After learning of the need for paper products in Lashmeet, W.Va., the members of Ridge Spring Baptist Church, in Ridge Association, immediately offered their help. What started as an idea in a Sunday school class quickly spread to include the entire church and community. Sunday school member David Sawyer issued a challenge to all Sunday school classes to see who could collect the most paper products during the month of June. The Adult Men’s Class immediately met the challenge by purchasing 600 rolls of toilet tissue. Other classes participated by buying paper products and/or by collecting money. Vacation Bible School co-director Samantha McClure asked the children to bring toilet tissue each night of VBS for the West Virginia coal mining families. VBS children brought 327 rolls of toilet tissue and 52 packages of Band-Aids for cancer victims for Mae Ann Webb’s 2014 Miss South Carolina USA pageant.

On July 6, retired minister Mayhew West presented a special program at Ridge Spring about The Shepherd’s Hands Mission in Lashmeet, directed and operated by West and his wife, Marianne, (formerly of Saluda). The Shepherd’s Hands Mission operates on donations to help needy families in Lashmeet, which was once a thriving coal mining town but now few jobs are available. Pictured are members of the Sunday school classes who assembled in the sanctuary in front of the paper products to present the following items collected for The Shepherd’s Hands Mission: 1,500 double rolls of toilet tissue, 83 rolls of paper towels, 22 boxes of Kleenex, 1,200 napkins and one 40-count pack of antibacterial wipes. A total of $603.50 was collected to purchase enough school supplies to fill at least 60 book bags for the children in the Lashmeet area schools. Church member and peach farmer Jimmy Forrest offered a truck and gasoline for the trip to transport these items, and members Wayne and Gloria Fulmer were scheduled to deliver the items to Lashmeet in mid-July. For more information on The Shepherd’s Hands Mission, visit TheShepherdsHands.com. To make donations or to volunteer, contact Mayhew West at 864-445-2221.

Also in July, a group of 14 young people left Ridge Spring on July 4 to travel to Peru on a mission trip. John Chambers is interim pastor at Ridge Spring.