Contributed
Helping Hands Ministry builds a ramp for Howard Smith, who lives on Charlotte Street in Hamlet.
Contributed
Smith has difficulty walking and will need a ramp when he comes home from the hospital.
The Helping Hands Ministry of First Southern Baptist Church of Hamlet has built a ramp for a man who will need it once he is home from the hospital.
This time, the ramp was built for Howard Smith of Charlotte Street in Hamlet.
When someone is going through a hard time and needs help with the construction of something like a ramp, the Helping Hands Ministry comes together. For larger projects, they involve other churches. The labor is free. The materials used to build with are sometimes purchased through a Lumber River Association fund, according to Reggie Monroe, one of the Helping Hands. Church members help out in ways they can when a person needs a ramp but can’t afford the materials.
The Helping Hands Ministry does what they can to help people in need. Now Smith and his wife will have one less thing to worry about.
“He is in the hospital and on dialysis,” said Monroe. “He has extreme diabetes and is confined to a wheelchair. It was very difficult to get him in and out of the house.”
According to Bill Dennis, another Helping Hand, Smith comes home this week and the ramp will be waiting on him.
“These men are really dedicated,” said Dennis. “They have built about 25 ramps.”
“That one took about three hours,” said Monroe about Smith’s ramp. “It was a group of six guys and we’ve done this before. We kind of know what we’re doing.”
According to Monroe, the men pool their life skills to get the job done.
“I have no special carpentry skills,” said Monroe. “These are skills I have picked up along the way.”
Sometimes as many as 12 men will work on a project at one time, depending on the size of the project.
Once the ramp was constructed, Smith’s wife Phyllis had Monroe sit in a wheelchair while she pushed him up and down the ramp to try it out.
The members of Helping Hands Ministry are not only make-shift carpenters and generous builders, they also spend time doing disaster relief projects, like helping with tornado damage and clean-up in Sanford and other natural disaster stricken parts of the country. They partner on projects with Pine Grove Baptist Church of Rockingham.
— Staff Writer Dawn M. Kurry can be reached at 910-997-3111, ext. 15, or by email at dkurry@heartlandpublications.com.
Post a Comment
