STR AT EGI C PA R T N E R SH I P S
Faith
EXPANDED TERRITORY BY TINA V. BRYSON
T
he nearly 100-degree heat in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, didn’t stop volunteers at New St. Hurricane Missionary Baptist Church from organizing donated items received through Christian Appalachian Project’s (CAP) Operation Sharing program. According to the U.S. Census, 35% of families in Pine Bluff live below the poverty line. For more than a year now, the church has partnered with CAP to provide desperately needed items to people in need in the community. “We diligently work to serve our community to the best of our ability,” said Derick Easter, who has pastored New St. Hurricane for the past nine years. “During the
12 The Mountain SPIRIT
pandemic, we saw needs rise to extreme heights. We wanted to get involved even more in the community, and we learned about Operation Sharing. We built a larger outreach distribution center to serve our local community, the county, and beyond through this strategic partnership.” Operation Sharing began nearly 40 years ago with a donation of books that were distributed among partner agencies to promote literacy in Appalachia. Today, books are still shared with partners like the church’s Hurricane Distribution Center. The center then partners with schools and agencies to distribute these books to promote the importance of literacy at a young age.