Over 30 years ago, a man and his wife, feeling led by God to do so, filled up their station wagon with a load of groceries and took off from Croston, KY, driving the six hours to deliver food to Salyersville.
“He said God showed them what needed to be done here,” Rita Cole, with the East Kentucky Missions Thrift Shop and Trinity Revival Center, told the Independent about the founder of the mission, Gene Stevens.
Since that load of groceries was delivered, him and Lawson Hook, of Hopkinsville, have grown the mission into a network of churches and volunteers, collecting not just food, but clothing and home needs, as well as gifts and shoes for children, and distributing them in Eastern Kentucky.
The EastKentucky Missions Thrift Shop, which operates in conjunction with the Trinity Revival Center next door, is located on West Maple St. in downtown Salyersville, with a newspaper clipping pinned to the wall, detailing how they got started.
The “Kentucky New Era” article from 2014 explained that the two men worked together for years at The Salvation Army soup kitchen in Hopkinsville, but in 1992 Stevens felt it was time to do more. He had a friend, Carl Jenkins, who was making missionary trips to Magoffin County to conduct Bible schools. Stevens and his wife joined Jenkins on one of his trips to Magoffin, and he hasn’t stopped making trips to help people here.
Stevens told the Hopkinsville newspaper, “Kentucky has some of the worst poverty in the country, but the poverty out there is so much worse than anywhere else in Kentucky.”
They created the East Kentucky Missions, a Christian-based aid program, which operates solely on donations and by volunteers, and traveled from church to church in their region to gather more people willing to help the mission. Hook and his wife joined in the efforts several years later, and the group has grown, making mission trips multiple times most years, and expanding to help others in need in Eastern Kentucky, such as those affected by flooding last year.
“The poverty is so bad there that children go to bed with no food,” Stevens told the publication. “They’ll say, ‘Mama, I’m hungry’ and the parents will tell them to drink lots of water to try to fill their stomachs. There’s a daily question of whether or not they’ll be able to eat.”
The group made the six-hour trip last week in time for the yearly Christmas giveaway, handing out presents and over 200 pairs of brand-new shoes donated by a shoe store, with the Cole, her husband, Charles, and many others in the Trinity Revival Center and New Beginnings Church pitching in to sort the donated gifts and prepare for the giveaway, held on Saturday December 9.
“We started going to church over here in 1997 and started helping with the Christmas gifts, then started pitching in and helping with the thrift shop and just any other way we can,” Cole said. “We just absolutely look forward to this every year.”
The nonprofit mission helps the community, from Christmas gifts, to helping the homeless, pitching in wherever there is a need, but Cole said the Christmas giveaway is her favorite.
“We love to see the kids’ faces and you just never know what they’re dealing with at home,” Cole said. “One year I had a little girl come in and I had new pair of mittens, waiting to put on a child, and this little girl came in and I told her, ‘I have this pair of mittens for a little angel like you,’ and put them on her. I’ll never forget it, she said, ‘My hands will be cold no more.’”
Truckloads of gifts were brought into Eastern Kentucky with this drive, with everything donated, right down to the transportation, with 1,300 gifts to children handed out in the region, with the majority here in Magoffin on Saturday, with remaining gifts transported to churches in Martin.
The thrift shop helps fund some of what they can do, as well.
“We sell this stuff just to help keep it running, but we’re all nonprofit,” Cole said. Every dollar goes back into this organization so we can help the community.”
While they may have originally never crossed paths, Cole said Stevens and Hook and their families have become family to them, all with the same goal to help the community in any way they can.
“Now, we’re trying to recruit the younger generation to take over, too, especially since both Lawson and Gene both are turning 80 next year and still make these trips,” Cole said. “Thank God, they’ve travelled it all these years and never wrecked, but they pray before they start and pray when they get there.”
In addition to the Christmas giveaways, Cole recounted several stories of being able to help people in need, such as a mom and her children who were leaving a domestic abuse situation and now they have a home to live in and are back on their feet.
“If we don’t have something someone needs, I throw it on Facebook and just give it time,” Cole said. “We have so many people homeless here, and more than that with much less than enough to cover their needs, and everyone here just wants to help the community. It could be any one of us, but we’re here to help.”
Cole said she is thankful for them to have a location downtown so they’re easily accessible to those in need.
If anyone wants to volunteer or donate to the East Kentucky Missions, he/she can stop by the thrift shop on West Maple St. in downtown Salyersville.
