The Shadow
Missionaries At Work – Mission Week missionaries work to construct a handicap ramp at a home on Alleghany Street in Clifton Forge Thursday. From left are the Rev. Bill Hartsfield of Temple Baptist Church, Charlie Carper and Todd Lynn. Mission Week, which involved several area churches, ended Friday after several projects were carried out in the Highlands. (Darrell Gleason Photo)
Missionaries At Work – Mission Week missionaries work to construct a handicap ramp at a home on Alleghany Street in Clifton Forge Thursday. From left are the Rev. Bill Hartsfield of Temple Baptist Church, Charlie Carper and Todd Lynn. Mission Week, which involved several area churches, ended Friday after several projects were carried out in the Highlands. (Darrell Gleason Photo)
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BY DARRELL GLEASON
State Editor
Some local churches have wrapped up another week of helping people in need.
The 18th annual Mission Week was held Monday through Friday with 65 to 70 volunteers showing up daily to help carry out projects in the Highlands.
The many projects included yard work, painting, constructing access ramps to homes, home repairs and replacing the roof on a horse stable at Boys’ Home.
Volunteers also took time to spruce up the grounds at the Alleghany Highlands Free Clinic on Riverside Street in Covington.
“We really tend to focus on helping the destitute people in our community,” said the Rev. Jim Slate, pastor of Falling Spring Presbyterian Church. “We built a porch on a house one year, and now the occupants are in danger of losing insurance unless we do some additional work that is needed.
So, we will be replacing some doors and fixing some leaks to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Originally known as Presbyterian Mission Week, the annual event, held in the last full week of June, started as an outgrowth of the Men of Mission, which formed at Falling Spring Presbyterian Church. The Men of Mission hold monthly breakfast gatherings at Boys’ Home and conduct small-scale mission projects in the community throughout the year.
The Men of Mission have constructed more than 100 handicapped ramps in the Highlands over the years. Many of the men in the group have been long-time friends, working at the MeadWestvaco paper mill in Covington before retiring. Each ramp constructed by the Men of Mission is marked by plaque that reads, “Blessed by God, Built by the Men of Mission.”
As men from other denominations became involved with the Men of Mission, they also began participating in Presbyterian Mission Week. The word Presbyterian was eventually dropped to reflect the involvement of other denominations.
“We have Baptists working with us this week, a couple of Catholics and some Methodists. It’s a mixed bag and we like that. We enjoy it even more,” Slate said.
Members of churches located outside the area also traveled to the Highlands to lend a helping hand.
Two Mission Week volunteers came from Pittsburgh, Pa. Another 17 were from St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Lynchburg.
Money for Mission Week is largely funded through donations from Presbyterian churches in the Highlands. Some materials used for projects during the week are donated by individuals and businesses.
The missionaries would gather each day at McAllister Memorial Presbyterian Church in Covington for breakfast and a brief devotion from the Bible. As the week wore on and the participants began feeling tired and weary, the Rev. Bill Hartsfield of Temple Baptist Church in Covington reminded them of the real motivation behind their efforts.
“We are out there helping folks, but we are actually serving Jesus. It was all for Jesus,” he said, while sharing Christ’s Parable of the Sheep and Goats from Matthew 25.
Harstfield said his church sees mission work as an opportunity for Christ’s followers to share God’s love with people in need. Temple Baptist recently participated in a mission trip to Virginia’s Eastern Shore and its deacons are involved with the Men of Mission.
Youths were among the missionaries who gathered each morning at McAllister Memorial this week before heading out to their Mission Week work assignments.
“That’s important, because we want to teach them to be sure that the next generation will know what it is like to do this kind of thing,” said the Rev. Paul Brokaw, pastor of Clifton Forge Presbyterian Church.
