Stories Three

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Seminary Students Visit Northside Baptist Church

Growing Charlie

Gathering Eastern Kentucky Manna

Crusading for Christ

Seminary Students Visit Northside Baptist Church

Dr. Art McPhee, professor at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana, brought thirty seminary students to Northside Baptist Church in Mt. Vernon, Ky., July 23 during a one-week summer course titled “Turnaround Strategies for Local Churches.” A course description offered “help for small churches that are plateaued or declining-and also for those who want to maintain their church’s vitality. The approach is based on new ways of understanding local churches and how they function, and from data from churches that have recovered and regained vitality.”

Dr. Larry Martin, Kentucky Baptist Convention Missions Growth Team Leader, gave the class at Northside an overview of a prayer movement in Kentucky that began in 1996. “That year,” Martin said, “participants at a Mountain Missions Conference in Oneida were still on their knees crying out in desperation to God two hours after the meeting was scheduled to end.” He said no one knows exactly how the prayer began.

“Five years ago,” Martin said,“Eastern Kentucky had four ministry centers to distribute food and clothing and building materials. At last count, 43 ministry centers, from food closets to large ministry centers like in Lynch, Ky., are operated throughout Kentucky by local people. God is doing the humanly impossible and it is happening through prayer.”

Shirley Cox, Missions Service Corps missionary, introduced speakers Barbara Adams, Jewel Hansel and Mike Gates from Mt. Vernon. Cox told the story of Northside Baptist Church which had dwindled to 30 active members four years ago. She related how new ministries are emerging in the church which has grown to 400 members. This year alone,
the church has baptized over 100 new converts.

Cox also told about a ministry in Jenkins, Ky. that began as a diaper ministry and has grown in the past year to include a ministry center with programs for literacy, computer training and drug and alcohol counseling. Mission Service Corps missionaries Bessie and Lester McPeek who operate “My Father’s House” have coordinated mission teams from several states during the past two years. The ministry received donations of two 15-passenger vans, a 16’ truck and an ice cream truck this past year. “Missions Mosaic” magazine will feature an article about the McPeek’s ministry, written by Cox, on the October ‘04 cover.

Barbara Adams presented “Battered to Beauty,” an award-winning film about domestic violence that she produced as a Berea College student and spoke about God’s dramatic transformation of her life.

Jewel Hansel spoke about an ongoing prayer movement in Mt. Vernon which began four years ago and listed specific answers to prayer. “God is moving in a way that I have never seen before,” she said. “With God lies all power and dominion and I feel He is showing Himself faithful and true to His word.”

Mike Gates told the class about Christ’s Outreach for the Blind, a 900-acre camp for the blind and disabled, located three miles south of Mt. Vernon. Mission teams from across the nation have traveled to Mt. Vernon (pop. 2,400) to help with camp construction during the past three years. The camp will accommodate 600 campers each year. Camping activities will include horseback riding, hunting, fishing, swimming, hiking, gardening and independent living skills. Equestrian Ministries International has designated Christ’s Outreach an international training center and Asbury College in Wilmore, Ky. will send Equestrian Ministry students to work as summer interns at the camp.

The next day, the seminary students visited Meridzo Center, a multi-faceted ministry in Lynch, Ky. that includes food and clothing, home repairs, child care, literacy, job training and equestrian ministry. In addition to coordinating the work of thousands of mission volunteers, Mission Service Corps missionaries Lonnie and Belinda Riley have reopened a church. Over 1,500 professions of faith in Christ have been made during their work there in the past four years.

The class also visited an all-white church in Louisville which was down to 12 members before merging with a predominantly African-American church, Temple of Faith Baptist Church. “Members of both groups expect that God is doing a new thing among them, not only helping them to thrive as a multicultural congregation but enabling them to demonstrate to their community that God’s kingdom has no racial or class barriers,” McPhee said.

After an additional five days of morning and evening classes on campus, the seminary students from eight states and six countries, were eligible for three hours of credit. The group consisted of pastors, lay leaders, their spouses, college and seminary students (including students from Asia, Africa and Europe), denominational leaders, consultants and special guests. As a result of the tour and classroom experience, a church in Beatrice, Nebraska has begun a new prayer group. Student evaluations for the class were very high and Dr. McPhee has received calls asking if the course will be repeated next year.

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Saying Yes to God

When Casey and Kitty Robinson walk into a restaurant with their five children, everyone pays attention, particularly if the children are wearing their matching blue T-shirts with “Team Robinson” on the front and their numerical position in the family on the back. Watching Casey and Kitty parent Kelsi-10, Gunner-7, Libbie-6, Annie-4 and Josie, 2 is a lesson in family values. The couple is expecting another team member in October.

Parenting five children is time consuming so Kitty, who home schools, initially thought taking care of their family might be all God had planned. “It is really amazing how a large family draws people in and you are able to minister to other families,” she said. But eventually, Kitty began to sense that God had a greater vision for their family. Together, Casey and Kitty began praying and searching for God’s greater plan.

One night, after Casey heard a sermon, he said “Yes” to God. “I don’t even know what that means,” he told Kitty, “but ‘Yes’ God. Use me however you want to use me.”
“I was just “Mr. Ordinary” and didn’t know what God wanted for me,” Casey realized after reading “The Dreamgiver” by Bruce Wilkinson. “Kitty and I have a passion for the outdoors and we love families and ministering to families. We see the need for families and that the family structure nowadays is just falling apart.”

Casey and Kitty considered a family camp ministry, but when they spotted a North American Mission Board Web site listing Calvary Campus in Letcher County in Eastern Kentucky, (two miles from Blackey), they gave Director Jamie Reynolds a call. Their conversation lasted nearly two hours. Convinced they were in God’s will, Casey and Kitty left the security of their home and extended family in Florida and moved their five children to Kentucky to serve as Project and Family Ministry Directors at Calvary Campus.

A ministry partner with Meridzo Center Ministries in Lynch, Ky., Calvary Campus includes a 25-acre campus with a large educational building, lunchroom, kitchen, 300-seat auditorium, dining hall, dormitory, gymnasium and athletic field. The college campus was donated to Meridzo, the ministry of MSC missionaries Lonnie and Belinda Riley, who serve on the Calvary Campus Board of Directors.

“Right now, the campus needs a lot of renovation,” Casey said. God is using Casey’s past experience in “flipping” houses in Florida to supervise the work of 25-30 mission teams a year. “This is pretty much a ground level ministry,” he said. “All the buildings needed new roofs. After the buildings are renovated, mission teams will do more work in the community and just do maintenance on the campus.”

“Our heart is for work in the community,” Kitty said. “A mission team put down a new floor covering for an elderly lady a few months ago. Another team set up a VBS on campus. Four kids got saved so it was awesome. A mission team also held an Upward Soccer program.”

Their vision includes a Family Life Center in the gymnasium with activities for families and children. “Hopefully, we will also have a Pastor’s Resource Center where pastors can come for training,” Casey said. “In this area, many of the pastors are bi-vocational. This is getting close because a church has adopted the Pastor’s Resource Center and is funding it.”

Their greatest reward, however, is watching God at work. “It is amazing to see how God is lining up churches and mission volunteers with the campus and the community,” Casey said. “It is rewarding when people come alongside us who have the same heart.”

“A lot of the rewards you don’t see right away,” Kitty said. “We may never see what God has in store for that place down the line. But we are open to what God wants us to do on a daily basis.”

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Reaching the Young in Appalachia

We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you, not only the gospel of God but our lives as well because you had become so dear to us. 1 Thess. 2:8

Sprinkled in infancy, confirmed at age 12 and baptized at 19, MSC missionary Jonathan Smith said his spiritual journey actually began as early as age four or five. “I accepted Jesus and realized God had a special plan for my life,” he said.

Although Jonathan was born in Atlanta, Ga., his father’s pastorate took his family to Philadelphia, Montana, Alabama, southern Ohio and he lived three years in Katmandu, Nepal. Home schooled, Jonathan spent his early years reading missionary biographies. As a teen, he invited middle school boys into his home for Bible studies and took them to camp. He also served as a volunteer tutor and mentor at a faith-based detention center in Indianapolis.

But for the past thirteen years, Jonathan, 29, has worked in youth ministry. “I have a soft spot for students that typically don’t fit into the average church because of culture or economics,” he said. In 1999, while serving as a youth pastor at First Baptist Church in McDowell, Ky., he met MSC missionaries Lynn and Angie Wagoner. “God brought us together,” he said. The Wagoners operate G. A. P., (God’s Appalachian Partnership), a ministry that provides food, clothing, job training and home repairs in a 22-mile stretch of the Appalachian Mountains of Eastern Kentucky. The area has a 52% unemployment rate and the average monthly income for a family of four is $700.

After his position as youth minister ended, Jonathan continued to volunteer at a youth center in the area. He also volunteered at outreach projects the Wagoners were doing in multi-housing complexes. “We sort of dated each other,” he said, “until it became clear we were meant to be together, that our separate ministries would be more effective if we merged.”

Since 2,000, Jonathan has served as Youth Services Director of G.A.P. He provides oversight for five employees who work with infant through pre-school age children in a daycare program. He also coordinates the work of missions volunteers who teach Backyard Bible Clubs and VBS for elementary school children.

But perhaps his primary calling is in youth ministry. To reach out to middle and high school students, Jonathan created an innovative approach called D:Cell. Based on 1 Thess. 2:8, D:Cell (Discipleship Cell) consists of four annual Bible study sessions which last 8-ll weeks with two-week breaks between. Study sessions are advertised as “Stories that will make you more like Jesus and less like a Hypocrite.” Appealing titles like “The Story of a Shrewd Dude” or “The Fable of the Foolish Girls” attract 20-25 youth each week. Separated by gender and grade, the youth meet in adult staff homes for a meal, Bible study and a time for personal prayer requests. Then they break into small groups to “hang out and discuss what they studied that night.”

Jonathan has learned that transporting students to Bible study in the mountains and hollows of Eastern Kentucky is often a challenge. “We spend a lot of time on the road picking up kids,” he said. “Because we minister to a 22-mile stretch of highway, we designate a central place for pickup. One night, a brother and sister stood in the rain waiting for the bus and walked into a D:Cell meeting soaked to the skin. Sometimes, the youth walk a couple of miles after the bus drops them off.” Several times a year, students involved in D:Cell also perform community service projects like brush cleanup or caroling at a nursing home. Other youth activities include hiking, bowling, swimming or taking trips.

Jonathan’s tall lanky frame and shaved head give him a youthful appearance but he said he relates well with youth because “it is a God thing.” His intimate relationship with Christ is reflected by his enthusiasm for the ministry. “God is faithful even when I am faithless. He has called me to serve Him and has been faithful to keep me.”

Ministering to the youth in Eastern Kentucky becomes a blessing to Jonathan as he watches God changing their hearts. “The greatest reward in youth ministry is seeing a light bulb go on—seeing a kid gets it,” he said. “We haven’t seen huge transformations. For us, it has been a process of small changes. But the greatest joy is seeing the youth or children feel safe and that they belong. Amid all the chaos of their lives, they find peace for a few moments or they find hope that they can actually do something.”

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Lynch Prayer Gathering

A passion for prayer brought folks to Eastern Kentucky from several states for a Lynch Prayer Gathering October 25-27. The three-day meeting, hosted by Mission Service Corps missionary Lonnie Riley, focused on “Praise that moves God-Power and Possibilities of Prayer and Partnering through Prayer.”

Riley opened the meeting at the Lillian Novo Theater in Cumberland by sharing stories about miracles in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. He left a successful pastorate in Mississippi in 1999 to answer a call to return to his hometown of Lynch. “God began to grip our hearts with the needs of the people,” he said. “The Lord said, ‘You won’t have a fancy house and cars, but you will have me.”’ Responding with faith, Riley and his wife, Belinda, left their children and grandchildren and returned to Lynch. The turning point for the ministry, he said, was the night the couple held hands with 250 people in the city park and prayed. “God heard the cry of His people that day. God always allows a need so you will trust Him with a response.”

In addition to coordinating the work of thousands of mission volunteers during the past four years, the Rileys supervise the work of fourteen full-time missionaries. The multi-faceted ministry includes food and clothing, home repairs, child-care, equestrian, literacy and job training. Over 1,500 people have accepted Christ during their ministry in the tri-city area of Benham, Lynch and Cumberland. The missionaries have also helped start five churches.

“Nobody gets saved unless someone prays” said Lee Thomas, author of “Praying Effectively for the Lost,” as he spoke during Tuesday’s prayer session. He left a thirty-year pastorate in Louisiana this year to travel and teach about prayer. “God has given us the ministry of reconciliation,” he said. “We have one weapon—the Word of God. The lost are prisoners of war that don’t know they are lost.” He also emphasized the power of prayer. “Prayer can do what nothing else can do, “When we pray, we break demonic strongholds. We must give ourselves to prayer—passionately, fervently and consistently.”

“A new movement of God began in Eastern Kentucky in 1999. It is quiet but very powerful” said Kentucky Baptist Convention Missions Growth Team Leader Dr. Larry Martin as he addressed the gathering on Tuesday evening. Martin credits the movement to years of “prayers on deposit.” In particular, Martin referred to a 1996 Mountain Missions Conference in Oneida when participants were still on their knees, crying out to God in desperation, two hours after the meeting was scheduled to end. “Before we left, Ray Cooper suggested we have prayer meetings in each of the state parks.” In 1997, Mountain Missions Director David Aker, set up these prayer meetings.

“In 1999, God began to move in power,” Martin said. “No one has been able to keep up with His activity in Eastern Kentucky since then. In the past five years, our ministry centers have grown from four to 44. Our Mission Service Corps volunteers have multiplied from 30 to 145. A majority of these are in Eastern Kentucky. We are just beginning to see God move in the same way in Central and Western Kentucky and are just beginning to see a new prayer movement in Lexington.”

Martin, who previously served as Executive Director of the Greater Boston Baptist Association in New England, pointed to similarities in God’s movement. “The kind of movement we are seeing in Eastern Kentucky is sustainable because it is following the same kind of pattern of a movement that has been going on in Boston for the past twenty-five years. God is doing the humanly impossible. God is moving in such a way that only He can get the credit. All that is happening is through prayer.”

“God is looking for a lot of zeros,” said Ford Taylor, Founder of Transformation Cincinnati as he spoke at Wednesday’s closing session. “He wants us to be zeros so he can be everything.” Taylor also spoke about the importance of forgiveness. “As we forgive each other, we can forgive ourselves,” he said. “In a place of humility, we can find unity. Our purpose is to love God and love each other.”

God’s power was manifested as groups prayer-walked and prayed for different needs in the area. While a group was praying for roof repairs for Solomon’s Porch, a renovated hospital in Lynch used to house mission volunteers, Riley received a call from a man from another state volunteering to bring twelve men to finish the roof.

Praise and Worship at the prayer gathering was led by Minister/Soloist Rev. Jack Ravizee, High Mountain Equine Outreach Director Mitch Schumacher, Cumberland Pentecostal Praise Team, Tri-City Messengers and Minister/Solist Gary Griesser, who also spoke during the gathering. Other speakers during the prayer event were Rev. Ronnie Hampton, Pastor of Mt. Sinai Baptist Church in Lynch, Linda Whitaker, Kentucky Coordinator for the United States Strategic Prayer Network, and Mission Service Corps missionaries Belinda Riley and Shirley Cox.

“God has allowed us to be witnesses,” said Chris Henderson, Vice-President of the Eastern Kentucky Area Board of Aglow International. “We are like spies going into the Promised Land and carrying back huge bunches of grapes. We can go home and tell everything we saw here.” She compared God’s movement in Eastern Kentucky to a smoldering campfire. “There is coming a day when the breath of God is going to burst
into flames.”

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Growing Charlie

Growing up in Ogden, Utah, in a Mormon culture near Salt Lake City, Charlie Bailey, 26, never questioned her family’s faith until she was 14. At 16, she simply stopped attending church altogether.

From age l6 to 18, Charlie said she was “a pretty rotten person,” engaging in all
kinds of activities including drug use that eventually led to a two year meth addiction. “God is with us and watching us everyday,” she said. “He is so involved. Even in my lowest and saddest days, I can look back and see God touching my life.” During a particularly difficult period, Charlie moved to Alaska to live near her sister. In Alaska, she met and married her husband, Stephen, who was on active duty with the military.

The young couple moved to California and a year later, they were expecting a baby. Stephen wanted to move back home to Kentucky to raise their child but Charlie balked because she considered herself a “big city girl.” Before she finally agreed to move, she imposed one restriction. “When we get to Kentucky, just don’t try any of those church things on me,” she warned Stephen.

Little did Charlie know that her in-laws, Edd and Etta Bailey, had a strict rule about church attendance at their home in Lincoln County. “So often we question God’s purpose for our lives,” Charlie said. “He has it all laid out. He put me with a strong Christian family. Our first Sunday in Kentucky, I went to church and heard my first sermon.”

God continued to watch over Charlie and Stephen when they moved into a house in Somerset, directly across the street from Pleasant Hill Baptist Church. Later, Charlie learned that her house had been moved down the street and turned to face the church building. Each time the church held services, her daughter, Karlie, 4, watched as the people gathered and pleaded, “Hey, Mom! Look at all those people at church. They are waiting for us!”

Finally, Charlie relented and took her daughter to a service. “The next Sunday, I thought of 100 reasons not to go to that church,” she said. Despite her excuses, Charlie continued to attend the services. When Rita Carrigan gave her the first Bible she ever owned, she took it home and started to read. “I found it interesting,” she said. I was curious so I began to investigate.” Charlie began further research by reading A Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. “I felt I did not know Christ,” she said.

Then Charlie signed up for a Bible study. The first night, Charlie deliberately wore a halter top that exposed her tattoos, thinking, “They will have to accept me as I am!” To her surprise, the women welcomed her. “Those women opened their arms and loved me,” she said. “They sent me postcards. I was expecting another baby. My husband was leaving. I was depressed.” Their kindnesses to Charlie came when Stephen had signed up for a year of civilian duty in Iraq to work as a private contractor, maintaining and repairing trucks returning from battle.

Charlie continued studying her Bible until God spoke directly to her heart. “One day we read, ‘Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear: Forget your people and your father’s house. The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord.”’ (Ps. 45:10-11, NIV)

Charlie was so moved by the scripture that she began to get down on her knees and pray and started attending Sunday School. Deciding she did not know scripture well enough, she read Matthew, Mark and Luke. “On July 17, 2005, I gave my heart to the Lord,” she said.

From that moment, the Lord began to grow Charlie. “I learned to let go of ‘self’ and let the Lord lead you,” she said. “That is a big step. I love people and see things in a different light. I have the Lord helping me be good. Now, I have my Savior who died for me. If I mess up, He will love me anyway. The difference is that now I have the Holy Spirit that tells me to love my children (Karlie and Guy, age 16 months) and apologize to others and to guide and comfort me.”

Every Monday, Charlie goes out with the church’s Faith Teams to visit and witness. She credits God with providing her a job as a fitness instructor at the YMCA and a job as a bus monitor at her daughter’s school. She is also planning to begin a fitness ministry at the church. “We will stop and read scripture and pray during the sessions,” she said. “What better way to honor Him than to serve Him?”

“Looking back, I see the Lord’s handprints all over me,” she said. “If you need to know something, open the Bible and you find the answer there. That is how I deal with raising these two babies by myself and dealing with life. In the meantime, I can get better. I can serve the Lord.”

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Gathering Eastern Kentucky Manna

If you ask Mission Service Corps missionary Marie Wing about her call to missions, she will probably say it happened accidentally. At a 2003 Fourth of July missions event at Blackjack Baptist Church in Franklin, Ky., she was introduced to Mission Service Corps Director Eric Allen. During their conversation that day, he mentioned someone was needed to manage a food warehouse in Berea. Marie had worked in the wholesale grocery business for forty-five years. Instantly, she realized she was a perfect fit.

“I knew about food inventory and was familiar with how a food warehouse should be run and the overall picture of how things are done,” she said. “I had not planned to do anything. I felt the Lord had opened up this ministry for me.” Her husband, Douglas, had died the previous December and she was planning to sell her home in Franklin and move to Berea to be near her brother.

So, since November 2003, Marie, 68, has operated a 7,000 sq. ft. food warehouse in Berea that has distributed approximately 400,000 lbs. of food to 44 ministry centers throughout Eastern Kentucky. The ministry began with a partnership between Tates Creek and Rockcastle Baptist Associations. In addition to providing financial support, members of both associations, along with representation from Eastern Kentucky, comprise a board that lends direction to the ministry. The Kentucky Baptist Convention also provided financial support when the ministry began. The warehouse is open Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. but Marie opens the doors at other times on request.

Food donations from churches and other groups from several different states have stocked the warehouse. Periodically, Kentucky Baptist Convention Brotherhood Director Randy Foster transports truckloads of spaghetti sauce from Owensboro to the warehouse in Berea. When large donations arrive, however, Marie climbs onto a fork lift and unloads the pallets herself. “In May 2005, we received a 22,000 lb. donation of potatoes from Rochester, New York,” she said. “I unloaded the potatoes with a fork lift and then loaded the 50-lb. bags by hand onto the trucks that came from food ministry centers to pick up the food. Once in a while, my brother helps me run the fork lift.”

In addition, churches and groups within the immediate area of the warehouse have participated in the ministry. Whitehall Baptist Church in Richmond bought 2 x 4’s and installed shelving for a food pantry. In May, a U. S. Postal Carrier food drive brought in enough canned food to stock the pantry shelves. Two churches in Madison County also donated hygiene kits packaged with New Testaments and Pleasant View Baptist Church in Waynesburg donated reading glasses with the scripture verse, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Cor. 5:7)

Despite all the activity, Marie and her puppy, Duke, have settled into her home in Berea, just a hundred yards from her brother and sister. Marie, who served as a volunteer firefighter for fire departments in Panama and Gerry, New York for several years, returns each year to help plan, organize and cook for a benefit for a volunteer fire department. Her hobbies include knitting, helping her sister can green beans or pickles and traveling. She also enjoys visits with her son, two daughters and four grandchildren.

But Marie has found new purpose in life by “just being able to help the needy.”
The poverty and hunger in Eastern Kentucky became startlingly real to Marie
when she visited the area. “Last October, I went with John Morris to a five year anniversary celebration at God’s Appalachian Partnership (GAP) at McDowell, Ky. and we went into one of the hollows,” she said. “I had never been into an area where they had no electricity and still use gallon jugs to get water from a spring.”

Yet, Marie recognizes that the most important aspect of the food ministry reaches far beyond meeting the physical needs of the people in Eastern Kentucky. “The people who distribute the food that I give them also give away the plan of salvation. The people are also fed spiritually,” she said with a smile

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Crusading for Christ

One day in 2004, as MSC missionary George Smith was driving from Cumberland, Ky.
across Pine Mountain, enjoying the view, God spoke to him saying, “I want you to start a Crusade Ministry. We need one of those desperately in your area because not many churches have active outreach programs outside the doors of the church.”

“Lord, why would you ask me to do that?” George asked. “Lord, I just think you are calling on the wrong person!”

George had accepted Christ in 1995, one day after he buried his wife, her sister and her mother, who were all killed in a car accident. His three-year-old daughter, Whitney, survived the accident. From the time he became a Christian, George was obedient. He sang in revivals and spoke in churches on behalf of the Gideons and for the past 18 months, he and two co-hosts had hosted a 2 l/2 hour Christian radio talk show ministry.

Still, George had the qualifications God needed to lead the Crusades. He has a BA in Radio/TV and Journalism from Morehead State University. He worked as Supervisor of Personnel Services for BethEnergy Mines, Inc. in Jenkins for 13 years, handling personnel files for approximately 1,500 employees. He also edited and took photos for a quarterly corporate newsletter. Additionally, George was employed in marketing for Appalachian Regional Healthcare for 17 l/2 years.

So after that night on Pine Mountain, God continued to call. “George, I want you to organize this and I want you to call it the “Reaching Out Crusade Ministry.”

“Six months later, the radio station sold out and I no longer had a program,” George said. “God knew this and He wanted me involved in something else.”

The first “Reaching Out Crusade” was held in December 2004 in Cumberland Ky. The motto of the ministry is “What the World Needs is Jesus.”

“O.K., Lord,” George prayed, “I have gone door-to-door passing out flyers, advertised it in the paper and on the radio. I have done everything I can do based on the limited resources I have. So, Lord, if this is truly a ministry you want me to be part of, I would like to see a move of God tonight and see somebody get saved. Would you show me that this is a meaningful ministry for your Kingdom?” The first night of the first Crusade, a man accepted Christ.

Since then, thousands of people have attended the eleven “Reaching Out Crusades” George has held in Kentucky and Virginia. Two other crusades are scheduled for Hazard and Pikeville. He directs all the publicity and coordinates the work of volunteers from local churches. “We contact all the churches, send out flyers and place them in businesses or places of high visibility traffic,” he said. George also welcomes the people, coordinates the activities at the Crusade meetings and occasionally emcees. Three or four evangelists also work regularly with the ministry.

A recent “Roc the Block” youth crusade held at the Mountain Heritage Village in Whitesburg, Ky. drew more than 500 people. Colorful flyers advertised free T-shirts, free drinks and pizza. A local praise band and two drama and dance teams performed before a youth evangelist presented a gospel message. Nine people accepted Christ.

“Through the Crusades, God is reaching a multitude of people throughout the mountains of Appalachia that would probably never have an opportunity to know about Jesus,” he said. “God tells us in His Word, if we will plant a seed, He will do the rest.”

George asks for prayer “that God will continue to open new doors for the ministry and bring new people on board who have a great compassion for lost people and that God will provide all the resources we need for us to be able to move.”

Berea Health Ministry

Imagine chills and fever from an infection that leaves you so weak you can barely function. Or imagine facing diabetes or a life-threatening cardiac condition without medication or medical treatment. As the cost of insurance and health care escalates, many people, particularly those living in the economically depressed Appalachian region, are quietly battling the ravaging effects of illness and disease alone.

When Cora W. Fletcher, Founder and President of the Board of Directors of Berea Health Ministry, led a group of her Eastern Kentucky University students to conduct community assessments of health needs and health care in the region a few years ago, she said the results were unbelievable. “What we found,” she said, “is in Madison County, we ranked at the top in the state and nation for diabetes, hypertension and cardiac problems. We also found similar results from the data from Jackson, Clay, Garrard, Laurel, Rockcastle, Estill, Powell and Clark counties.”

Cora’s health care experience began as a child when she helped her mother minister to the health needs within their community. “My mother taught us God put us here for a purpose and that purpose is to serve,” she said. For years, Cora helped feed the street people in Lexington and get them into health services. In addition to teaching nursing at Eastern Kentucky University, she served as Director of Nursing at Berea College and taught nursing at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.

Despite her health care experience, however, Cora was shocked by the staggering health needs revealed by her EKU students’ assessments. She responded to the needs by taking action. “We began by asking Berea Baptist Church to sponsor us by providing a place, prayer support and financial support for a health clinic,” she said. From 1999-2002, Berea Health Ministry conducted Health Fairs at the church. The Health Fairs provided basic health screenings, flu vaccines, health education booths, vision screenings and oral exams to hundreds of people. Last year, Berea Health Ministry joined forces with the Berea Men’s Ministry and in addition to ministering to health needs, the groups provided food, personal items and a meal to nearly 1,800 people. “People who attend this event are also given information concerning their spiritual health from pastors and others,” she said.

In addition to conducting the Health Fairs, Berea Health Ministry opened its clinic doors in November 2003. Located in a strip-mall in Berea, the clinic has provided health services to more than 8,000 uninsured people living in the nine county area surveyed by the students. Patients are asked to pay $20 per visit but the service is free to those who cannot afford the fee.

“We provide physical exams, diagnosis and treatment,” Cora said. “The patients do not come one time and leave. We are their health care providers, providing social services, pastoral counseling, prescription assistance, nutrition counseling plus additional health education. We also do referral and follow up.”

Another important role of Berea Health Ministry is acting as the patient’s advocate. “If a patient has health needs that require further treatment, we call until we find someone to accept them at no charge or for a very small fee,” she said. “If a patient has a drug abuse problem, we try to help find a place for treatment. We also look at social needs such as housing and job placement.” Each patient is given a hygiene kit and a Bible.

Like many non-profit organizations, the ministry exists from payroll to payroll. Financial sources include donations from foundations, churches, and individuals and from fundraising. An annual “Brunch,” held in Berea, is currently the ministry’s most successful fundraising event. A board of directors, composed of local citizens, oversees the ministry.

Berea Health Ministry Administrator Cappie Parsons said the outstanding part of her work is with the patients. “I have come to realize that it is not so much what we give them but what they bring to us,” she said. “For example, we have a patient in her 60’s that hadn’t had medical care for 10-15 years. Her husband had open-heart surgery and when they could no longer afford his medication, he died. When this woman came to us, we were able to bless her with medical care and prescriptions. I will never forget the day she sat in our office and said, ‘Had my husband had this bottle of medicine, he would still be alive.’ It’s that change in a person’s life-seeing them going from no hope to hope-that is so rewarding.”

“It is a heart job,” agreed her daughter, Cheree McKinnon, Fundraiser and Administrative Office Assistant for the ministry. “I can go home and my husband and I have health insurance but these patients don’t have anywhere to go. We see the despair on their faces that pleads, ‘What am I going to do? I don’t have health care. What am I going to do about my prescriptions?’”

For Cora Fletcher, the ministry is simply an act of obedience. “You can clearly see God’s blessings and His miracles by what we are able to do here,” she said. “I believe if you ever think you are doing anything on your own, this is one place you will know God is in charge!”

She requests prayer for the ministry for health care providers (doctors and nurses) who will volunteer their services and for missions volunteers. She also requests prayer for financial support and for “the patients who are still hesitant to come in to somehow know we are here.”

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