Home Care In Currie, NC

CARY, N.C. – Currie Tilley, associational mission strategist for the Carolina Baptist Association in Hendersonville, has been named director of the Mission Catalysts Group with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.

Tilley’s appointment was approved unanimously by the executive committee of the state convention’s board of directors during a meeting held Tuesday, July 11, by video conference. N.C. Baptist Executive Director-Treasurer Todd Unzicker presented Tilley to the committee as a candidate for the role, in accordance with state convention employment policies.

In his new position, Tilley will oversee a group of deployed catalysts who serve churches in different geographic regions of the state. The group also includes statewide catalysts to serve African-American, Asian and Hispanic pastors and churches. The catalysts serve as a primary contact for pastors, churches and associations in their respective regions.

Tilley will assume his new position on Aug. 15. He steps into the role previously held by Chuck Register, who retired from the state convention in January.

In recommending Tilley for the role, Unzicker called Tilley a proven leader who has a track record of bringing churches together. Unzicker said Tilley stood out from a number of qualified candidates, and he came highly recommended by a number of pastors and ministry leaders from across the state.

“After seeing a number of great candidates, the Lord was really putting on our hearts Currie Tilley,” Unzicker said. “Currie came recommended by a number of people. This was not something that Currie sought out. We sought him out. Currie has done a great job with the Carolina Baptist Association, and his name just kept coming up for this role.”

Tilley said he is excited about joining the N.C. Baptist staff, and he senses a unity around state convention’s emphasis on being a movement of churches on mission together.

“Primarily, my ministry experience has been very connected to the local church,” Tilley said. “I love the local church. I believe that’s God’s ‘Plan A.’ Everything we do needs to be striving to strengthen the church…. The vision is clear, and we know what the Lord has called us to do. I’ve felt a connection and a unity in seeing how the Lord is working. I’m thankful and excited to be a part of that. I’m excited about moving forward for the Lord’s glory.”

Since November 2020, Tilley has served as associational mission strategist for the Carolina Baptist Association, where he has worked with church leaders on missions mobilization strategies and revitalization efforts.

Prior to joining the Carolina Baptist Association, Tilley spent a total of seven years on the pastoral staffs at two Triangle-area churches. He served as pastor of discipleship and mission at Rebuild Fellowship Church in Durham from August 2019 to August 2020. Tilley also served as the family and discipleship pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Hillsborough from August 2013 to June 2018.

With a strong background in Christian higher education, Tilley has also served as an adjunct professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest and at Lancaster Bible College and Capital Seminary in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, since 2011. He also spent two years as the associate dean for master’s studies at Lancaster Bible College & Capital Seminary.

Tilley holds Master of Divinity and Doctor of Education degrees from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Tilley also holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and he was called to ministry following a career in business.

Tilley has been married to his wife, Suzanne, for more than 35 years. The Tilleys have two adult children and five grandchildren.

Residents in Robeson, Duplin and Sampson counties are being discriminated against, court documents say

Jefferson Currie, the Lumber River Riverkeeper, drove his truck down St. Paul’s Road, a narrow, sandy stretch near the Robeson-Hoke County line and began counting the chicken barns: “Four, eight, twelve … this is a 48-barn operation,” Currie said, “at 35,000 per barn” – doing the math, that’s roughly 1.7 million birds being raised for Mountaire Farms in nearby Lumber Bridge.

Feces, feathers, urine: All of it stinking, shedding and seeping into the air and water in largely non-white, low-income neighborhoods throughout North Carolina, especially those east of I-95.

Currie, in his capacity as river keeper, Robeson County environmental organizer Donna Chavis, and Friends of the Earth filed a complaint with the EPA’s Office of Civil Rights alleging that the NC Department of Environmental Quality has failed to adequately regulate the poultry industry, which illegally discriminates against Native, Black and Latinx communities in Robeson, Duplin and Sampson Counties.

The complainants are represented by the Environmental Justice Clinic at Vermont Law and Graduate School.

Sharon Martin, DEQ deputy secretary for public affairs, said the agency had not yet received the complaint.

The farms in question are those that manage “dry litter” – manure, urine, feathers and other waste from the enormous operations – which is stored in open barns or fields. The waste, roughly 2.5 billion pounds per year – is eventually spread on farmland as fertilizer. These farms, which house millions of birds, aren’t required to obtain a state permit.

Only farms that use “liquid waste management systems” – wet litter – are subject to permitting requirements. There are only 19 “wet litter” farms in North Carolina, according to state data, accounting for 550,000 birds – a fraction of the 1 billion raised in the state each year.

But that distinction is a matter of semantics. Under state rules, the “dry litter” piled in the fields is allowed to sit for as long as 90 days. During that time, rain can wash the manure into nearby waterways, spiking levels of pollution into streams, wetlands, lakes and even drinking water supplies.

The contaminants include fecal bacteria, ammonia, nitrogen, phosphorus, nitrate and even tetracycline, an antibiotic used in the poultry industry, according to test results by riverkeepers, including Currie.

Fecal bacteria can make people sick if they ingest the water through drinking, swimming, tubing and other recreational activities. Phosphorus and nitrogen contribute to algal blooms, some of which are toxic to people, animals and aquatic life.

The waste piles also attract rodents and flies – and they reek of the shrill smell of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. The piles also emit fine particulate matter, which can exacerbate asthma and harm human health.

When the waste is applied on farm fields as fertilizer, the pollution continues, but is not comprehensively tracked by state regulators. “We don’t even know where the manure is being hauled.”

The civil rights complaint quotes Henry Brewer, a lifelong resident of Robeson County, as he describes the litter or “crust” from the farms:

“Crust is dumped across the street from my house around every hundred days . . . Each of the five piles is over eight feet tall. They stand there and start fuming off. The odor is terrible. Sometimes it feels like the flies are about to eat us alive — the dogs can’t even live in the yard.”

This regulatory exemption for the poultry industry also keeps secret the locations of the farms. Unlike hog operations, which must have a permit and whose locations and owners are listed in a public database, there is not similar transparency for dry litter operations. Only the state Department of Agriculture has a database of these exempt farms, which state law allows it to keep confidential.

Aerial flyovers can detect many of the farms, but the only comprehensive way to tally the location and number is to go county-by-county and analyze building permits.

“As a result of this unchecked regulation, dry litter poultry facilities are overwhelmingly concentrated in areas already overburdened with a long history of environmental discrimination, particularly stemming from the hog industry,” the civil rights complaint reads. By failing to regulate the poultry industry, the complaint alleges, DEQ is disproportionately burdening predominantly non-white communities, who are protected under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 from “cumulative impacts.”

Without considering the locations and pollution from these unregulated poultry farms, “DEQ cannot accurately consider cumulative impacts on water quality in its other permitting processes as it is required to do by state statute,” the complaint reads. “Each time DEQ issues a permit without considering the cumulative impacts of dry litter poultry facilities, it is a discrete violation of Title VI.”

The complaint also alleges that DEQ’s “failure to implement a comprehensive and effective permitting regime for dry litter poultry facilities is a systemic violation” of the Civil Rights Act.

These same communities are burdened with giant hog operations and their attendant open-air waste lagoons and spray fields – also a major source of water and air pollution.

In 2014, several environmental groups filed a civil rights complaint related to DEQ’s weak regulations over the swine farms. Four years later, the parties reached a settlement agreement that included timelines for investigating complaints and considering all information submitted by complainants. Under the agreement, DEQ must publicly document how it responds to citizen complaints.

The agency’s Community Mapping System, which allows the public to see all permitted pollution sources in the state – was also part of the settlement. However, dry poultry, lacking permits, is not available through the system.

The complainants are asking DEQ to take several steps to improve its poultry program:

“Dry litter poultry facilities comprise the largest industry in North Carolina yet have been unlawfully allowed to operate without adequate regulations in place,” said Hallie Templeton, Legal Director for Friends of the Earth in a press release. “This lack of regulation fails to protect the environment and nearby communities from industrial agriculture pollution. It also prevents state officials and the public from accessing vital statistics and records related to the industry. Today’s filing launches the first step toward finally securing much needed standards for this prevalent and destructive industry.”

In west Pender County born and raised, on a farm is where he spent most of his days.

Yamacraw to be exact.

It’s the home of Philip Banks, affectionally known as Uncle Phil by his nephew Will Smith in "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" — a 1990s sitcom about a teenager sent to live in a rich Los Angeles neighborhood with his relatives after running into trouble on a West Philadelphia basketball court.

Banks and the beloved characters have returned to television through Peacock’s “Bel-Air,” a one-hour drama series set in modern times. Once again, Yamacraw is being represented through Uncle Phil, a lawyer running to be a district attorney. He is being played by actor Adrian Holmes.

The unincorporated community is located in the Currie section of Pender County between Atkinson and Burgaw. Residents say there's not much there and the only thing letting drivers know they're in Yamacraw is a small sign before the intersection of Bell Williams and the John Henry Store roads.

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At the Yaya Mini Mart in Currie, clerk Betty Martin wouldn't have any problems giving directions if asked.

“It’s just like being out in the country,” she said. “Around here there is not a neighborhood or subdivision.”

It's an area Kendrick Holmes is pretty familiar with. The Pender County resident enjoyed watching the show and the references to the area, especially in episode three, titled "Yamacraw." Holmes and Martin said it's good to have representation of someone coming from a rural community and becoming successful

“I really like it and it’s cool,” Holmes said. “Work hard or you’re not going to get anything.”

Why Yamacraw?

Michael Y. Taylor, a longtime board member of the Pender County Historical Society, doesn't know how the name came to be in Pender County. However, Gary E. Trawick, author of "Born in Reconstruction: the story of Pender County," said the earliest mention of Yamacraw he found in the area was a 1788 reference to an early Presbyterian meeting house at this location.

“I have never heard a satisfactory explanation of the origin of why the rural community in Pender County is called Yamacraw,” Taylor said. “However, the place name is also found in several other states.”

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A 2007 Pender Post article provided by the Pender County Library reported it may have came from a Georgia town named after a Native Americans band or other stories involving an argument where the words “yam” and “craw” were mentioned.

But how did Yamacraw end up on the script for Philip Banks?

The connection may have come from Samm-Art Williams, an American playwright and screenwriter from Burgaw, which is about a 16-minute drive to Yamacraw. He was an executive producer and writer for the Fresh Prince show in the 1990s.

Sticking with the 'Yamacraw' script

Bel-Air is executive produced by Will Smith and was inspired by a viral trailer made by writer and director Morgan Cooper reimagining the original show with a grittier concept.

Co-showrunner and executive producer Rasheed Newson said they didn’t want to change the Yamacraw roots of the original character, played by the late James Avery, and said it was a perfect part of the story.

“We liked it,” Newson said. “If you look at the mansion he’s living in and you look at LA and the community of Bel-Air, it just spoke to his arc. He started on a farm and now he lives in a mansion.”

A citrus farm is on the exterior of the Banks mansion. Newson said it was a way for him to stay connected to his agricultural roots by planting something in the earth and seeing the fruits of his labor. Agricultural art is also in his office, which represents his upbringing.

Newson said it also lets people from a small town feel like they’re part of the story, too, even though it takes place in the nation's second largest city.

“One of the things we were trying to do when we built this show is that we hope when you watch the Banks family, you saw yourself represented there somewhere in one of those characters and you felt you could have a seat at the table and join them for dinners," Newson said.

“By having Uncle Phil have these roots, if you come from a rural place, he’s somebody you could talk to about growing up in a small town. It also helps Adrian ground his character. He loved having that backstory and something specific to work with as he was building his own version of Uncle Phil.”

As the series continues, Newson said he would like to have some of his relatives from Yamacraw visit Bel-Air. He also emphasized having a character from rural America is something he wants people to take serious as well, while referring to colleagues from small towns.

"I think too often, rural sort of gets portrayed in this negative light,” he said. “We’re not doing that. We’re proud that he’s from Yamacraw, and we honor that.”

Reporter Chase Jordan can be reached at [email protected].

The Carolina Reaper has been officially dethroned as the world’s hottest chili pepper.

PuckerButt Pepper Co. founder and pepper expert Ed Currie has spent the past 10 years working on Pepper X, a chili pepper that emits an “immediate and brutal heat,” according to reporting by the Associated Press.

Five of those years were spent proving Pepper X was a different plant with different fruit and documenting its average heat over different plants and generations.

“We covered the genetics, we covered the chemistry, we covered the botany,” Currie shared.

Pepper X, which has a rating of 2,693,000 Scoville Heat Units was named hottest chili pepper in the world by Guinness World Records on Oct. 9.

The heat of the pepper lingered with Currie hours after he completed his initial taste test.

“I was feeling the heat for 3½ hours. Then the cramps came. Those cramps are horrible. I was laid out flat on a marble wall for approximately an hour in the rain, groaning in pain,” Currie shared with The Associated Press.

The greenish-yellow Pepper X has an earthy flavor unlike the spicy-sweet taste found in the bright red Carolina Reaper. Pepper X was crossbred with a Carolina Reaper and a pepper from Michigan that is “brutally hot,” Currie said.

Pepper X makes first appearance on 'Hot Ones'

Currie chose to unveil Pepper X on “Hot Ones,” a YouTube talk show where celebrities are interviewed over an assortment of spicy chicken wings.

He was joined by the show’s host Sean Evans, Claus Pilgaard “Chili Klaus” and Noah Chaimberg from Heatonist, the hot sauce company that partners with Hot Ones to source their hot sauce lineup.

Currie talks all things Pepper X, receives his Guinness World Records plaque and facilitates a Pepper X taste test to end the video.

“There’s an intense burn that happens immediately. Then your head kind of feels like ‘Oh, no. What’s going on?’ Then your body just starts reacting. You get it in your arms. You get it in your chest. It has no real throat burn like the Reaper but that comes on later when you are in pain,” Currie says in the video.

How does Pepper X measure up on the Scoville scale?

The Scoville scale measures the spiciness of chili peppers numerically based on the pepper’s capsaicin concentration, which causes a burning sensation when it comes into contact with human tissue, according to Guinness.

The burning sensation produced by capsaicin also releases endorphins and dopamine into the body, AP reported.

Currie, who began to grow peppers after overcoming substance abuse addictions, says the kick from the peppers is akin to a natural high.

He has shared his inventions with medical professionals in the hopes of helping people who suffer from chronic pain or discomfort.

Currie has hinted at the possibility of pepper hybrids much hotter than Pepper X but has kept his cards close to the vest.

“Is this the pinnacle?” Currie said of Pepper X, a mischievous smile warming his face. “No, it’s not the pinnacle,” AP reported.

Winthrop University in South Carolina spent the last four years conducting tests on specimens to determine Pepper X’s Scoville score.

Here’s how Pepper X compares to other chili peppers in Scoville Heat Units:

? Jalapeños (3,000-8,000)

? Carolina Reaper (on average 1.64 million )

? Pepper X ( 2.693 million)

Contrary to popular belief, the seeds of a pepper pod don’t make it hot. Capsaicin is held in the placenta, or the tissue that holds the seeds.

Peppers aren’t the only thing that have a Scoville score, pepper spray has a score of 1.6 million Scoville Heat Units while bear spray has a score of 2.2 million Scoville Heat Units, respectively, the AP reported.

Contributing: Jeffrey Collins, Associated Press

Daniel L. Currie, Jr., Captain, USN (retired) was born at home in Hamlet, N.C., on August 24th, 1938. His father was Daniel L. Currie, and his mother was Ailcey (Freeman) Currie. He has two siblings, Cecilia Pearl (1942) and Eugene Freeman (1950). When he was 12 years old, his father took a job in Aberdeen, N.C., 30 miles away from Hamlet. They moved to Aberdeen in 1950, and he entered the 6th grade.

After graduation from Aberdeen High, he headed to Chapel Hill to enter the fall class in 1957. The University had awarded him a small self-help scholarship that provided tuition and fees, and a job in Lenoir dining hall that provided meals. The rest was up to him. Despite the work load, he very much enjoyed his four years at Carolina, although he never settled on a major. He graduated in May 1961 and was accepted for employment at the National Security Agency (NSA). Before he left Aberdeen for Fort Meade, Maryland in August, he and Patsy Taylor were engaged. She was the love of his life.

Dan entered the training program at NSA in August and had long range plans for a career there until fate intruded. At that time the draft board was casting a wide net to fill ranks for Vietnam. He was about to be drafted. To forestall becoming an Army “grunt”, he joined the Navy and reported to Officer Candidate School at Newport, Rhode Island in the dead of winter. After four grueling months, he was commissioned an ensign in June 1962. Two days after commissioning, he and Patsy were married in Aberdeen. They then set off on an odyssey that would take them all over the world, from Germany to Japan, and from Adak to Oahu in the Pacific, interspersed with lots of time in the Washington, DC area.

His nearly 30 year career was spent in the Naval Security Group (NSG) due to some serendipity. Since his lengthy security clearance for work at NSA had been completed, the Navy saw him as a ready candidate for the NSG, and snapped him up. The NSG and sister services were the collection arm of the NSA. He served at several of the so-called listening posts located around the world including Germany, Adak, Alaska, the Philippines, Okinawa, and Hawaii. These listening posts contained giant antennas that vacuumed up radio emissions from foreign countries. The intercepted radio signals were provided to NSA for analysis and intelligence exploitation. His limited sea duty was spent on aircraft carriers and in submarines. His command tour of duty was as commanding officer of the NSG activity in Okinawa.

He served in the Navy with great joy and pride for nearly 30 years (29 years, 5 months, 22 days) and was quite sad when it came time to retire. His service was enhanced exponentially by his wife, Patsy, who was a wonderful Navy wife. Every three to four years they would pull up stakes and move, and she always was eager to go with a smile on her face. She gladly entertained legions of guests to their home, and was by his side at the many, sometimes boring, social events. She maintained a happy home under often difficult conditions and during his frequent absences. Along the way, she gave him three fine sons who are married to equally fine women. He has five wonderful grandchildren.

They retired to Pensacola, Florida, the closest place to Pacific island weather they could find, hurricanes and all. Dan worked in real estate for five years after retirement. After that, he began volunteer work at the National Museum of Naval Aviation (tour guide and security) and the Pensacola Historic Village (tour guide and archives). They moved to Azalea Trace in March 2013.

A graveside service will be held at 9:30 am, Friday, August 14, 2020 at Barrancas National Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research https://www.michaeljfox.org/donate