This article originally appeared as the cover story of the Religious Herald on May 4, 2006.
At a time of the year when Christians take a week to remember the life, death and resurrection of Christ, New Bethesda Baptist Church in Mechanicsville spent three days sharing Christ with a family and a small community in St. Stephens Church.
A few months ago, the Ruffin family contacted New Bethesda Church requesting help from the congregation’s benevolence fund to help pay an electric bill. When Dennis and Sandy Shupe, members of the benevolence committee, went to deliver the assistance, they discovered more needs the Ruffin family had.
“The Lord led us to their church, and I know it was the Lord,” Patsy Ruffin said. “We had a need and I asked God to help supply us, and he did, and it’s been a blessing ever since.”
Since that first meeting, members of New Bethesda took the opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus. A vehicle was donated to the Ruffins so they could get jobs. A gift card was given for groceries, and firewood was donated to heat the home during the winter. And members of the church helped repair the family’s well so they would have running water.
“Our water wasn’t working and my husband would have to walk down to the neighbor’s house with a bucket,” Ruffin said. “And sometimes I would have to wash the dishes with soda, ’cause there wasn’t any water.”
The biggest job was completing the roof repair. Throughout this three-day project, more than 67 members of New Bethesda-which typically sees about 100 to 110 people in attendance each Sunday-helped with “The Ruffin Project”-yet many of them never climbed onto the roof.
While one team spent time on top of the house, removing shingles and installing the new roof, others cleaned up the debris on the ground. While all of that work was taking place, another team prepared snacks and a mid-day meal. The devotion team brought all the teams together each morning and afternoon for a devotion and prayer time, while back in Mechanicsville many more prayed for the project in class and at work.
“It’s so wonderful, they’re doing the roof,” Ruffin said. “It’s just a beautiful roofing project. We had, not a leak, but a pour. They’re giving us a new roof and it’s beautiful, and I thank God for it.”
Jim Lehman, one of the construction team leaders, said, “This is a mission God sent me on. [The Ruffins] are very appreciative of things we have done as a church, and just overwhelmed by the love that our church has shown to them. The outpouring of everybody that’s been here has just been great. And the food was good too.”
At the beginning of the year, Todd Combee, pastor at New Bethesda, told the church that he wanted to see a churchwide, hands-on mission project that would involve the entire church.
“[The Ruffin Project] accomplished what I hoped it would, and that is involving our whole church community together, working on a local project,” Combee said. “I was witness to some great things happening this week, and I’m marveled at the way that God brought our community called New Bethesda together and put it on mission, being the church that God has called us to be-in a very simple way. Nailing shingles on a roof. Helping a family restore their home. A simple way of acting out the goodness and love that Christ has for us, in a very real and tangible way.”
Carolyn Hollins, food team coordinator, said this project accomplished a long-term goal of the church.
“It means a real opportunity for people to get involved in missions in our area,” Hollins said, “when we’ve spent so many years supporting people who went away, when they couldn’t go away. Now they have an opportunity to be involved hands-on in the local area.”
While the teams finished Thursday’s work, Patsy Ruffin’s father passed away. “All this love,” Ruffin said, “really takes away a lot of the grieving that I probably would have been doing.”
Combee expects this mindset to continue, and he said “the fuse has been lit.” There has been discussion of making this a yearly effort, to undertake a community mission project that the whole church can be involved with.
“It’s great to be able to send folks off on mission trips, and we believe in that very strongly. But we also believe in taking care of folks here, too,” Combee said.
The Ruffins have already had an opportunity to carry on this mission and share this message of Christ’s love with their neighbors.
Ray Ruffin recalled, “People have said, ‘Oh, can I rub your hand?’ I say, ‘Rub the hand of God, ’cause that’s who it is.’ ”
New Bethesda Baptist Church partnered with the glocal missions and evangelism team of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board to assist in the completion of The Ruffin Project. Aaron Lee is minister of youth at New Bethesda Church.
