Grace Coastal Church

Photo: Thomas GoldsmithReprinted from North Carolina Health NewsWILMINGTON — When wind and rain slam Wilmington, the racket takes Rose Fanning straight back to the frightening nights she endured during hurricanes Matthew and Florence.Fanning, 60, talked about her experiences recently at a Welcome Meal at the city’s Grace United Methodist Church. It’s a weekly offering that brings together diverse kinds of people for food and fellowship.David Hamilton slakes his thirst at the Welcome Meal at Grace United Methodist Church. Hamilton uses his “jack of all trades” skills to help out with projects of the Anchor church’s ministry to homeless people in Wilmington. Photo: Thomas Goldsmith“It was overwhelming,” she said. “It was traumatic — the rain and the surge and the thunder and the lightning and telephone poles coming down in the street.”Fanning was among thousands of people touched by catastrophic storms in Eastern North Carolina — Matthew in 2016 and Florence in 2018. A group including students from  University of North Carolina Chapel Hill nursing school spent a week in March helping out in eastern counties. They spent part of a day working where Fanning was having lunch, one of the projects of Wilmington’s Anchor church.Participants in these efforts, whether at a church, clinic or the Anchor’s freewheeling bike shop, seemed determined to steer away from concepts of charity that can create barriers between the helpers and the helped. More creative and empathetic approaches are welcomed here.“Part of the power and the purpose of this is that this is not a meal for people, but with people,” said Tal Madison, 60, senior pastor of Grace, taking a plate when most others had been fed. “You might have someone who’s very secure in his business, or someone who slept under a bridge last night.”Storms hit hardPeople who don’t have shelter and those with low incomes show striking, lingering effects of the storms, according to professionals from UNC Chapel Hill and University of North Carolina Wilmington, city c...