ARTICLES

Ecumenical partnership helping the needy

By Barbara Hughes
Special to The Catholic Virginian

The presence of two used shipping containers standing side by side on the property of New Creation Community in Virginia Beach is the result of a partnership between the Catholic Charismatic community and Hope Charitable Services of Portsmouth.

Deacon Darrell Wentworth, spiritual director of New Creation Community who also serves as the Bishop’s Liaison to the Evangelical and Pentecostal communities, met Bishop Frank Allen, Pastor of Hope Charitable Services, about four or five years ago.

“Since then our relationship grew strongly, practically and personally,” said Bishop Allen. “Darrell has been a support to me emotionally and ministerially.”

In a short period of time, the two men learned they had much in common.

“Frank has such a vision of inner faith and it shows how God takes a little inspiration and brings it to fruition,” explained Deacon Wentworth.

In November of 2006 New Creation Community partnered with the Pentecostal Mission and members of the Greek Orthodox and Lutheran churches. The effort involved sending $228,000 worth of Britannica Encyclopedias and backpacks with educational supplies to the Holy Land.

Bishop Allen considers his relationship with the Roman Catholic Church a valuable one.

While working with the Franciscans in Jerusalem, it was suggested that he contact the local diocese who put him in touch with Darrell Wentworth.

According to Bishop Allen, the mission of the ecumenical/trans-denominational non-profit organization is to provide practical poverty and disaster relief at home and abroad.

“We reach across the United States into various inner cities, Native American reservations, migrant camps, rural poverty pockets and depressed areas in Appalachia,” Bishop Allen said.

“We serve 25 of the poorest countries around the world and our footprint remains strong in Portsmouth, a port city in the greater Hampton Roads.”

Currently the partnership, which includes St. Mathew’s Catholic Church, Apostles Lutheran Church, Kempsville Presbyterian and several Pentecostal churches, is focused on sending containers that serve as medical/dental clinics to third world countries.

Used, 40-foot shipping containers are purchased from the shipping lines. The exterior is painted and the interiors are retrofitted with the necessary electrical, plumbing and construction at a cost of about $15,000 per unit in materials.

All labor is donated as well as much of the materials and equipment.

“Instead of donating money for a dental chair, someone will often donate the chair and in working with a roofing company, the owner decided to donate the materials,” Deacon Wentworth explained. “It’s not often they have the opportunity to help build a clinic in a third world country so when they hear about it, they want to help”.

The containers offer two examining rooms, a waiting area, a pharmacy and a restroom.

The space is air conditioned and all electricity is powered by its own generator. On arrival at their destination, the clinics, which are equipped with basic medical and dental equipment, are parked next to a school located in the area of need.

The country of destination agrees to staff the clinic with a physician in or nurse and Hope Charitable Services supplements the local team with volunteer medical personnel.

To date, Bishop Allen said he has 178 requests from countries around the world that are in need of such clinics.

“The needs are limitless and donations are needed,” Deacon Wentworth pointed out.

The containers at New Creation have recently been painted and are being retrofitted and equipped to be sent to El Salvador and Bangladesh.

At a cost of about $5,500 to ship a container to Central or South America or the Caribbean, the target date for shipping the container to El Salvador is this August. Pending contributions, the group hopes to ship the container to Bangladesh by January of 2009.

Bishop Allen plans to take the containers on tour and park them in church parking lots around the area as a way to highlight the effort and raise the necessary funds. “The tour is a way to bring the mission field to your parish,” he pointed out.

“The goal is not for us to do all the work but to create unity on common ground,” he said. “We may not be the same behind the altar, but we are all the same on the streets as people who are created in God’s image.”

In addition, the partnership is raising funds to send 3,000 back packs with school supplies to the Holy Land.

“We have partnered with St. Matthew’s Catholic Church and we hope to partner with other churches in the diocese and numerous existing partners to support the often forgotten Christians caught in the middle of the Holy Land crisis,” Bishop Allen said.

Deacon Wentworth sees the venture as a way to also build bridges among Christian denominations.

“One of the partners, Pastor Bobby Hoyle, was not only skeptical about Catholics, but was vehemently anti-Catholic,” he said. “But all that has melted away as we’ve gotten to know one another.”

“My hope is that this ongoing partnership will develop in a way so that these medical and mission trips will draw people from all faiths to share their faith experience while they work together” Deacon Wentworth said.

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