“I was in Mobile to pick up my brother-in-law at the oil rig he was working at,” Kelli Batson said. “I was waiting in my car and saw a man trying to sleep on the ground with no pillow.”
From that point on, Batson knew God was calling her to love and care for the homeless. And that’s just what she’s doing through the Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) at New Chapel Baptist Church, Kinston, where she’s been a member for more than a year.
Batson was appointed WMU director in September, and in early October, she and the 25 WMU members began Help for the Helpless, a ministry that gathers and organizes donations of clothes, food and toiletries and delivers them to homeless shelters in Alabama.
“[Help for the Helpless] wants to give directly to the homeless people,” Batson said, noting donations are given directly to shelters, not donation centers where items are resold.
The Sardis Baptist Association church’s WMU has already delivered three large boxes filled with jackets, socks, canned goods and shampoo, lotion and other hygiene items to the Waterfront Rescue Mission in Mobile. “We’re just starting out now,” Batson said, “but someday we’d like to see [Help for the Helpless] spread from [church to church] to reach every shelter (in Alabama).”
For more information, call Batson at 334-378-9139 or Lisa Harrelson at 334-764-3206.
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