No excuses not to volunteer for ministry

By Dianna L. Cagle

BR Assistant Managing Editor

Rick Pennell uses his golf cart to dump gravel at an Operation Inasmuch project site. Pennell, who is paralyzed on his right side, is a member of Troutman Baptist Church.

Contributed photo

From age to ability, there were no excuses not to volunteer for the recent Operation Inasmuch (OIAM) April 19.

"He always wants to be included," said Jeff Chandler of Rick Pennell, a stroke victim with limited speech and mobility. "He just can't communicate."

The men from Troutman Baptist Church in Troutman, took Pennell to build a wheelchair ramp for a family within their community.

The seven men working on the project brought Pennell to "just ride around and watch and hang out with us," Chandler said.

Pennell, whose right side is paralyzed, uses a golf cart to get around. Throughout the day, Pennell observed the progress of the 40-foot wheelchair ramp.

Chandler said the homeowner, who has "quite a bit of health issues," spent most of his time near the rear of the mobile home and was worried about getting out if a fire started.

Near the end of the more than six-hour project, the men realized they needed some gravel to level out the ramp's end.

Looking around, the men found a pile of rock in the trees 40 to 50 feet away but they had two shovels.

"It was going to be very labor intensive to get the rock where it needed to be," Chandler said.

Pennell, who can only say small words like "yes," "no" or "OK," grunted to get the men's attention. His golf cart had a dump bed on the back. Pennell drove to the rock pile and allowed the team to load the bed. He drove back to the ramp and pulled a lever, allowing the gravel to spill at the ramp.

"He was just so tickled," Chandler said. "God opened that door for him to be a positive contribution."

The men built a landing with the wheelchair ramp so the homeowner can get outside and watch nature.

Chandler said he overheard the homeowners saying how "God put all the right people together" for the project. "It was real neat," he said.

Pennell was one of more than 230 volunteers from his church to help with OIAM projects in Iredell County.

While Pennell's limitations did not exclude him from working with his church, other churches also discovered age could not stand in the way of a good volunteer.

When asked why have a lemonade stand at Hertford Baptist Church's Inasmuch, Collin Madre, 6, said, "I just wanted to."

From the first meeting Madre attended with his mother, Lisa, he wanted to get involved in Inasmuch. His stand, situated near the car wash station and hot dog table, was a hit with volunteers and visitors.

At Shiloh Baptist Church in Shiloh, Taylor Locklear, 6, volunteered as a window cleaner. He polished windows outside and inside the cars that came for car washes at the church.