‘Lift each other up.’ Mourning the dead, hope for the future at Mayfield candlelight vigil
Over 300 people sang, prayed, mourned, and paid tribute to the lives lost in the Mayfield community and its candle factory at a candlelight vigil held on Tuesday night.
With wreckage all about them, and memories of lost loved ones looming large, several pastors asked people who came out to His House Ministries for the vigil to find strength in community.
“I look at all these faces out here, and this is who we are,” Pastor of Genesis Church Ben Harp said. “We are a people that come together and lift each other up.”
He said that the community is still coming to grips with the fallout, but that the existence of ‘ashes’ implies that something was once there. He cited scripture promising “a crown of beauty instead of ashes” for those who grieve.
Some had several to grieve.
Brandi Moss was a supervisor at the candle factory who oversaw an earlier shift. She knew all eight of those who died in the calamity.
“I knew all of them,” Moss said. “I’d been there five years… everybody there was like family.”
Tears streamed down Moss’ face as a small praise group played a hymn for the crowd.
She fondly remembered going to coworkers’ houses for gatherings, silly exchanges on the factory floor and the bond they shared.
The vigil was hosted in conjunction with Mayfield Consumer Products, the company in charge of the factory. Representatives from the company have been at His House throughout the week following the disaster.
A group of four women from Graves County who don’t live in the county seat came out to the vigil to show support and spread love to those more dramatically affected by the tornado that ripped right through town.
“We love our little town,” Rita Melton said. “... The community is coming together and we just want to show God’s love.”
Harp said that part of the mourning process can be beautiful, and that he saw that on Tuesday night.
“God says there’s a time for everything under the sun,” Harp said. “We mourn the loss that doesn’t make sense, that don’t understand. And yet, we rejoice in one another.”
Joel Cauley, pastor at Relevant Church in nearby Paducah, said that the energy on display Tuesday night will last much longer than the media attention that Mayfield is currently receiving.
“When everything is said and done, and when all of this is yesterday’s news, you can count on Jesus and the local church to be with you a year from now when we’re still restoring and celebrating anniversary services of this happening,” Cauley said. “When you’re still just hanging onto memories of those that you lost, I want to let you know that the local church is committed to seeing you through this.”
