When the coal mines of Lynch, Ky., closed in the 1970s, a town lost its major industry, and a community was left in crisis.
That crisis continues today for the retired miners and their families, according to Steven Ruff, senior pastor of Port Royal Baptist Church.
George and Robin Lewis are the directors of the Freedom Center clothing ministry in Lynch, Ky. George is a native of South Carolina, and Robin is a former member of Bluffton’s First Baptist Church.“We learned just how fragile one community’s existence is upon industry,” Ruff said. “Seeing what the coal mines in that town meant, and how a town can go from thriving to there being nothing left.”
It would be like the military leaving Beaufort County, he said.
Fifteen members of Port Royal Baptist Church traveled to Lynch from April 2-7 to help George and Robin Lewis’ Freedom Center, a clothing ministry; John and Melissa Fitzwater’s Loaves and Fishes, a food ministry; and Jeff and Linda Sim’s Heritage Ministries, which does construction renovation.
The Savannah River Baptist Association had made a mission trip there in 2009, which included some of the Port Royal church members.
The church members loaded up a trailer of clothing, food and building supplies and then delivered it. Once there, the Port Royal group painted, organized and cleaned the Freedom Center. At Loaves and Fishes, they cooked and delivered meals and helped to fill the food pantry. They also hosted an Easter egg hunt at a housing complex. Some of the work done by Port Royal church members included renovation of a bathroom for a handicapped retiree.
“I was sort of shocked at the lack of industry that was there,” said Ruff, noting that many families live on a fixed income and there is a lot of need. “There was a fence of despair in the area; even though the mines closed in the late 1970s, that sense of loss still seemed to be there, and that is what hit me the hardest.”
“You could still feel their sense of loss with their coal mines leaving,” he said. “I’ve seen worse conditions in Honduras and Nicaragua – third world countries – but you still see them dealing with the loss of a way of life.”
He said as soon as the younger adults finish high school, they leave the area to find employment.
“All of the missionaries in these ministries serve through the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention as Mission Service Corps volunteers,” said Joyce Bunton, who was instrumental in organizing the trip. “They do not receive a salary, and it is amazing to see how God provides for their needs.”
– Originally published in the Beaufort Gazette and the Hilton Head Island Packet. Reprinted with permission.