By Tabitha Evans Moore | EDITOR & PUBLISHER

The morning light over Charity looked soft and golden. By eight o’clock, nearly 50 men in straw hats and suspenders stood in a wide semicircle around a fresh concrete pad where the old Metro Moore County Volunteer Fire Department (MCVFD) Station #5 once leaned tired and cracked. They didn’t talk much; they didn’t have to. Someone gave a small nod, and suddenly the hum of saws, the clang of hammers, and the easy rhythm of practiced teamwork filled the air. By lunchtime, the smell of lunch drifted from Matthew Lendley’s carport, where the women laid out plates in neat rows. By 3 p.m., a new metal building stood where the old one had been – walls straight, roof gleaming, bay door the only thing left undone.

Station #5 sits in the Charity community on the west side of Moore County – one of several one-bay block fire halls built in the mid-1980s when rural departments were expanding. After 40 years of service, the concrete walls had cracked and shifted in a kind of slow settling over time and weather. Volunteers had patched and painted as long as they could. Then, one day, a conversation at a local Mennonite funeral turned into a plan to rebuild the station from the ground up.

Raymond Summers, who runs the local truss shop, told Lendley that if the county could supply materials, the Mennonite community would handle the rest. True to their word, they picked a date, showed up at dawn, and worked until the sun started dropping behind the fields.

 “They were everywhere – 40 or 50 of them – and by three o’clock it was done,” said Lendley – agreeing to our comparison to a barn raising – the physical expression of the Mennonite belief that community comes before individualism.

No heavy machinery, no shouting, just a quiet choreography born of lifelong skill.

They just show up.

For people in Charity, that day wasn’t an isolated act of kindness – it was the Mennonite way of life made visible.

“They try to help in any way they can,” Lendley said. “We’ve been on fire scenes before, and if it’s near their area, they’ll stop and help us roll hoses.”

Their trades overlap perfectly: framers, electricians, concrete workers, roofers. Lendley says when one family’s home caught fire a few years back, the same neighbors had it rebuilt within two weeks. They don’t do it for publicity or repayment. It’s just what they do – show up, help, and get on with the day.

The Mennonites live largely unplugged – no television, no computers, limited cell-phone use. Without the constant pings and scrolls that fill most of our hours, they seem to have preserved an older frequency of life: slower, steadier, oriented toward creation rather than consumption.

If there’s a moral to the story, it’s this: when people put their differences aside and simply serve, whole communities rise. The volunteer firefighters who usually give more than they receive found themselves on the receiving end of grace. The Mennonite builders, guided by quiet faith, reminded the rest of us that good neighbors still exist – and that help offered freely multiplies its own reward.

In a county where time moves slow and cell service still drops calls, the miracle of Station #5 wasn’t the speed of the construction. It was the speed of the yes. One community needed help. Another showed up. And by sundown, a fire hall – and something deeper – had been rebuilt.

And they aren’t the only community members to pitch in. The land that Station #5 sits on was originally donated by Walter and Mildred Steelman and their daughter, Shelbie Jean. According to former Fire Chief Mark Neal, Bell Precision Tool loaned Metro an excavator and dump trailer for demolition and hauling off materials from the old building, which Payton Keller volunteered to remove. Baker Electric did the electrical work. Greg Guinn supplied electrical equipment for the project, and Preferred Glass provided the personnel door. Local firefighters also installed the insulation on the walls and blew in loose material insulation in the overhead.

The project just goes to show what’s possible when we all come together.•

{The Lynchburg Times is a nonpartisan, independent community newspaper serving Lynchburg, Tennessee and the surrounding counties. We not only cover local events but also volunteer our time and resources to make sure they are a success. You can support us, by clicking here.}