RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS: CHURCH PROVIDES A 'HELPING HAND' TO THOSE IN NEED

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in." -- Matthew 25:35

Safeya Shardya Anderson was graciously welcomed into the world and to the Helping Hands House as its first guest when her family needed a place to stay near Christmastime.

When the infant was born in Cape Girardeau in December, she arrived several weeks earlier than expected leaving her family stranded. The family had been traveling from Minnesota to Arkansas, when car trouble arose and the child was born.

Members of First Baptist Church had just started an outreach ministry the Helping Hands House at 229A N. Pacific St., and the family was the first to benefit from the church's kindness.

Nearly six months later, dozens of families have stayed at the Helping Hands House, which offers free lodging to families with relatives staying at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

Three sleeping rooms, a kitchenette and bathroom make up the Helping Hands House. Furnishings were donated by church and community members.

"It shows that we really care about the community," said Marjorie George, a church member. "We hope in doing that that it puts a face to Christians that we are caring people.

"The Bible says that you need to meet physical needs and then you can offer to meet spiritual needs."

As coordinator for the Helping Hands House, John Young has welcomed many of the families and relatives to the house since it began operating last fall. Young, also a church member, is trying to reconstruct the earliest visits to the house and record all future visits. He keeps track of notes and visits in a ledger kept at the church.

Young knows how important it is to have a place to stay when a relative is hospitalized. He and his wife, Rachel, were able to use the Ronald McDonald House in St. Louis while their daughter, Cindy, had surgery earlier this year.

But not everyone is that lucky.

His father was not able to find a hotel room near the Kansas hospital where Young's mother was being treated many years ago. "If he would have had something like this it would have been great," Young said.

Finding a hotel and driving back and forth to the hospital or home can be tiring for families already under stress because a relative is hospitalized. So members of First Baptist Church devised a plan to lighten the load with the Helping Hands House.

The church Mission Council began looking at ways to provide community missions and enlist volunteers from the church. Members had helped to build a house with Habitat for Humanity in 1998 and were looking for more community outreach opportunities, said George, a missions council member.

Someone came up with the idea for the Helping Hands House, which not only became a missions project but a remodeling project as well.

The house sits near the corner of the church's property and needed some renovation before it could be used. Last summer, church members set about transforming an upstairs apartment into rooms that could be used for lodging.

Visitors to the Helping Hands House are screened through the hospital's social services department and then greeted by a church member.

Church members serving on the "greet team" wear a pager that the hospital uses to contact them when a need arises. Other teams of volunteers wash the linens and cleans the rooms after each visit.

Nearly every visitor has appreciated the church's help. Notes and donations have been left as families leave and patients are discharged. One note read that the Helping Hand House "made our load so much easier to bear. It gave us a greater peace knowing our dad was taken care of."

Finding volunteers has been almost too easy. Church members are "ready and willing to do the volunteer work," Young said, adding that he hopes more visitors can use the house in the coming months.

"We can see that it meets the needs of the people," he said.