Reaching Out
Emporia women work with Jamaican misions
By The Emporia Gazette (Contact)
Friday, December 7, 2007
A 28-foot trailer parked at Thomas Transfer and Storage is being filled with an assortment of items in preparation for shipment to Jamaica.
Emporians Marilyn Schrock and Roberta Thomson have been collecting goods that will be used to help build a home for a minister, the Rev. Daniel Hanchart, who has established a church in Richmond, Jamaica, near the north-central side of the island.
“We’ve got it about two-thirds filled,” Schrock said.
Schrock said they have collected a bathtub, three organs, mattresses, household goods, tools and other equipment. More is needed for the house and ministry projects, the women said. Donations of books, Bibles, CDs, summer clothing, sewing machines, kitchen appliances and utensils, tools and perhaps even Styrofoam construction blocks are being solicited now.
The sewing machines and woodworking tools can be used to help needy Jamaicans learn a trade to support themselves.
Schrock and Thomson are looking into the feasibility of building the minister’s home using the blocks, which link together and are held by lateral and vertical rebar, then covered with cement.
“It makes a very solid house, to withstand a hurricane,” Schrock said.
They are hoping the goods can be taken to New Orleans to be loaded onto one of three ships the “Friendships” organization maintains there; they would like for the trailer to be shipped to Port Antonio, Jamaica, before the end of the year. The trailer then will be taken to Buff Bay and unloaded for the Hanchart.
“He built his church, and we’re going to help him build his home,” Schrock said.
Because of the organization’s affiliation with the Arkansas ministry, the goods can be taken into Jamaica without paying the 45 percent duty that would be required.
Schrock and Thomson established The Potter’s Hands ministry here in 2005, under the umbrella of the Christ for the World organization operated by pastor Bobby Hogan in Fort Smith, Ark. Schrock, who said she formerly worked as a teacher and received her law degree from Washburn University, was ordained through the Global Network Ministers, operated by Dr. Robert W. Carman in Red Oak, Texas. Potter’s Hands holds Sunday services at 11 a.m. in the women’s home at 1731 West 15th Ave., Schrock said.
The women plan to return to Jamaica later to minister to inmates in a women’s prison in Kingston, as well as in remote areas and in rest homes, called infirmaries. They have been to Jamaica eight times on mission trips since 1999, she said.
In November 2006, the pair sponsored a young man, Kevin Ennis, to come to the United States as a student after he aged out of the orphanage in Copse, Jamaica, in which he had been reared.
“I count him as my son,” Schrock said. “Some day, when he becomes a resident we can adopt him, if he chooses. We are his sponsors.”
In the interim, he has received his GED from the Adult Education Center and is attending classes to become a computer programmer through Allen County Community College in Burlingame.
“So far, out of four classes, he’s got two A’s,” Schrock said. “He’s doing real well.
More information about The Potter’s Hands and its mission to Jamaica may be had by calling 342-3822.