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November 29, 2009
Posted by
jsuttles
on
Thursday, December 03, 2009 (PST)
11:35 AM Saturday November 28, my wife and I pulled into the parking lot of the small Post Office at Covel West Virginia....
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RECHOBOTH BAPTIST CHURCH
Soddy Daisy, Tennessee
Mission Trip to Covel, West Virginia
November 28-29, 2009
11:35 AM Saturday November 28, my wife and I pulled into the parking lot of the small Post Office at Covel West Virginia. The Covel Post Office was closed. According to the sign on the door, the Post Office had closed 35 minutes earlier. A town with only 422 people does not need a big Post Office and this one was one of the smallest Post Offices I had ever seen. Directly across the parking lot and up the hollow was Covel Missionary Baptist Church. Our destination. I would later learn that the church was built in the 1940s by coal miners. Today that mine has closed and has been closed for several years. When you coal mine closes, poverty follows. After several trips into Coal country, I have learned to recognize small churches built by Coal miners. At 11:35 am the sun had just broken into the hollow. The village was asleep. Then I heard the sound of a coal train. 100 coal cars, 5 locomotives pulling, and 2 locomotives at the end pushing. These hills are so steep that 2 extra locomotives must be added to push the train out of the mountain. Then these 2 pushing locomotives go back to the tripper to wait for the next coal train. A 100-car coal train wakes up a village.
About two hours behind us was Don Pickrell’s big white box truck, with wrapped Christmas packages for the children of 43 needy families in this Hollow. Each family would also receive a box containing enough food for a family thanksgiving dinner. A ham, bread, potatoes, a pie, dressing, the boxes were labeled APPLES and came from Owen Wooten. The truck also carried enough hot dogs, chilly, snake cakes, and drinks to feed the community. Each family would receive a large bag of Yellow Delious apples courtesy of Owen Wooten’s orchard Dayton Mountain down the road from Don Pickrell’s house. Guess who worked that deal?
The families were divided in to two groups, a 2:30 pm group and a 4:30 pm group. Each group would hear the Christmas story twice. Once by me, dressed in a Shepard’s outfit and once by Scott Jones professor of Religion at Bryan College. Scott was on the New Union Baptist Church Buss, with 25 other New Union members. They left Dayton at 6 am. During the last few weeks they had inventoried the gifts, planed the meal, packed the food boxes and prayed for the people of Covel West Virginia. This was the day they had prepared for.
12 noon, no truck, no people
12:30 no truck, a crowd was developing
No cell phones towers in this hollow
1 pm no truck, the crowd was getting big. Moms with kids. Dads with kids, Grand parents with kids. And just kids. Everywhere. All sizes, but mostly small kids. Church members, non-church members, and old people, everyone in town. Susie McBride from Covel, had contacted all the churches in the hollow. We had Catholics, Methodists, Baptist, two different Church of God groups. All waiting for a big white truck full of Christmas presents, food and behind it a buss full of missionaries. They did not know they were missionaries yet, but they would before the day was over.
1:15 right on schedule, the big white truck, full, and a big church buss also full. Jerry Newman was driving the truck. Don Pickrell riding shotgun.
Now things started happening fast. The truck had to be unloaded. The food had to be moved to the eating building. This was a small building across a creek that they referred to as the scout building. But they had not had scouts for years; there were no pots to cook hot dogs and chili. No can opener that worked. So some one had to go home a get pots and a can opener. We ran out of cups, but some one had cups at home. Every one worked.
The presents had to be inventoried and laid out so they could be distributed at 2:30 or 4:30. Not all the people scheduled for 2:30 came at 2:30 and not all the people scheduled for 4:30came at 4:30. Some did not come at all. We were told that since this would be the only presents these children would receive, the parents wanted to pick up the presents and just put them under the Christmas tree. Have you seen the Marine commercial with a bare floor under a Christmas tree and two kids crying? Then there are presents under the tree and 2 marines walking away in the snow. I under stood.
Well we had hot dogs, chili, and Debby cakes. Drinks: then the 2:30 children went into the church to wait for their name to be called. I told the Christmas story dressed as a Shepard from Bethlehem. Purity good job if I do say so myself. My wife has pictures to prove it. Then Scott told the same story. Each family was prayed for and witnessed to before the gifts were presented. Then they received a Thanksgiving dinner box and a large bag of yellow delicious Wooten Orchard apples. We helped put the gifts into there cars. Before the 2:30 group was gone the 4:30 group started to arrive. Then it was prayer, hot dogs, prayer, Christmas story, prayer, Christmas story, gifts, and food box, bag of apples.
A man named Tommy was saved.
Extra food boxes were moved to the scout building where the heat would be off and the hams would not spoil. The apples that were left over were moved to the scout building and all the presents that were not picked up would be delivered the next day. Mission complete. Except for the long ride home the next day. Two of the children who received bicycles lost their Dad to suicide just weeks before. They were not smiling. Actually several of the moms were crying. One of the Grandpas was crying. I was that Grandpa.
Ahab the Shepherd, Bethlehem,
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