Mount Pleasant Magazine Nov/Dec 2018

68 www.HurricaneMagazines.com | www.HurricaneFlorenceMagazine.com | www.HugoMagazine.com feature She and Wood both emphasized that there are simply too many benefactors to list them all. Community support has come from individuals and businesses as well. Marty Cribb of Whole Foods explained that, shortly after the fire, when the leadership staff at St. Andrew’s needed a meeting place to initially gather their thoughts, his store was able to accommodate them with a conference room, complete with coffee and pastries. Charleston Artist Collective, a neighbor of St. Andrew’s in the Old Village, donated its proceeds from one weekend’s sales to the church. And the list goes on and on. Many Mount Pleasant residents look forward to the Charleston Symphony Orchestra’s annual performance of “Handel’s Messiah” as a St. Andrew’s Christmastide tradition. They can rest assured that the event will take place, hosted this year at East Cooper Baptist. And for the 4,000 church members who worship on Sundays with St. Andrew’s, two weekly services are currently held at Mount Pleasant Academy in addition to the four services at the small “historic church” of St. Andrew’s, which miraculously escaped the fire on the property. Kim Jackson, the school’s principal, said the congregation is able to continue its Sunday morning children’s ministry, too, by using her school’s library, music room and playground: “They can do everything they need to do on Sunday mornings.” She hopes the relationship between the church and school will continue even after the parishioners are able to return to their own sanctuary space once the ministry center is rebuilt. “We are talking about mentoring and tutoring programs and have some other things in the works. At least once a week, someone from our community thanks me for what we have done as a school to help out. But we just did what we thought was right and what we thought anyone would do,” Jackson continued. So for the next two years, until construction of the new ministry center is complete, Wood and his flock will rely on the kindness of strangers and the benevolence of the community to continue their centuries-old traditions and mission of service. And the community seems eager to oblige. Photo by Bill Macchio. The site of the fire and where the ministry center was demolished.