welsh Neck and Williamsburg associations organized a food drive and toy collection, presented to residents a few days before Christmas.

“I was excited about what happened on Dec. 23, when WMU leaders and members came together to minister to those in the Nichols community and share the love of Jesus Christ,” said Sandra Tapp, South Carolina WMU associate executive director.

Peggy Jones, Waccamaw Association WMU director and a member of Maple Baptist Church in Conway, was instrumental in starting the project and said it combined her passions of working with others and planning events for children.

“This is a calling,” Jones said. “I feel that God was calling us to do this for the town of Nichols during this holiday season. I hope it meets their needs, but also the greater need of showing them God’s love and that people care about them,” Jones says.

“I love that this group took the initiative and ran with it,” said Tapp. “Peggy has taken the lead, and the other associational WMU directors in this region have worked closely with her on the logistics for their association. They are modeling what it means to be a leader to those in their association and region, by working cooperatively and working toward the same goal — ministering to those who are hurting and who have lost so much. This has also given some who are in far-lying areas across this region the opportunity to participate in a collective project.”

The WMU groups collected toys and food pantry items Dec. 1-15 from throughout their associations. On Dec. 23, volunteers brought the items to the Nichols Town Hall and stocked the shelves of a makeshift food distribution center housed in the former library building, the only building in town not impacted by the flood.

Jones says WMU has also involved Girls in Action, Royal Ambassadors, and Children in Action groups to help distribute the food as part of missions outreach.

For her part, Tapp says South Carolina WMU wants residents of  Nichols to know they are not forgotten. “All of the associational WMU directors agreed that they wanted to do what we could to see that this town had the nicest Christmas possible, though we realize that so many living in Nichols are still a long way from returning to any sense of normalcy,” she said.

Julia Bell writes for the South Carolina Baptist Convention.