By Staff
Area churches reach out to help
By CLAUD HODGES
Senior Reporter
Operation Inasmuch put much, much, much of the hands of givers into the hands of their neighbors on Saturday.
Inasmuch volunteers from the First Baptist Church in Washington came to Goodman’s home Saturday and did yard and house clean-up there.
These words of Christ brought about the idea of Operation Inasmuch, said Jonathan Jones, one of the major players who spearheaded this effort to get local churches together to offer their time for others.
He said it is a collaborative effort that makes everyone involved feel inspired and fulfilled with the Christian ministry.
Smith said Goodman is experiencing pain and has to spend much time in bed. However, she said he gets to his doctor’s appointments and strives to do his best.
Goodman has had some 45 surgeries since he was injured in Iraq. He keeps a bag containing hardware that had been implanted during early surgeries and since removed in more recent operations.
Steve Danyluk, a Marine reservist and American Airlines pilot whose wife is in Iraq, catered a lunch for the volunteers at Goodman’s home on Saturday.
Jones said there were Operation Inasmuch projects in at least 97 out of 100 North Carolina counties on Saturday.
In addition to the First Baptist Church, the churches that organized the projects in the local area included the Second Baptist Church of Washington, Pactolus Baptist Church and Riverview Baptist Church. Other churches participating were the Temple of Jesus Christ, the 15th Street Church of God and the Harvest Time Evangelistic Outreach.
Jones said there were also some churches in eastern Beaufort County that were participating in the event.
Some of the projects that had joint participation included nursing home visitation at Britthaven and Ridgewood with gift bags being delivered to residents, the delivery of gift bags to Washington Housing Authority units and other residents in the Seventh and Ninth streets area of Washington, and the painting and repairing at the Options to Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault safehouse.
In addition to the Goodman project, other First Baptist projects included the delivery of prayer shawls to some residents at St. John’s Housing Center, taking some youngsters who had never been fishing out in boats to fish and the clean-up of two elderly widows’ yards.
Projects from the Second Baptist Church included a car checkup at Mower Pro, a Bible camp, an autism gathering, a laundry mat ministry and a gift bag ministry.
Pactolus Baptist Church projects included constructing two hand rails on the front porch and one hand rail on the back porch of a partially paralyzed man in Grimesland, the washing of the outside of a home and the building of hand rails on the front porch of that home for a partially paralyzed man in Pactolus, the washing of the outside of a home and windows for a legally blind woman in the Pactolus area, the washing of the outside of the home of an elderly person in Pactolus, the clean-up of a yard of an elderly person in the Pactolus area, the clean-up of a yard of an older woman in Pactolus and working with the Salvation Army in Washington to put clothing on racks and making them ready for store sales.
Riverview Baptist projects included a free yard sale, a free car wash, a free firewood delivery and the offering of an evangelism tent with information about the church.