EXPANDED TERRITORY

BY TINA V. BRYSON

The nearly 100-degree heat in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, didn’t stop volunteers at New St. Hurricane Missionary Baptist Church from organizing donated items received through Christian Appalachian Project’s (CAP) Operation Sharing program. According to the U.S. Census, 35% of families in Pine Bluff live below the poverty line. For more than a year now, the church has partnered with CAP to provide desperately needed items to people in need in the community.

“We diligently work to serve our community to the best of our ability,” said Derick Easter, who has pastored New St. Hurricane for the past nine years. “During the pandemic, we saw needs rise to extreme heights. We wanted to get involved even more in the community, and we learned about Operation Sharing. We built a larger outreach distribution center to serve our local community, the county, and beyond through this strategic partnership.”

Operation Sharing began nearly 40 years ago with a donation of books that were distributed among partner agencies to promote literacy in Appalachia. Today, books are still shared with partners like the church’s Hurricane Distribution Center. The center then partners with schools and agencies to distribute these books to promote the importance of literacy at a young age.

“I assist with meeting needs of families,” said Shawn Jackson, one of seven social workers with the Pine Bluff School District. “New St. Hurricane donated books to us for the entire elementary school. We encourage families to read with their scholars. We don’t want anyone to slip through the cracks. When the church partners with us to assist the students, we have a better future for this generation.”

According to Pastor Easter, New St. Hurricane has a rich heritage of helping the community. The original church was founded by slaves on a plantation over 160 years ago. The congregants kept the name following emancipation but added “new” as they envisioned building new lives for their community.

“We’ve always been involved in the community,” Easter added. “We have a variety of outreach programs that provide food and clothing, but we are very proud of our Pine Bluff Reads initiative. Literacy is a passion of mine. It was one of our first outreach projects.”

Through the initiative, mentors and volunteers work with students in area schools to ensure they can read on grade level by the third grade.

The partnership with Operation Sharing not only provided the opportunity for New St. Hurricane to expand its physical presence in the community through the building of the distribution center, but it also expanded the types of support they could provide to families.

“It was new territory for us to provide household items,” Easter added. “If we could provide a bed frame, toaster, or blow dryer, whatever household items that were needed, that’s money that could be used for essential things, like food and medicine. We have helped families that were in homes with no furniture. These items from Operation Sharing helped us help these families.”

Pastor Easter was connected to Operation Sharing when Marilyn Bailey, a community member, suggested the partnership. Her longtime friend, who had worked with Operation Sharing for years, had passed away and she was committed to finding someone to assume the mantle.

“I knew the work the church was already doing in the community, I knew I could trust Pastor Easter with this partnership, and I knew the members would be all hands on deck to carry out the partnership,” said Bailey, executive director of Early Head Start Childcare Partnership Project, which serves families with children birth to age three. “They have just exceeded all expectations, and leadership starts at the top.”

Bailey credits the volunteers with making the distributions a success. “As families come to pick up items, they are greeted by members and they feel welcome, that they are wanted,” she said. “From time to time, each of us in our lives need a little help, and that is what this partnership is all about.”

The mission of New St. Hurricane is to embrace salvation and service. Pastor Easter teaches his congregation that fully embracing salvation means to give themselves away in service to their fellow man.

“It’s not ‘either/or’ for us — it’s both,” Easter said. “I get to put plans in place that God has put on my heart for our church to serve our community. We built the outreach center to minister to our community in greater ways. Pine Bluff is a great community with great people, but we also have great needs. We serve hardworking people who go to work every day but don’t make enough to cover everything they need. Having a partnership with Operation Sharing provides an opportunity for people in the area to volunteer in service to their own community and meets needs that allow families to reallocate those funds to critical needs, like food, medicine, shelter. Operation Sharing has been a major blessing to our community.”