Winston Baptist Association supports missions effort with ‘workhorse’

She may not look pretty, but she’s a workhorse.” That’s what First Baptist Church, Arley, member George Gibson said about the Winston Baptist Association laundry trailer. It was designed and built by volunteers 10 years ago and has provided untold numbers of laundry loads for disaster victims across the South.

The trailer has three washers and three dryers and its own generator to run them all if there is no commercial power. Gibson provides maintenance on the trailer, the machines and the generator about twice a year. Recently the laundry unit, as it is called, was put into action in support of rebuilding a church in Jackson County.

Macklin Baptist Church, Rosalie, was destroyed by a tornado just after midnight Nov. 30, 2016. Now a year and a half later, Carpenters for Christ volunteers are helping the church build a new sanctuary complete with classrooms and a fellowship hall across the road from its previous location. Hosted by the Macklin Baptist congregation and housed at the Rosalie Elementary School, 140 Carpenters for Christ volunteers completed most of the interior framing and the exterior brick and metal work June 4–15.

Sincere thanks

“Winston Baptist Association’s laundry trailer helped the effort by deploying to the work site in Rosalie,” said team member Bob Cooper. Three teams from Winston County, led by Winston’s director of missions Don Smith and his wife Pam, rotated shifts manning the trailer. Other volunteers from Winston included Ricky and Diane Benford, Debbie Doss, and Bob and Cathy Cooper. Perry Lee, the Carpenters for Christ team leader, expressed a sincere thank you to the laundry teams that provided a total of 150 loads of clean laundry for the volunteers.

The Winston Baptist Association is treturning on a missions trip to Rosalie to install drywall and other interior construction work. And if needed, the laundry “workhorse” will join the team. (TAB)