Ann Burnworth answered the telephone when it rang—such a familiar act, like she’d done millions of times in her life.
But this call wasn’t quite like all those other calls she’d answered in her life. First, because she was sitting in a room full of other ringing phones, with other calls coming in as soon as one would end. They were frantic calls to the Marshall County emergency operations center in the wake of the tornado that had devastated parts of the county.
They were calls from people who needed help, and calls from those who wanted to help.
It was by pure chance that Ann answered that particular call, on that day, instead of one of the others. She could have missed it. It could have been answered by someone else. After all, Ann wasn’t even normally answering calls at the operations center. She’d been helping feed the hungry at Moors Resort when the owner asked her to instead go to the operations center to help there in answering all the ringing phones.
No, Ann and her colleagues that day believe it was something bigger leading the events of that day.
“The only way I can explain it is that it is a God-thing,” Ann says. “Brittney Hargrove, director of the emergency operations center, said to me that she thought it was probably a really good thing that I had answered the phone that day.”
But, you see, God had already started working to make that phone call happen days before, when singer-songwriter Justin Mychals saw images on television of Western Kentucky devastated by a historic tornado. Immediately, Justin knew he could help. He’d been using his music platform to help raise money for nearly his whole career—his philanthropy, he believes, goes hand-in-hand with his music.
“Realizing that I am a pretty blessed guy because I’ve been able to have a career playing music pretty much my whole life doing what I love to do and many people don’t,” Justin says. “Doing something for somebody else because of my blessings has been part of my life.”
“We woke up to news of this devastation and I felt like I just couldn’t imagine if that happened to me. Here everyone was decorating Christmas trees and all of sudden these people just have their lives wiped out.”
Justin started making some phone calls, one to a friend who had connections in Marshall County, who shared the number to the Marshall County Nonprofit Community Fund.
“I called and thank God I got Ann Burnworth on the end of the phone,” Justin says. “She caught fire.”
Before long, Justin had arranged an online benefit concert with some of his singer-songwriting partners and the group had raised nearly $5,000 for those in Marshall County who had suffered loss in the tornado.
It could have ended there. After all, in a time when everyone was doing whatever they could, they’d done a lot for the people who were suffering.
But, Justin wasn’t done. God wasn’t done with the group.
A couple of days after the concert, Justin kept turning around a phrase in his mind that he’d heard before – how are we going to make it if we don’t pray?
He called one of his writing partners, Benny Wilson, and asked what he would think about writing a song for the people of Western Kentucky.
“I said to him, ‘About the only thing these people have got left right now is prayer, hope, and people helping them,’” he recalls.
The pair wrote the song, How We Gonna Make it if We Don’t Pray, in just one sitting and at the end, Benny turned to Justin and just said, “Wow!”
Justin hopes that the song will be a way to further raise funds for Western Kentucky.
In January, Justin visited Marshall County with Ann, touring some of the areas most impacted by the storm and capturing images to accompany the song’s official video.
“You just can’t explain it to anyone who hasn’t been here, so I was happy that Justin had time to see it for himself,” Ann says. “Tears were streaming down his face, he was so moved.”
And, again, it could have ended there. But, as Justin said, Ann had caught fire. She wanted to do more. She wanted to help more. She knew a live benefit concert would bring in more money to help more people.
Ann found the perfect venue right in the heart of the Marshall County lake community that saw so much devastation. When she asked the owner, Bob Boyd, to use his barn for the concert, he agreed quickly, but with one condition.
“I moved here in 2011 and the people of Kentucky, more-so the people in this community, are my family,” Bob says. “I would do anything to help them. I am an only child so my neighbors are my family. When Ann asked me to be involved I said, yes, on the condition that every penny of the proceeds would go directly to the people out here who are in need.”
So, on July 30, Justin will once again travel up to Marshall County, this time with friends Benny Wilson and Quentin Horton, to headline the Marshall County Disaster Recovery Celebration – Benefit Concert. Music will begin mid-afternoon and last until the night. In addition to the music, guests can participate in a silent auction and eat from food trucks.
Justin, Ann, and Bob promise a good time will be had by all.
“I would like to see a stress release day for these folks,” Justin says. “Let’s go have some fun. We will play for you guys, we will do what we do. We like to laugh, we like to play, we like to have a good time, and we like for people to get into what we do.”
“We guarantee by the end of it you’ll be clapping and dancing and having a good time.”
Mark your Calendar!