For decades, Black Mountain Presbyterian Church in the southern end of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains has been addressing need in its community. “It’s a place where you expect to be in service in some way or another,” says Margo Smith, a member of the church, which is one of the Presbyterian Hunger Program‘s Hunger Action Congregations.
When Margo Smith thinks about Black Mountain Presbyterian Church’s commitment to addressing food insecurity and other community needs in western North Carolina, she is reminded of an engraving inside the church’s sanctuary.
The world’s attention and concern is on a virus originating in China and spreading to other countries. Every day our news is filled with dramatic stories of this disaster and the efforts to contain it. Here at home we might pray for those affected and take some comfort in that the virus will not reach us and we are safe. The reality is a deadly virus is already in our community and potentially in our worship services.
Dave believed so strongly that in life and in death, we belong to God,” said Mary Katherine Robinson, pastor and head of staff at Black Mountain Presbyterian Church in Black Mountain, North Carolina, the home church of the Rev. David Vines Miller and his wife, Polly, since their retirement from mission service in 1994.
“As a missionary of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for 40 years in Africa, he spread that good news all over Congo, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and every corner of the world he touched!” Robinson said of Miller, who died at his home in North Carolina, surrounded by family members, on Dec. 23, 2019 at age 93. “Even though our hearts are broken over the loss of this vibrant and faithful servant of God, may we continue to be a people of hope as we witness to the resurrection.”
