News
ACTS OF LOVE AND SERVICE FROM ALL AROUND!
March
10, 2010 – As I write this, we have many special guests here at Christian Help.
Fourteen students of St. Louis University are giving up their spring breaks to
be here with us (and also ABLE Families), doing a variety of works of service.
Their work includes building a new porch onto the trailer of one of our dear
clients, putting in a new bathroom floor for another client, and visiting
several local Head Start programs, where they doing literacy activities with the
children.
At the same time, we’re also hosting another special guest. Christine McNutt is a registered nurse from the state of Kansas who called to ask if we could use some help around here. She’s given up a week of her vacation time from work to spend with us. Christine has been doing health screenings, working in our clothing store, and helping in the porch-building project with the SLU students. (That’s her in the photo, providing a health screening to one of our dear clients.)
The service that the SLU students and Christine are offering this week will make a real and lasting impact in the lives of many folks around here. And as far as we’re concerned here at Christian Help, what they do for these local people in need, they do for the Lord.
MAJOR FUNDING FOR CHRISTIAN HELP TRANSIT SERVICE
Christian Help Transit Service as been awarded a $75,000 grant from the Logan Healthcare Foundation. Since 2000, Christian Help has been offering the free transit service to low-income residents of Mingo County. We have 2 vans out every day and a full-time dispatcher making appointments and working out the daily schedule for both drivers. Until 2008, there was no public transportation system in Mingo County. Our system remains the only on-demand transit in the county. The people we serve typically need rides to doctors appointments, pharmacies, local government offices, and the grocery store. This generous grant will help us help a whole lot of people. Read the article in the Williamson Daily News.
OUR HOMETOWN HEROES!
On December 4, 2009, the Charleston-Huntington television station WSAZ NewsChannel 3 honored Sr. Brendan and also ABLE Families founder Sr. Janet Peterworth as Hometown Heroes. We held a big surprise reception, with the TV crew present, at the Kermit Community Center. Employees of the Mingo County Department of Health and Human Resources nominated the sisters for the honor. At the same event, the Mingo County Commissioners formally declared December 4 to be Sisters Day in Mingo County. They expressed their appreciation for all the work of Srs. Brendan and Janet on behalf of people living in poverty in the county, and they made this appreciation tangible with twin gifts of $1,000 each for the two agencies. WSAZ NewsChannel3 will air the Hometown Heroes segment featuring the sisters on December 18, during their 5:30 PM news broadcast. It will be repeated the following day, at 6 AM and 6 PM. Read the Williamson Daily News article.
CELEBRATING 15 YEARS OF SERVICE
Christian Help celebrated its fifteenth anniversary on November 14, 2009.
Dozens of friends, supporters, local government officials, and representatives
of collaborating agencies gathered for an anniversary event.
On the occasion, Sr. Brendan received a medal sent by West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin
III, inducting her into the Order of the 35th Star. The medal recognizes
people who have made significant contributions to life in the state. Sr. Brendan
also received a person letter of congratulations from WVU football coach Bill
Stewart.
GETTING NOTICED
Christian Help received prominent attention on November 12, 2009, in a front
page article in The State Journal, a Charleston paper. The article is
called "Finding
Hope Amid the Chains of Poverty." It's the latest in the paper's series on
"Poverty in West Virginia: Fighting the 45 Year War."
The article features 3 West Virginia agencies doing important work for people
living in poverty in the state. Christian Help is one of the
three. Happily, our affiliated agency, ABLE Families, is another of the three
featured agencies. The article refers to these two extraordinary
agencies, and the religious sisters who minister through them, as "the angels of
Kermit."
It's wonderful to see this important work getting such prominent recognition.