St. Andrew's Presbyterian Kirk Pastor Bryn MacPhail, left, with Sophie Ferguson, a resident of Meadow Street, to whom the church donated a bed for her children after their bed was destroyed during the passage of Hurricane Matthew. (Photo: Bryn Macphail)

Churches are often accused of being takers, or perceived as wanting to take money, but at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Kirk, the members have a very different spirit. They are always looking for "sensible" opportunities to be givers; and in the last decade they have focused much of the church's mission efforts on the neighboring community of Bain and Grant's Town. In the wake of the devastation left behind by Hurricane Matthew, the church has rallied behind the nearby community, committing the resources required to assist with the cleanup and rebuilding of many of the community.

Since the members began cleanup and restoration efforts in the community, Kirk pastor Bryn MacPhail estimates that they have sent out 250 sheets of plywood, 200 bundles of shingles, 60 rolls of roof felt, 200 bags of groceries and 10 new beds for individuals who had their belongings destroyed in the rain.

"The hurricane created a level of need that really changed our capacity to give, so we connected with some partners [Sandals Foundation and three churches out of the United States], and collectively we've been able to give a huge amount back to the residents there," said MacPhail.

"The church is to be the hands and the feet of Jesus Christ, so when we help the least of these, we're representing Jesus, and we hope we're doing what he would do if he were physically present. We're simply representing him. And I don't think Jesus would discriminate based on the level of devotion that people have towards him, because he reaches out to those who have nothing to give in return."

MacPhail said God is portrayed as sovereign in the Bible and completely in control. Nothing, he said, can thwart God's plans or his will. While a hurricane is a terrible thing and devastates people, he said, God has a good plan to reveal his mercy and his goodness, and to draw people to himself, to have people realize how vulnerable they are and how dependent they are on him.

"We're all vulnerable. We all need the Lord Jesus Christ. And we all need one another. And I think the great lesson of the hurricane is whether you're rich or poor... live east, west, north or south -- we're vulnerable, and things like hurricanes reveal those vulnerabilities. And I hope and pray we would all depend upon God more than we did before."

MacPhail, who was installed as pastor at St. Andrew's Kirk in June 2010 following an eight-year ministry at St. Giles Kingsway Presbyterian Church in Toronto, Canada, said the Kirk's membership did not just "bob" into Bain and Grant's Town for the first time in the last six weeks. They have made a concerted effort to love their neighbors.

"The generosity of our partner ministries has multiplied our capacity to 'water' others. By the time we reach 2017, we expect that we will have offered meaningful assistance to approximately 30 homes in the community. We count it a privilege to be positioned to love our neighbors in such practical ways. We do this as representatives of our Lord Jesus Christ with a desire to honor his name -- especially during this Christmas season."

The pastor said the church's hurricane relief effort is an extension of what its membership and leadership had already been doing. Kirk members have provided afterschool tutoring, hosted summer Bible camps and regularly distribute groceries to people in need. Every August, the Kirk also partners with McDonald's to provide school bags and supplies to children in the community as they prepare to return to school. At Christmas, they again partner with McDonald's and the Sandals Foundation to provide a luncheon with presents for the children.

MacPhail said the church went out into the community not seeking to grow the church, but to help the community.

"I felt that we had an obligation to reach out to our neighbors, and as we did that, we realized that there is great need -- spiritually, emotionally... physical needs that we could meet," said the pastor.

"The church became interested in doing a mission in Bain and Grants Town, because that is the community that has closest proximity to our church building. The people on Cameron Street, for instance, all know who I am, [as well as] the people on Hospital Lane near the Salvation Army. They all recognize the ministry of the Kirk, and so there are certain corners and streets where we do this work every single week and this is just a part of it."

Early on, MacPhail said it became obvious that the Kirk had no one from the nearby community attending their church. That bothered him.

"My very first Sunday worshipping at St. Andrew's Kirk, before I was the minister, there was three children in attendance and I realized that for the church to have any future it needed to reach young people."

Through their efforts in getting out to the people in the neighboring community, people would join them which he said in turn encouraged and inspired members of the Kirk.

"We got new children by the dozen, and had as many as 100 children under the age of 18 one Sunday. We never dreamed of this impact, and so it was an unexpected benefit that the church would grow, because that was never our primary intention. Our primary intention was to be helpful and to show the love of Christ to people in need."

Sasha Fernander is one of those young people who made St. Andrew's Presbyterian Kirk her home church. Last year she was confirmed and was baptized for the first time in her life.

Fernander, who says she has given her life to Jesus Christ, is a choir member and uses her gift for singing to serve the Lord.

"I met Pastor Bryn because he came to my home and he introduced himself to me and he spoke to Mr. Roberts about the church and he suggested we visit one day. We visited the church one Sunday, and I felt at home, so I kept asking and some of my friends asked if we could go back again and make it our home church. We continue to come and over the period of time we became more comfortable here, and it felt full of love. The church made us feel like a family," said Sasha in a video message on the church's page.

"Pastor Bryn has really done a lot with me in my following of Christ. He has done a tremendous job with me and he contributed to who I am today."

In the video message, community member Diana Bullard said before the Kirk members came into the community that it had been "terrible." She said because of the commitment by the church's members, many children in the neighborhood no longer go to bed hungry.

"They are really instrumental in helping the kids in this community. And they're not all about the glam ... the lights. They come in meek and mild and get the job done," she said.

Bullard said the Kirk members supported them by sending food items and clothing for the children, repairing roofs and providing beds, and they took time out of their busy schedules to actually go into the community.

Earla Bethel, the church's clerk of session, who has worshipped at the Kirk for over three decades and became an elder in 2001 said in the video message that most people think that what happens in church happens within the four walls, but she said that the work of the church is really what happens outside the four walls.

"Rather than talk about it, we're doing something about it. We recognized that they are in need, and rather than bring them to us, we made a focused, prayerful, conscious decision to take our mission to the kids in Bain and Grants Town. And what has come out of that has been simply amazing."

She said that their Sunday school that at one point had only five children is now "bursting at the seams".

"The children look forward to coming to worship every Sunday. They're growing in their faith, and that's what's important to us. Not only are we helping them physically, but we're helping them spiritually."

Kirk member Peter Bates also said on the video message that the "whole purpose of the church is to outreach to your neighbors -- and that means to everybody, so from a ministry point of view it's part and parcel the purpose of the church."

"Kirk" is a Scots word that means church. The Presbyterian church is governed by elders who are appointed to rule the church. The minister of a congregation is known as the "teaching elder".

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Kirk holds worship service at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings.

Shavaughn Moss, Guardian Lifestyles Editor

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