In the spring of 2026, rainwater poured down from the roof into the Red Bird Mission Community Outreach building. According to Red Bird Mission’s director, James Collett, this facility in Beverly, Kentucky, was originally built in 1959 as the Red Bird Mission Hospital at a time when there was no hospital in the Red Bird Valley. He estimated that the roof must have been replaced at least once since then, but he did not know when.
Later, the building was repurposed and refitted to become a community center, housing everything from adult education and family ministries to a baby pantry. It is also the home of the Early Childhood Development Preschool Program and a commercial kitchen for the community residents to preserve harvests and create products to generate income. The building houses several food pantries, emergency, school, and hygiene supplies, help with tax preparation, durable medical supplies, and the Christmas Assistance Program. It is also critical in providing healthcare access through a dental clinic, and, still today, a health clinic, because the hospital remains too far away for those without transportation.
Amid these ministries and a few more, with people bustling in and out the doors, the community outreach center also housed a growing collection of buckets, trash cans, and plastic draping that attempted to keep all the above dry and functional.
Tracy Nolan, director of Community Outreach with Red Bird, was hoping and praying something would happen to remedy the situation. “The hallways were getting difficult to navigate, and we were becoming increasingly concerned that we would have to cease operations in parts of the building because it wasn’t safe; and we might even have had to shut down some of the ministries.”
Todd Willis, Global Ministries’ Chief Operations Officer and General Counsel, arrived from Atlanta for a visit early in the spring. The Global Ministries’ Southeast Jurisdiction Mission Engagement Liaison (and former missionary), Elizabeth McCormick, also visited a bit later, purposefully seeking to connect with missions and ministries in her region.
Global Ministries has a long relationship with Red Bird Mission based on Book of Discipline mandates and historically owning some of the property the mission was built on. When Willis toured the community center and became acquainted with the army of trash cans and buckets, he asked the staff, “What can we do to help?”
Facilities Are a Tool for Service
“We could use a new roof on the community outreach building,” Collett said. Standing among the water-catching cans and buckets, it was difficult to disagree with that.
But Collett was astounded when he discovered what a new roof would cost. He thought, “there’s no way.” He sent the best quote to Willis. “I expected Global Ministries might cover a portion of that. I didn’t know where we were going to get the rest.”
Global Ministries tapped into its property fund to cover the whole amount. People at Red Bird Mission shed a few tears when the check arrived. They’d not seen anything like it.
And then a few months later, Global Ministries did the same with Henderson Settlement in Frakes, Kentucky, another long-term service ministry in the hollers of Appalachia with which Global Ministries has a similar relationship. They had a similar need – to shore-up the siding of their community outreach center. Same process – quote sent, check arrived, people cried.
“This brings me hope, genuinely” John Newman, Henderson Settlement’s director, said. “Hope that the church has not left the building, that people are fighting and rooting for victory to be seen. It lets us continue in ministry and thrive – not just survive.”
Reconnecting a Connectional Church
Red Bird Mission and Henderson Settlement have been good partners in handling their resources and in what they ask to further develop and sustain their missions. Ten years ago, the community around Red Bird Mission needed a clean, potable water source, since they have a very limited city water source up in the mountains. A United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) seed grant made it possible for Red Bird to establish a water kiosk, where residents could pay just 25 cents for five gallons of clean water. It also has a swing apparatus so that a truck can pull alongside and fill barrels for a family or a small community. It is still in operation today and pays for its own maintenance, distributing 22,000 gallons last year.
Red Bird Mission was founded by the Evangelical Church in 1921, and Henderson Settlement by a Methodist pastor, Rev. Hiram Frakes, in 1925. Since then, the missions and connections to several denominations have changed. Ties to the United Methodist Church were solidified with various mergers of Evangelical, Brethren, and Methodist denominations in 1968. In 1973, the Methodist, Brethren and Evangelical churches of the Appalachian area of southeastern Kentucky were reorganized as the Red Bird Missionary Conference.
In the mid-20th century, Global Ministries supplied missionary pastors, Church and Community Workers (CCWs) and other personnel in the conference. This was the case when Tracy Nolan first came to work in 1996. Shirley Crouse, a CCW, was director of the Early Childhood Development Program at that time. Today, there are no more CCWs with Red Bird Mission. Yet today, many of the workers and volunteers come from this region of Kentucky. This is a prime goal for any Methodist mission, that the people served become the people who serve others.
Newman confirmed: “The folks down here need to find food and a home. Most of these people in the mountains already have a great faith.”
In 2022, the name of the conference changed to the Central Appalachia Missionary Conference, headquartered in Big Creek, Kentucky. Along with the Kentucky Conference and the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference, the three comprise the new Kentucky-Tennessee Episcopal Area, currently under the leadership of Bishop David Graves. Red Bird Mission and Henderson Settlement are Mission Affiliates of the Central Appalachian Missionary Conference.
Both missions depend on charitable donations, monetary but also material supplies and food donations, mostly from small- or medium-sized United Methodist congregations as well as from congregations of other denominations. Their big workforce is volunteers. Spring through autumn, both missions host teams that help to rebuild and improve residential properties according to the needs of residents, who are elderly, work in low-income jobs, are single heads of households with children and/or grandchildren, or who may be underinsured. Henderson has also built new houses in recent years.
In 2020, many mission operations, like many churches, shut down because of COVID-19. Collett, Nolan, and Newman, all agreed this was a dark and difficult time in the life of Appalachian missions, and one of the toughest challenges they have had to navigate in their careers. Connection, relationships, and in-person care is what extends the love of God to their isolated and remote rural communities.
About the time COVID restrictions eased, United Methodist congregations began to splinter and disaffiliate from the United Methodist denomination. Both disaffiliated and United Methodist churches stopped sending volunteer teams. Even after four years, Red Bird Mission and Henderson Settlement have about half the number of teams they hosted before COVID. They have capacity to host and deploy many more.
“Local church and denominational support partnerships have been critical to the sustainability of Red Bird Mission and Red Bird Clinic since our establishment in 1921,” Tracy Nolan said. “To have this gift from GBGM at this time is another testament to our faith heritage!”
Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries and UMCOR.
“What can we do to help?”
Red Bird Mission and Henderson Settlement would be happy to reconnect with congregations and conferences that partnered with them in the past and equally happy to meet new volunteers and supporters who desire to experience mission and ministry among the people who call the mountains of southeastern Kentucky home.
For more information:
Red Bird Mission
Volunteer: https://www.redbirdky.org/volunteer
Ways to give: https://www.redbirdky.org/give
Newsletter sign-up: https://www.redbirdky.org/contact
Henderson Settlement
Like us on Facebook or see our webpage at: https://www.hendersonsettlement.com
Work Camp: https://www.hendersonsettlement.com/work-camp.html
Needs List: https://www.hendersonsettlement.com/needs-list.html
Ways to give: https://www.hendersonsettlement.com/donations-and-payments.html
2026 Information Packet: https://www.hendersonsettlement.com/welcome-to-henderson-settlement-info-packet.html
This content was originally published by The General Board of Global Ministries; republished with permission by ResourceUMC on August 27, 2026. To learn more about GBGM visit Global Ministries | ResourceUMC.