Church hosts luncheon
Liberty Champion Celebration— The Poplar Spring Baptist Church of Goode, Va., held an appreciation luncheon in their new fellowship hall on Sunday, May 1, with Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. as a guest speaker.
It was all because one woman telephoned Jerry Falwell Jr. that the Poplar Spring Baptist Church of Goode, Va. was able to hold an appreciation luncheon in their new fellowship hall.
Roughly 15 months ago, Florence Spinner called Falwell to ask for his help in getting the hall completed. Almost immediately Falwell called Scott Starnes, Vice President of Field Operations at Liberty, and that got the ball rolling.
“He said, ‘I need you to get a hold of the local and out-of-state contractors and vendors to see if we can raise the labor and materials to finish off the project,’” Starnes said.
Starnes said that the first five phone calls he made brought in more than $100,000 worth of donations, labor and materials. He worked together with Edward Carton, Planner/Expeditor of Field Operations at Liberty, to locate more resources for the project. More than 45 local and out-of-state vendors and suppliers contributed to the cause, including some based in New York.
“Seeing God’s work done here has been unreal,” Starnes said. “The biggest thing is seeing the churches come together and help one another out through hard times.”
The local community as well as Liberty students and other churches joined in to provide labor and money. Some people offered to stop and help when they drove by the church while Liberty students traveled to the church with LU Transit to offer their assistance.
“We had people from Catholic, from Methodist, from all different churches,” Carton said. “What I’ve gotten out of this is that it’s been a blessing to see how the body of Christ came together and worked as a team and put aside our minor differences and worked together for God’s kingdom.”
It took all of the help from donations, volunteer labor around the community and help from the vendors to finish the project which had been waiting for completion for 20 years, according to Falwell.
“There is no way Liberty could have done this much out of our campus church offering,” Falwell told the gathering at the luncheon. “We hope the church will focus on growing.”
The luncheon was held in the new fellowship hall building to honor all of those who had contributed to the project.
“You all did your part and God has rewarded you,” Falwell said. “Florence is a strong believer of that verse ‘You have not because you ask not.’”