Madison Resident Helps Those In Need In Tennessee

By Larry Holt

Thirty-one members of Faith Lutheran Church in New Providence – thirteen adults and eighteen college and high school students – spent the week of Sunday, June 29 to Saturday, July 4 helping people of Cosby, an impoverished town in the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee. This was the eighteenth consecutive year that Faith Lutheran has visited Cosby.

The effort of Faith Lutheran consisted of two initiatives. One was a camp for children, ages three through fifteen, which provided Christian education, music, arts and crafts as well as recreation. Additionally, each day the children were given a nutritious lunch and snacks.

The second initiative was directed toward a widow, who lives in a trailer. The group from Faith constructed a porch on her trailer. She now enjoys sitting outside, an experience she had not had previously.

In response to a particular need in Cosby, the Faith group provided eighty meals for the seniors and poor of the area.

Planning and leading this mission outreach were Faith Lutheran’s pastors, Rev. Dr. Murdoch MacPherson and Rev. Jane McCready, plus Faith members; Susan Nord of Basking Ridge and Cliff Auchter of Berkeley Heights.

Faith Lutheran is located at 524 South Street in New Providence. The phone number is 908-464-5177. The web site is www.famfaith.org

Picture: Loading the bus prior to the thirteen hour ride to Cosby. TN are, from left, Juli Porto of Berkeley Heights, Lily Delatour of Berkeley Heights, Laura Hays of New Providence, Erika Pedersen of Madison