Terri Parker Lewis and Noah Garrett receive roses from the Woman’s Missionary Union at Earle Street Baptist Church in Greenville following their dramatic presentation on the life of South Carolina missions pioneer Hephzibah Jenkins Townsend on March 5.
Their presentation was part of WMU’s efforts to promote the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering and reach the church’s goal of $6,500.
Lewis, who last year portrayed Annie Armstrong during Earle Street’s emphasis on North American missions, is Garrett’s drama teacher at Greenville’s Fine Arts Center. She and her husband William, and Garrett, are members at Earle Street.
Townsend established the first woman’s missionary organization in the South, the Wadmalaw and Edisto Female Mite Society. They baked bread, sold it, and contributed the money to Luther Rice for international missions, to the Charleston Baptist Association for work with the Catawba Indians, and to First Baptist Church, Charleston, to help construct its first building.
The ruins of Townsend’s ovens for baking bread are still visible on Edisto Island, which also is the site of her grave in the cemetery of an African-American church.