Current News from Mountain Hope
Carol Bailey* is living the American dream of homeownership, but lately that dream is becoming a bit cramped. Together she and her 23-year-old disabled grandson live in an 800-square-foot house along with another grandson and his family. With four adults and one child, the two-bedroom home is filled to capacity, but for now, all she wants is a wheelchair ramp and a little more space on her front porch to make it handicap accessible. The Owsley County Repair Affair is about to make that happen.
On September 15, 2007, Kentucky Baptist Fellowship is partnering with the Owsley County Action Team and Partnership Housing as they once again host Repair Affair in Owsley County. Eighty volunteers will be needed for several one-day housing repair projects like bathroom installation, porch construction, and a wheelchair ramp for Carol. Recipients are low-income elderly or disabled citizens.
“Repair Affair is a vital event to a community because it can put a small dent in the big problem of housing in Eastern Kentucky,” said Jo’e Lightner, director of Partnership Housing, Inc. “It provides an excellent opportunity for different organizations to partner together to work on the problem of housing.”
Volunteers eighteen or older will convene for breakfast at 8:00 a.m. Work assignments will then be distributed, and volunteers will travel to their work sites where they will receive a sack lunch. Pre-registered volunteers will receive a t-shirt and the satisfaction of helping a neighbor in need. Projected time of completion for each project is 3:00 p.m.
To participate in the Owsley County Repair Affair, submit an application to KBF by August 17. To request an application, e-mail Rhonda@kybf.org, or download an application.
*Not her real name.
Thanks for dropping by our website. We are proud to be a part of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s initiative called “Together for Hope,” a 20-year commitment to offer hope to people in and around the nation’s 20 poorest counties, all located in rural areas. Some of those counties are in the hills of Eastern Kentucky.
Poverty is an issue many of us like to imagine as being “over there,” in another country with another people. However, when you walk with our partners in Eastern Kentucky, you will discover poverty in your own backyard. For many families in the hills of Eastern Kentucky, grinding poverty is all they have ever known and hope for a better day is in short supply. That’s what we’re about: hope. Our desire is to offer a glimpse of hope for our neighbors in Kentucky’s Appalachia area, and a chance for a brighter day.
I hope you find this website helpful as you think about joining our work in Eastern Kentucky. We’d like to invite you to take a discovery trip to meet our folks in the field and learn how you and/or your church can make the future a little brighter for someone in rural Kentucky.
If we can assist you in any way, please do not hesitate to contact us. We look forward to partnering with you to bring hope to the hills!
The Garland Family
Left to Right: Ricky, Bradley, Skye, Richard, Matthew, Courtney
“I want you to know that I have so much admiration for you,” said Becky, a family resource worker, to Richard Garland. “There aren’t a lot of men who would do what you’re doing.”
Becky works for the McCreary County Schools and has known the Garland family for several years. In 2003, when Richard’s estranged wife died, he took on the responsibility of raising their six children as a single father.
With genuine humility, Richard fought back tears as he responded to the praise, “It was the right thing to do.”
Richard’s family has been selected to receive the “Extreme Build” house in 2007. This will be the second Extreme Build, a project of the Kentucky Baptist Fellowship’s “Mountain Hope” initiative in partnership with the McCreary County Community Housing Development Corporation.
For six years, Richard has worked full-time at the Kentucky Fried Chicken in Whitley City. He and his five youngest children live in a two-bedroom apartment. “This is all my dad can afford with five kids. . .working at KFC,” acknowledges Courtney, age 14. “He’s doing a good job, but we need a bigger house.”
In July, Richard and a host of volunteers will make the dream of having a larger home come true. If you would like to be a part of this exciting project in Whitley City, reserve the week of July 15-21, and watch for more details.
NADA, KY—“Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain” read John Owen, pastor of First Baptist Winchester and the Nada Baptist Mission. He continued from Psalm 127, “Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.”
Using the steps of the Nada Mission as his rostrum, Owen offered scripture and led the invocation for a gathering of local residents, county officials, and staff from the offices of U.S. Representatives and the Governor of Kentucky.
Nada served as the springboard for Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s work in Eastern Kentucky because of the presence of the mission church there. CBF, Kentucky Baptist Fellowship, and First Baptist Winchester have continued to work in Nada as a part of CBF’s rural poverty initiative called “Together for Hope.”
A monumental occasion for the residents of Nada, the ground-breaking ceremony marked the launch of a much anticipated sewer project. However, the sewer line is only the beginning of a much larger community development project in the making. Bryan Kirby of the Community Economic Development Association (CEDA) is spearheading an effort to procure a Community Development Block Grant which will radically transform the quality of housing in the small community. Partnered with CEDA for this project are Federation of Appalachian Housing Enterprises out of Berea, Community Housing out of Winchester, and Kentucky Baptist Fellowship. KBF will utilize volunteer teams to tackle some of the housing repair projects, which will help stretch the grant money to affect more families. “It’s nice to think we had a small part in this,” said Owen.
If you or your church would like to be involved in ministry in Nada, please contact Rhonda Abbott Blevins at 502-426-1931, or send an e-mail to rhonda@kybf.org.
