Moving Back to Charlotte

In October 1999, Glenn, Pam and Mike and their families decided to have a fiftieth anniversary party for us at Mulberry Baptist Church in Charlotte. It was on a Saturday and we had a great party with many of friends. One of our lifelong friends Tom Worthy was not there. I asked his wife Margaret where he was and she said that He was not feeling good and did not think it wise for him to get out. She shared that he was going to see his doctor on Monday and he would find out was wrong. On Monday night we called Margaret to see what the doctor had to say and Tom answered the phone. He said that I should talk with Margaret; she shared that the doctor said that Tom only had three to six month to live. The next morning at 4:00 a.m. we were on our way back to Charlotte to see them. After a short visit we went by Glenn's house to tell him about what had happened. He was not at home but we saw a house 1214 Cathey Road for sale which was right around the corner from his house. We went on over to Pam and David's house to tell them and after hearing about Tom, Pam ask us if we would move back to Charlotte so we could be together and help each other should something like happen to us. I told her that we would stay at the beach and not consider moving back. She asked us to pray about it I said that I would pray but I would never move back to Charlotte. On the way home we did much praying about what we should do.

That night we called Glenn to let him know what had happened to Tom and the we came by to see him but he was not at home. I also shared what Pam had asked us to consider. He shared that the perfect house was for sale just around the corner and we ask him to see what was the price and let us know. In the meantime he asked a realtor friend of his to check, well she did and set up five other houses for us to look at and asked him if the next Wednesday morning would work. We decided to come on back up and look at them and visit a little with him and Robin. We arrived at Glenn's house a little before nine and met with Lisa Nobles. We first went to see the yellow house on Cathey Road. After looking at the house Hazel said that she did not want to live in this house. I ask the lady if we could come back later that day by ourselves and she said we could. We did not like any of the other four houses that Lisa showed us. After lunch I got a pad and pen for Hazel and ask her to write down everything that she could not live with when we went back to the house. We took a good look around and afterwards she said that she loved it and had decided it would be the house we would buy.

We went back to the beach and in a few days we made an offer on the house. After some going back and forth we finally bought the house and we closed on it after Thanksgiving. The couple needed to stay in the house for a couple weeks which was fine with us. By Christmas we had most of the painting and other things done and were able to move in by the first of January 2000. We could see first-hand how fast God can work in the lives of his people. We are so thankful that Pam asked us to pray about coming home to Charlotte! Listen to me tell about our move to Charlotte.

King's Karpenters in McClellanville,SC

When returning home from Charlotte after Hurricane Hugo, we discovered that some of the men from North Myrtle Beach First Baptist Church had gone down to McClellanville which had been totally destroyed by Hugo. They took water, chainsaws, and any thing else that that the folks down there may need to keep going.

After getting back home I joined together with other men and went back to help repair damage in the town. After a couple days we saw that there was a small community north of the town that no one was helping so we got as many men together as we could find and went back there to help them. We met Robert and Mary Lennen who had lost everything that they had in their home. They had an old warehouse that was given to them to be used as headquarters for our work teams. They planned on living in the warehouse until everyone had been placed back in their homes then we could help them. Robert and Mary's house was one of the last two homes that we help build.

After a couple days we saw that we could not do all that needed to be done alone so we approached several other churches and we had three others that said that they would go down one day each week. We started repairing the houses that we could complete in the least amount of time and by doing this, let the people know that we would be on a job five days a week untill it was finished and found that they started helping us some. Not too long after we started the other churches kind of dropped off but before they did we had repaired over twenty homes and had built one new one. The men at First Baptist keep on going as much as we could At this time we decided to name our group the Kings Karpenters.

After working in McClellanville for two years we were not needed there any more. We left McClellnaville with memories that will be with us as long as we live. I hope that someday people will read this and say a prayer for those folks, that God will continue to bless them and their children. We returned to North Myrtle and started doing work around North Myrtle and it was not long the need was so great in and around the county we were repairing homes all over Horry county.

I left the group in 2000 and moved back to Charlotte but I will always be a Kings Karpenter. When we were formed as a team our first leader was Ben Martin who led us well for a few years but due to bad health had to turn it over to Leary Baker who let us for couple years untill he fell off his golf cart and had to give it up, but he still worked with us until the end. Bill Taylor took over and led the group until now and they are still doing what he and others can for the needy people in and around North Myrtle. Bill is one of the most faithful men that I have ever known. Even through much sickness and hospital stays Bill just keeps on working every Thursday and sometimes other days of the week. It has been going on over twenty years; may God continue to bless the folks involved in this project.  Listen to me tell this story.

Hurricane Hugo

Shortly after this trip, an event was about to happen that would provide an opportunity for the King's Carpenters to help folk close to home. On September 21, 1989 Hurricane Hugo was on its way to the coast of the North or South Carolina. Hazel did not want to stay at the beach and we chose to come to Charlotte and keep Betsy and Kati while Robin and Glenn went to Raleigh, NC to attend a weekend for educators thinking all would be well. We came to Charlotte and settled in and were ready to have a few days with our two grandkids. We stayed up until midnight to see what Hugo was going to do and wondered if it would come inland near our beach home. At midnight all power went out in Charleston, SC and we decided to go to bed because Hugo would only come ashore for a few miles and then back out somewheres along the coast of North Carolina. Little did we know what Hugo had in mind for its travels! About four in the morning Glenn knocked on my door and ask me if we were going to sleep through Hugo's visit to Charlotte. I got up as fast as I could and boy was the wind blowing and we could see that all of the trees were bent almost to the ground. All of a sudden it got really calm and the winds stopped blowing. We all thought it was all over but just in a little while it started again and this time it was really bad! We saw some green lights as transformers blew out.

When daylight came we could see trees and power lines down everywhere but Glenn and Robin did not have any damage to their home just no power. I got to thinking about the four great big oak trees near Pam and Davids house and envisioned them all down on their house. I told Hazel that I was going to try to get over and help them and would only know how they fared the storm by going there. I started out on the five mile trip and with all of the damage it took me one hour to make the trip and I only was able to get to within about one half of a mile. I ran the rest of the way and was relieved when I got to the house I saw all of the trees around their house were standing tall and was not blown down on the house. However, they did have about twenty five big oak trees to blow down in the woods near the house but no damage was done to their home. This is another way that God was looking after my family.

We told Glenn and Robin to go on to Raleigh to the conference and we would take care of everything. We had a freezer full of frozen food and a camp stove and plenty of gas for the stove. Every one's power was out but Pam had a gas water heater and city water, both were working. With Glenn's gas stove and Pam's water we did real well. Betsy and Kati liked the camp cooking and all the candles as we did our best to make do with what we had. Glenn and Robin made it to the conference, had a great time, and returned to find that all was well. Little did we all know that for the next two weeks they were to be without power. It even took longer for some others.

We went back to the beach to find that Hugo did not do any damage to our home only a few very small limbs down and part of a couple shingles from the roof.  Listen to me tell this story.