For seven or eight years now, “The First Ladies” of First Baptist Church, Bay Minette, in Baldwin Baptist Association have been impacting the lives of people they will probably never meet.
And they’ve been doing it by turning old sheets into bandages.
“We are helping missions and helping others. Even though we’re in a small community and are a small group, I feel like we are helping people in a great way,” said Betty Fuller, who is currently in charge of the bandage making at the church. “It’s a wonderful fellowship time for the women of our church as well.”
The women collect old sheets from members of the congregation and then spend many Monday afternoons each fall tearing the sheets and rolling them into bandages.
The rolling begins the Monday after Labor Day and continues until all the sheets have been used, which is usually around November.
The effort is part of a larger mission based out of Tabernacle Baptist Church, Cartersville, Ga., which collects bandages from churches nationwide and periodically sends shipments to the Baptist Medical Centre in Nalerigu, Ghana.
The hospital serves between 60,000 and 80,000 people annually and contributions made by the Ghana Bandage Project are directly impacting its work each day, said Paul Shumpert, president of The George Faile Foundation, a nonprofit corporation that provides financial support for the hospital.
“There are numerous burn and skin infection patients who could not improve without these dressings,” Shumpert said. “We have a good supply of bandages on hand thanks to these donations but we always need more.”
The bandages received from First, Bay Minette, each year are transported to Tabernacle Baptist by Fuller’s brother, who lives in Georgia.
“[H]e says that when he went to Tabernacle Baptist he was absolutely dumbfounded because every single hallway is just filled with supplies and bandages,” Fuller said.
Although she is now leading the endeavor, Betty Lindsey is responsible for introducing the bandage project to First, Bay Minette, led by Pastor Chip Starnes.
Lindsey read a letter to the editor about the project in The Alabama Baptist a few years ago and thought it would be a wonderful missions opportunity for her church.
“Everyone seems to enjoy rolling the sheets, and it’s kind of like we have a party every week,” Fuller said.
For information about how you or your church can use your old sheets to become a part of the Ghana Bandage Project, contact Vicki Barnes at Tabernacle Baptist at 770-386-2890.
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