A visit to show his gratitude

Minister whose church received post-hurricane help
from South Carolina provides a personal ‘thank you’

May 29, 2006

By VIC MacDONALD
Index-Journal regional editor

It is not something you can write in a thank-you note.
Even handwritten, it’s just too impersonal.
Plus, there are some acts of kindness too grand for words — you just have to point to the sky and say it plain. “Thank you, Lord.”
The Rev. Melvin Zeno came to South Carolina in the past few days to do just that — to say his and his congregation’s “thank you” to people who helped them post-Katrina and to point to the sky.
Zeno is pastor of St. Joseph Baptist Church in Marrero. La., a bedroom community of New Orleans, devastated by the August hurricane.
Now, going on a year after the storm’s fury ravaged the area, his parishioners are still without homes, and the church has gaping holes that have allowed birds and a possum to take up residence there.
“I have an 82-year-old parishioner who can’t go home. There’s no power and there’s just no one there. She’s living in an apartment,” Zeno said. “But because of what you have done, her life is able to go on. ... We need your constant prayers that they will be able to endure.”
Even with the continuing misery and toil of pulling shattered lives back together, the church has had joy.
On Christmas Day, Zeno’s church had a big celebration and gifts distribution. In fact, so many gifts came in that church members went by the truckload into housing projects to give gifts away. They thought they would have to go street by street, but soon word spread faster than the gifts.
“The smiles on the faces of children that they got something ...,” Zeno said, “and it came from you.”
The Christmas gifts were part of a shipment from the Tumblin Shoals Baptist Association, spearheaded by member church Duncan Creek Baptist, Laurens, and the Little River Baptist Association, spearheaded by Morris Chapel Baptist, Greenwood, which earlier had sent mission teams and supplies to Louisiana and Mississippi.
For Duncan Creek’s minister, the Rev. S.A. Mattison, it was a fourth trip to the storm-wrecked areas, two to the Gulf Coast and two to New Orleans. It was through these missions that Mattison and Zeno found each other.
“We were having problems with public assistance. The lines were long and there was too much red tape. It was too difficult and our people were not getting through,” Zeno said. “A feeling of hopelessness had settled in. Then, all of a sudden, I get this call from South Carolina, to help our area, and this wonderful person, Rev. Mattison, came with a truck full of food.
“The people moved from struggle to strength.”
Ministers in the storm-stricken areas had been warned that depression would set in among people in the wake of the storm and there would be suicides. Zeno could see that happening, before the S.C. aid came. “It cut off a lot of that,” he said.
Zeno conceded, though, that some people of New Orleans are approaching that level of desperation today, with the year anniversary of the storm about two months away. “We still have many needs. Most of them are for shelter,” he said.
The next mission trip for the Baptist associations likely will bring appliances and building supplies to the area. Also, disinfectant is needed to fight the mold that has taken over all the remaining structures in the worst hit areas. And medicine — Zeno said he had a diabetic parishioner lose a toe to infection acquired after he stepped on a nail during a cleanup.
Duncan Creek also helped relocate Cynthia Neal from her wrecked New Orleans home, first to a motel in Clinton and then to a house. She appreciates the help, but longs to go home.
“I do have somewhere to stay, that’s nice,” said Neal, but she added about New Orleans, “It’s a nice city. All the people know each other. There are buses and transportation. There’s a lot that you can do there.”
Zeno said New Orleans has the national reputation as a party town, but it was rated by a magazine as one of the top family cities in the country and he said there are many free activities citywide for families.
“There must be something about New Orleans,” Mattison said. “We can’t get it out of her that she wants to go back.”
And so does Edith Childs, of Greenwood, who was among the local people to meet Zeno and wife Margie on their New Orleans turf. The Greenwood County Councilwoman and retired nurse asked Mattison Saturday at the welcoming celebration in Clinton for the Zenos, “When are we going back?”
“To be here is an awesome experience, to be in a room with God’s people,” said Childs, who was part of the Little River Baptist Association’s 37-church effort from Greenwood, Abbeville and Anderson counties. “Whatever I can do to help you, I’ll be right there.”
The pledge for continuing assistance also came from Jeremy Fuller, manager of the Laurens Food Lion that raised awareness of the Duncan Creek mission to New Orleans among it shoppers by selling fresh water for donations. Ten pallets of water were loaded onto a truck for shipment to the missioners’ Gulf Coast destinations.
“We said to our customers that we would be the lifeline to the church to get the supplies down there,” said Fuller, who lives in Ninety Six. “We’re all about community involvement, and we will still partner with Duncan Creek to help with the needs.”
Zeno said the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans is “still totally devastated,” while the Upper Ninth Ward “fired up” three weeks ago and the Seventh Ward is “up and running.” He said in the storm’s aftermath, and controversy about the federal, state and local governments’ responses to peoples’ needs, it was learned that pumps in some parts of the city were turned off to direct the water so it would not flood some other areas.
The city of 500,000 has just 200,000 people back, Zeno said, adding that “the rest are displaced around the country.” But even with the devastation, he said, there is hope.
“I saw the body of Christ come together in a manner I have never seen before,” Zeno said. “The lives you’ve touched are in the thousands. Folks were wearing the clothes you brought down, folks’ stomachs were filled with food you brought, and they were drinking water — clean water.”
Quoting scripture, Luke 17:10, Mattison told Zeno, “We haven’t done all that we can do yet.
There’s some more stuff that we can do. I promise you our efforts will be directed in that area.”
And just to prove that the initial shipments of supplies from Laurens, Greenwood and other counties, and from throughout South Carolina, were received in New Orleans, a video presentation showing the mission and an earlier Duncan Creek mission trip to Mexico was shown during a celebration luncheon for the Zenos.
“What you sent got there,” Mattison said. “They (supplies) got through there. I drove the truck personally.”

Opinion

Honor all veterans today, especially those of WWII

May 29, 2006

Memorial Day, 2006. The day set aside to remember and honor those who died keeping all of us free, including everything that word implies.
Originally the day was set aside to honor those who lost their lives in the War Between the States. Now, though, it extends to all wars.
In the midst of all the activities ..... parades, placing flags on graves and other acts that mark this day when we honor those who “made the ultimate sacrifice” for their country, it also offers another opportunity. It gives us a chance to pay our respects and offer our gratitude to all living veterans.

THAT’S PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT for World War II veterans, those members of “the Greatest Generation” who are leaving us at an ever-increasing rate, every day. In fact, it’s reported that more than a thousand of them die every day ..... and before we know it there will be no more. Tell them now, before it’s too late, how much we owe and appreciate them.
In these days when there is so much conflict over our military role in the world, it would be criminal not to let our troops, here and abroad, know they, too, are appreciated. We can disagree all we want. After all, what this day is all about has given us that privilege and preserved it through many perilous times. Don’t let our differences reflect badly on those who wear the uniform of our armed services now.
We know they are appreciated. It’s just that sometimes we all forget.

Obituaries

Maudie Black

EASELY, S.C. — Maudie Belle Curtis Black, 88, wife of the late Halley Willard Black, Sr. died Sunday, May 28, 2006, at Easley Living Center.
Born in McKinney, Texas, Mrs. Black was a daughter of the late George Thomas and Vera Angel Curtis. She was a homemaker and a member of Easley Presbyterian Church.
Surviving are a son, Hal Black and his wife, Linda, of Easley; a daughter, Danez Black and her husband, Byron Smith, of Atlanta, Georgia; two brothers, Herschel Curtis of Waco, Texas and James Curtis of Lithonia, Georgia; two sisters, Lou Marsh of Garland, Texas and Tennie Ireland of Dallas, Texas; and two grandchildren, Dawson Black and Halley Black.
Funeral services will be 11:00 A.M. Tuesday in the chapel of Robinson Funeral Home-Downtown with Reverends Steve Vance and Trey Meredith officiating. The committal service will be 2:00 P.M.
Tuesday in Soule Chapel United Methodist Church Cemetery, CrossHill, S.C.
Visitation will be from 10:00-11:00 A.M. Tuesday at Robinson Funeral Home-Downtown.
Memorials may be made to Soule Chapel United Methodist Church, PO Box 30, Waterloo, SC 29384.
Robinson Funeral Home-Downtown is assisting the family with arrangements.
PAID OBITUARY

Dr. Sallie B.Campbell

GREENVILLE — Dr. Sallie B. Campbell, 85, of 9 Bluff Drive, died on Thursday, May 25, 2006 at St. Francis Hospital.
Born in Laurens County, she was a daughter of the late Lud and Edith Morris Boozer. She was the founding Pastor of the Rose of Sharon Pentecostal Church in Hodges, SC and Emmanuel Temple Pentecostal Church in Greenville, SC.
Survivors: son, Alonzo (Luvinia) Campbell, Jr. of Greenville; five grandchildren, Mrs. Grenda (Morris) Davis, Mrs. Senita (Curtis) Peterson, Ms. Milika R. Campbell, District Elder Reginald I. Campbell, all of Greenville, SC and Ms. Priscilla A. Coleman of Durham, NC; eleven great-grandchildren, Derrick Davis, Dexter Davis, Brandi Davis, Sallie Davis, Pharez Campbell, Elizabeth J-Sallie Campbell, Brandi Rice, Matthew Coleman, Jessika Coleman, Cala Jackson and Christian Jackson; six great-great-grandchildren; four nieces, Mrs. Lizzie Lou Dabney, Ms. Edith Boozer, both of Philadelphia, PA., Mrs. Bonita Johnson of Hawaii, Mrs. Audrey Williams of Greenwood, SC; one nephew, Mr. Michael Boozer of Greenville, SC; two cousins, Pastor Bernice Flem-mings of Linden, New Jersey and Bishop Melvin Jones, New York City, New York; one sister-in-law, Mrs. Homazella Boozer of Greenwood, SC; four god-daughters, Mrs. Susie Barton, Mrs. Dorothy Cohen, Mrs. Joyce Thompson and Ms. Yolanda Austin, all of Greenville SC, a host of loving saints, of whom many sat under her teaching over 40 years.
Funeral Service: Tuesday, 1:00 PM at Emmanuel Temple Pentecostal Church with burial in Greenville Memorial Gar-dens. The family will receive friends Monday from 7:00 - 8:00 PM at Watkins, Garrett & Woods Mortuary.
The family is at 9 Bluff Drive.
PAID OBITUARY

Mary Bernice Woolridge

Mary Bernice Woolridge, 72, of 230 East Cambridge Ave., Apt. 220, died Sunday, May 28, 2006 at her home.
The family is at the home of a daughter, Jacqueline Robinson, 501 Haltiwanger Road, Apt. H2, Holly Tree Apartments.
Services will be announced by Parks Funeral Home.