Joplin Globe, MO
Jan 24 2009

Rich Brown: Small Joplin church taking big strides

Tommy Freeman may pastor a congregation small in numbers but the
members are a group of people making a huge difference in a lot of
lives.

St. James United Methodist Church, 2501 E. 20th St., has an average
attendance of 40 to 50 people with an annual budget of only $48,000
but its plans to help other less fortunate souls have gone far beyond
their church walls.

The congregation’s love and generosity began last year when their
pastor proposed a project for Heifer International, a nonprofit
Christian organization that specializes in providing livestock and
related services to limited-resource families worldwide.

Bill Ohler, a member of St. James, then suggested that the
congregation fund a $5,000 Gift Ark, which gives money to buy a wide
variety of animals, as well as beehives to help families in Armenia
earn money through the sale of honey and beeswax.

The wonderful St. James family responded in a big way. The
fund-raising ended last November with a $5,240 Ark check, as well as
other donations, presented to Heifer International.

The Gift Ark was funded through onetime or monthly pledges. In
addition, Freeman estimated that about $1,000 was raised by sending
children into the congregation each Sunday to gather pocket change or
whatever dollars they could.

With barely enough time to catch their breaths from the 2008
fund-raiser, members of St. James have taken on yet another
humanitarian cause for the new year. You might call it their PET
Project.

PET is the acronym for Personal Energy Transportation. The
three-wheeled PET units allow individuals in third-world countries who
do not have use of their legs to become mobile.

Each unit costs $250 and St. James’ goal is to provide 20 of them,
which translates into $5,000 that must be raised.

`We already have funding for nine PETs,’ Freeman said this week. `We
are on target. In fact, it looks like we could go over 20 units.’

St. James is working with PET of Southwest Missouri to get the units
built and shipped overseas. The Southwest Missouri shop is located
between Mount Vernon and Aurora. St. James volunteers, as well as
those from other area churches, are helping in the building process.

`We will probably take all the money over there at one time to do the
building,’ said Freeman, who is in his fifth year at St. James. He
added that 100 percent of the work done on PET units is volunteer.

Freeman said there are two of the units at his church for people to
see and youngsters to ride.

The PET idea actually originated in Missouri by two pastors, Larry
Hills and Mel West. With the help of Earl Miner, Hills and West acted
on the idea in response to the loss of mobility for people in Zaire
due to landmine injuries and polio.

With more than 40 individuals/groups across the United States building
parts for the units and shipping them to Third-World countries, PETs
are helping people in more than 40 countries.

al_story_023114100.html?keyword=topstory