Volunteers load food, school and health supplies, collected by Holston Conference churches, on shipping containers bound for Zimbabwe and Liberia. (Photo Courtesy of Holston Conference)
Holston Conference | June 09, 2024
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – By 10 a.m. Wednesday morning, the shirts on the volunteers were already wet with perspiration.
Trucks and cars full of buckets and backpacks lined up next to two shipping trailers in the parking lot at Cokesbury United Methodist Church. Volunteers swarmed around the vehicles, emptied them of their contents, then hoisted and stacked all the buckets, backpacks and boxes into the trailers.
On June 5-6, the annual Hands-on Mission Project came together in Knoxville as Holston Conference churches and districts brought the food, school and health supplies they had collected to be packed into shipping trailers bound for Africa.
For 29 years, Holston Conference has organized the colossal project which culminates in sending life-saving supplies to United Methodist missions in Zimbabwe and Liberia. Working from lists of specific items requested by missionaries, local churches throughout Holston buy and pack the items, often exceeding the number of “mission kits” they were asked to give.
The Zimbabwe shipping trailer is nearly full. (Photo Courtesy of Holston Conference)
“This is a mission project that people can wrap their heads around,” said the Rev. Richard Richter, who came to the Cokesbury parking lot with 20 food buckets sent by Cedar Lane United Methodist Church in Knoxville.
Standing on the hot asphalt with Cedar Lane missions director Cheryl Rucker, Richter explained how his church members packed sugar, flour, rice, beans, dried milk, cooking oil, and canned meat into five-gallon buckets because they know the food will feed families in Zimbabwe.
“We are very blessed to have a very giving church,” Rucker said.
Watching the food buckets as well as backpacks go into the shipping containers was Nancy Chinzvede, director of Ishe Anesu Project. In August, Chinzvede will have returned to Mutare, Zimbabwe, when the supplies arrive. From May 18 through June 18, Chinzvede is visiting churches in the U.S.
“It touched my heart, the love I saw, the way people were working with harmony, with oneness, and with one goal. It was so amazing,” Chinzvede said, describing the mission teamwork of United Methodists in the Cokesbury parking lot.
Fifty-two children are currently enrolled at Ishe Anesu, she said. Each child will take a food bucket home to his or her family. Chinzvede explained how the families try hard to make the food last as long as possible and how they use the buckets for storage and to fetch water.
Photo Courtesy of Holston Conference
Nancy Chinzvede (left) is greeted by Cindy Gibson in Cokesbury UMC's parking lot.
At Chinzvede’s request, Cindy Gibson arrived in the Cokesbury UMC parking lot on Wednesday morning with 70 blankets collected and sent by members of Middlebrook Pike United Methodist Church. Gibson said she heard Chinzvede speak at another church and noticed how she twice asked for blankets, inspiring Gibson to reach out to her congregation. “You know how you have that instant recognition of the importance of the mission?” said Gibson, Middlebrook Pike’s missions chair.
Cokesbury staff members were among the 60 volunteers enlisted by Cokesbury to help load the shipping containers over two days. The Rev. Anna Lee, executive pastor, said Chinzvede had shared the Ishe Anesu story at Cokesbury’s four worship services the previous Sunday.
“This project excites us because essentially, what is best about The United Methodist Church is how we are connected,” Lee said. “We are better together than apart.”
The Rev. Chris Brown, chair of Holston’s Missions Team, arrived in the Cokesbury parking lot on Wednesday afternoon with four water filtration systems, each valued at $2,500 each. Provided by the Michigan Conference through the organization Clean Water for the World, the equipment will be sent to Liberia on Holston’s shipping container, saving Michigan United Methodists the high cost of transportation.
Inside the shipping container, the Rev. Chris Brown loads supplies for Liberia with Cokesbury UMC staff and other volunteers. (Photo Courtesy of Holston Conference)
“The water filtration systems will be sent to four United Methodist schools in Liberia,” Brown said, adding that 27,000 students now attend United Methodist schools in Liberia.
Brown is senior pastor at Colonial Heights United Methodist Church, which sent 60 backpacks full of school supplies to Zimbabwe – “one for every kid connected with our church.” Colonial Heights is located in Kingsport, Tennessee.
For the 28th time, the Rev. Jerry Russell was working inside the sun-baked shipping containers, helping to stack the buckets, backpacks and boxes so they will travel well from land to sea and land again. Russell is director of Samaritan’s Hands and a retired United Methodist pastor.
For decades, the Hands-on Mission Project supplies were packed into shipping containers at the former Fairview United Methodist Church, where Russell served as senior pastor. After Fairview disaffiliated from the denomination, the mission project was relocated to Cokesbury United Methodist Church in June 2023.
“Cokesbury, like Fairview, was organized and had lots of energy and volunteers,” Russell said after the shipping containers were fully loaded. “Those things were packed out.”
Russell said he has participated in all of the parking-lot packing days except for one year, 2023. This year, he brought five members of Fairview Church with him. Fairview also sent 51 food buckets for Zimbabwe.
“We were welcomed with open arms,” Russell said. “We may have some differences on some things, but we can agree on loving others in the name of Christ.”
At Reynolds Memorial UMC in Bristol, United Methodists load mission kits from Clinch Mountain District churches. (Photo Courtesy of Holston Conference)
At least two other disaffiliated churches also collected and sent food buckets for Zimbabwe, according to Mary Hawkins, Tennessee Valley District administrative assistant. The Rev. Mike Sluder, Holston director of connectional ministries, said he welcomes participation of congregations from any faith tradition.
“Mission projects can be a way for us to be in ministry together instead of the constant bickering,” Sluder said.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Rev. Harry Howe arrived with a trailer full of mission supplies collected and sent by four districts located in northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia. The New River District sent health kits for Zimbabwe (toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, medicine). The Clinch Mountain District sent food buckets for Liberia (sugar, beans, oatmeal). Three Rivers District sent school kits for Liberia (rulers, pencils, notebooks, calculators). The Appalachian District sent school kits for Zimbabwe (dictionaries, dry erase board sets, pens).
Photo Courtesy of Holston Conference
Kirk Lowe (right) will follow the Rev. Harry Howe when he retires as Project Crossroads director.
The Project Crossroads trailer was so full that two other trucks had to be rented to transport the mission kits, Howe said. The Rev. Jeff Lambert, superintendent for the Appalachian District and Three Rivers District, drove one truck. The other truck was driven by Kirk Lowe, who will follow Howe as director of Project Crossroads when Howe retires at the end of 2024.
On Thursday morning, volunteers finished loading with gifts arriving from Hiwassee District churches (health kits for Liberia) and Scenic South District churches (food buckets for Liberia).
Mike Feely, missions director for Christ United Methodist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, drove a truck loaded with 712 food buckets for Liberia, almost doubling the goal of 400 set by Holston Conference. A group of 12 students and staff from Camp Lookout’s “Junior High Service Week” helped load the truck the day before at Brainerd United Methodist Church.
“It was awesome to see all the churches from Scenic South participate, and we couldn’t have done it without the team from Camp Lookout,” Feely said.
The total number of mission kits collected and dispatched to Africa was to be announced and celebrated on Monday evening, June 10, at Holston Annual Conference in Lake Junaluska, North Carolina.
Holston Conference includes 545 United Methodist churches in East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and North Georgia, with main offices in Alcoa, Tennessee. Sign up for a free email subscription to The Call.
Campers from Camp Lookout's 'Junior High Service Week' load food buckets at Brainerd UMC in Chattanooga. (Photo Courtesy of Holston Conference)
Annette Spence is editor of The Call, the Holston Conference newsletter. This article is republished with permission from the conference website.