Springtime Church Special
God’s
Call Takes Many Forms
At
Zachary’s United Methodist
By Tammy Smith
Zachary United Methodist Church
Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors.
This saying represents the Methodist church, and the work within our diverse congregation is reflective of that. God is working through the entire congregation – often in ways we could have never expected – through several of our members who have reached out to others in need.
Knit-wits
The knit-wits (don’t laugh!) is a group of ladies who knit, crochet and quilt prayer shawls and lap blankets for the elderly and grieving in our community. They also make them for new babies in the congregation and the beautiful patriotic quilts for our men and women overseas. These works of love are blessed on the altar and passed out to anyone in need. Over the last two years they have made 135 blankets and shawls.
According to one “knitting witness,” Geraldine Peairs, who
herself is a cancer survivor, states this ministry is beyond rewarding. Her
quilts have comforted more than 10 soldiers in our congregation. Recently she
and her husband brought the family of Sp. Johnathan Chism (a local soldier
killed in Iraq) a quilt to comfort them. The quilt states:
I will lie down
and sleep in peace for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
Psalms 4:8.
This knit-wit ministry has grown in its nearly two-year existence. Peairs said the material and supplies just seem to appear as needed and always seem to fit the circumstances. There always seems to be a need to comfort someone.
Disaster assistance
A time to provide to others in need was never more evident than during Hurricane Katrina. During the horrifying hours after the storm, Pam Caster, who heads the disaster preparedness ministry, worked at the storm recovery center for eight months starting from the day the hurricane hit.
Caster managed the Red Cross center at Kenilworth Middle School and assisted in setting up other assistance teams along with the Methodist conference center. “We needed something concrete to help the people during this tragedy,” she said. Caster assisted with secretarial duties, organized volunteers and answered phone calls during the first days of the storm. She also received hundreds of calls from around the country offering assistance.
She said the hardest thing for her was hearing the discussions about the levee breaches and knowing the hardships that faced the people of New Orleans. However, after visiting a church in Texas she received congratulations from the congregation. She realized that she was part of the solution to help people and was proud of the way the Methodist church responded in this time of crisis.
Smoldering sanctuary
Our pastor at ZUMC recently experienced his own personal need to help others. Dr. Greg Davis received a phone call at 3:20 a.m. from the fire dispatcher the night of the tragic fire at Ingleside Methodist Church in Baton Rouge. He needed the name of the contact person for the pastor, Kibbie Hatfield.
Not being able to go back to sleep, Davis decided to go to Ingleside and see if he could be of assistance. He found Hatfield at a home directly across the street from the smoldering sanctuary. “I don’t understand why the Lord needed me to do this, and there’s no room to question it, but it was an opportunity to support one of my colleagues in the ministry who was in great need.” It was a time for providing encouragement and having prayer together.
Let’s all make sure that we answer God’s call, whether we are prepared for it or not. Would you recognize a miracle if one presented itself to you?