As a Princeton Seminary graduate, ministry professional, and mom of three young kids, Eleanor Shell didn’t expect to be on the receiving end of congregational support and pastoral care at this point in her life. “I kind of felt like life had come together … and then I was hit by a car,” she said. Her world became defined by the before and after.
Suffering from a traumatic brain injury and, consequently, post-traumatic stress and clinical depression, Shell needed support from her community, and one church, Poplar Tent Presbyterian Church in Concord, North Carolina, showed up in an incredibly meaningful way.
“They surrounded me with sustained, creative, consistent presence — week after week, through my darkest and loneliest moments. They made tangible things. They showed up when the casseroles had long since stopped. They stayed,” even though she had only preached there about a dozen times over the course of two years, she said.
About Shell, Poplar Tent Pastor Tyler Williams and church administrator Debbie Waddell said, “She was not just a supply pastor filling in on Sundays during worship; Eleanor brought true grace and comfort to our faith community when we needed it most. After her devastating, life-changing accident, we felt compelled to offer the same grace and comfort in return to her and her family.”
Poplar Tent helped Shell experience the ministry of sustained presence, which she feels our society struggles with. “We’re not good at having bad days …. We want to rush people to hope,” she said.
In the two years since the accident, Shell has returned to 60% to 70% of her original brain function, and it is possible that her situation may not get any better. In her healing and grief, she has learned that many individuals and churches “don’t know what to do with people who have long-term tragedy … who have situations that we can’t fix.”
Processing her new reality and lived experience, with some help from Princeton Seminary’s guided discernment program, Damascus Road, ultimately led Shell to found Borrowed Hope, a nonprofit focused on serving people in the “long middle” of healing and grief.
Beginning with a fundraising page and press release, Borrowed Hope raised $18,000 in just one week this June and used these funds to provide summer fun baskets to 25 families who had a life-altering event in the past five years.
“Borrowed Hope is the direct result of my experience with Poplar Tent Presbyterian,” Shell said. “I founded it because I believe every person facing a long season deserves what I received: a community that doesn’t go silent, and that knows how to make its presence visible.”
“She made a major impact on our community, and helping her and her family was the faithful response. The Shells will always be a part of our Poplar Tent Church family,” Williams and Waddell said.
For the church and beyond, Shell has a few reflections surrounding life-altering events: “Number one, everyone has a day that changes everything at some point in their life. And so they need to know that that’s okay and that they can have the bad day and they don’t have to jump for hope… Number two, I think we have lost our ability to allow people to heal in nonlinear ways. And number three, I think we need reminders that it really is those simple things that often are the most meaningful.”
You can learn more about Borrowed Hope at https://borrowedhope.com/ and follow Shell’s ministry and road to recovery on her Substack, Resilient Magnolia.
