When Hurricane Katrina barreled into the Gulf Coast nearly nine months ago, people across the country, world, and church donated time and money to help. This aid didn’t stop after a month or two, but is still continuing today.

For the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North Hills, in Pittsburgh, Pa., helping meant donating their pews to a church that had been flooded in New Orleans, La.

“We were looking to reorganize our auditorium to allow for more seating,” Pastor Harry Metzger said. “We were hoping to find some church that could use the pews, instead of simply selling them or disposing of them.”

Sam Spear, a deacon at North Hills RPC, said, “Ed Robson, of our congregation, suggested to me that we look for a Gulf Coast church that had been damaged, as a way to use our old pews.” Spear, who had spent time on the Gulf Coast providing disaster relief after Hurricanes Rita and Wilma, contacted the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and Presbyterian Church in America to see if they knew of churches that could use the pews. He was put in contact with Desire Street Ministries.

“They put us in touch with Pastor White of the Greater King Solomon Independent Missionary Baptist Church, which had been flooded and was using borrowed folding chairs and praying for new seating,” Spear said.

According to an article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, when the church discovered that the cost of shipping the pews to New Orleans would be $5-6 thousand, David Porter, a member of the church, contacted a trucking company that he represents as an attorney. The company, which had been devastated in 2004 by Hurricane Ivan, transported the pews free of charge.

In a letter of thanks to the North Hills RPC, Pastor John T. White said, “At a time in our lives when many members of our church family are emotionally, physically and spiritually in need of encouragement, your liberal gift served as an inspiring beacon in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita dark experience.

“The pews that you so generously gave us have certainly enriched the worship environment of our sanctuary.”