Being the Church: Elkhorn City Baptist hosts 53 evacuated residents from nursing home facility

ELKHORN CITY (KT) – Pastor Richard Greene had been talking to his members at Elkhorn City Baptist Church about launching a new ministry to senior adults living at a local nursing home.

Saturday night, they got an idea what that might look like.

Elkhorn City Baptist hosted 53 evacuated residents of Landmark of Elkhorn City as the flood waters began to rise in Pike County.

The Red Cross provided cots and blankets, the nursing home brought the nursing aids and Elkhorn City provided the place – its Life Center – and hospitality, including wheeling in the big screen television to watch the Kentucky-Texas basketball game.

“All things considered, it went pretty well,” Greene said. “Just another day in Eastern Kentucky.”

The residents came to Elkhorn City Baptist in the early evening and returned to their facility on Sunday evening.

Elkhorn City Baptist members and community neighbors joined in on being welcoming hosts for the senior adults. Some were a little stressed, Greene said, after all the moving and shuffling from vans to the fellowship center.

Jayneen Rosser, the administrator at the nursing home, lives on the same street as Greene. He had spoken with her at a recent funeral and mentioned trying to work out some way to start a ministry there.

“She called probably late (Saturday) morning,” Greene said. “As the water was rising, they were trying to make plans. They had 47 (residents) who ended up going to the hospital because of different medical needs. It was an all-day process waiting to see where the water was going to go.”

When the administrator first called him, Greene and his wife, Amy, were vacuuming water from their basement. He said the church had also taken in some water in the basement but suffered no major damage.

Greene said he went over to the fellowship center to make sure everything was ready for the visitors and opened the door to a room full of decorations. It had been prepared for a Saturday Valentine’s banquet which was canceled earlier.

Church members who lived nearby pitched in to help take down the decorations and serve the residents of the nursing home.

The Elkhorn City Fire Department helped transport the residents, some who were confused about what was happening. “It was very stressful, just transferring to the van and back to our facility. Some of them were fearful, you could tell. We tried to make it as routine as we could. We put the UK game on.”

Greene jokingly said the game may have added some stress to the evening as Kentucky blew a late lead and fell to Texas, 82-78. He said he did not leave the facility until around midnight.

Like many churches in Eastern Kentucky, Sunday morning services at Elkhorn City Baptist were cancelled because of the flooding.

“I told our folks, it’s good to hear a sermon — and you need to have sermons,” Greene said. “But today, people needed to see a sermon.”

He said the foresight of the church to build the fellowship center in 2019, before he became their pastor, was not lost on him. “Who knew, but God, that we would need it for something like this? It was a blessing to our community. We had 53 brand new senior adults, at least for an evening. It was a different evening. A challenge and a blessing.”

As for starting a ministry for senior adults in a nursing home, Greene said this may have been the start of something special for Elkhorn City Baptist Church.