Dinner set to raise money to support
missionaries trip to impoverished area
By:Mary Kaempfen
While speaking with Beth Vermette, a parishioner at the Neshanic Reformed Church who’s organizing a missionary project for this summer, Ms. Vermette recited a familiar and powerful Biblical quote.
"’I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you received me in your homes, naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me, a prisoner and you visited me,’" she quoted. "’Whatever you did for the least important followers of mine you did for me.’"
The phrase from Matthew tells us that Christ believed that whatever we do for others we do for him. Ms. Vermette said St. Matthew’s words related to her work as spokesperson and coordinator of the Neshanic church’s project to send 12 adults and 23 teenagers to West Virginia to re-build housing demolished in a natural disaster and to make repairs to others in poverty-stricken areas.
Each person on the mission must raise $255 for food, lodging and miscellaneous needs on the one-week trip. Ms. Vermette is organizing a fund-raising dinner to support the trip for March 22 to help defray some of the expenses for the missionaries.
Ms. Vermette is a slim, curly-haired, smiling person, married to Mark and mother of Joshua and Peter.
Adding that "God uses us for these people," referring to poor people everywhere, she added that planning for the trip is assisted by a group called Christian Endeavor, which helps plan and organize church projects.
The idea to be of help was Ms. Vermette’s, but she solicited the advice and consent of her pastor, David Hill, who told her unequivically to go ahead and form plans for the trip. Even though Ms. Vermette has already participated in many missionary-type trips as a youngster herself, but she will not go on this one.
"Some people are looking for opportunities to help others," she said regarding her fellow parishioners’ motivation. "And they forego staying at home and receiving a week’s pay check because their hearts go out to the indigent.
"Our volunteers are loving people," she adds, "and it’s very satisfying to help people you don’t know."
How do the missionaries or volunteers learn to work with hammers and nails and other tools and those things with which to build a house? Contractors from Christian Endeavor provide the necessary expertise for the less-experienced missionaries.
When asked why an impoverished district in West Virginia was chosen to fill its needs rather than some place in a nearby state, Ms. Vermette’s answer was unusual: "I like to get away from everyday responsibilities."
She also likes the fact this mission requires some travel.
Ms. Vermette maintains that we learn from the acts of un-selfishness that we see others make, such as what the volunteers do; we learn that people will get something when they give.
And Ms. Vermette also sees another act of giving in the fact that each volunteer has a "prayer partner" from whom to get some guidance. Another act of giving for some volunteers will involve the preparation of speeches to be given to the members of the church for their enlightenment regarding the journey to West Virginia.
A sense of purpose yields a spiritual fulfillment or, as Ms. Vermette quotes Christian Endeavor, "My hands, God’s tools."
Ms. Vermette found her own sense of responsibility, her yearning for more activities and her wanting others to understand people who are penniless all to be motivators when she went to her pastor and asked his permission to organize a group to help the needy. Perhaps it could be said of her, "Whatever you did for the least important followers of mine, you did for me."
Tickets for the fund-raising dinner are $10 for adults and $5 for youngsters, and can be reserved by calling Sue Conover at 369-3534.

