PETERSBURG, Va. — As travelers packed their bags and hit the interstates on the way to the beach, campground or other getaways on Memorial Day, volunteers from churches in the Petersburg (Va.) Baptist Association were packing coolers, coffee pots and coloring books to greet those who would stop at four nearby rest areas.
It’s a ministry that is repeated on Labor Day and not only reaches travelers but state troopers and rest area workers as well, said Ron Sowers, Petersburg’s director of missions.
Memorial Day travelers taking a break at the I-85 north rest stop are greeted by volunteers from Smyrna Baptist Church in Dinwiddie, Va.
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The rest stop ministry began about 15 years ago when Nash Odom was director of missions, said Wilson Conwell, mission and evangelism coordinator for the association. When Odom served as a pastor in North Carolina he had been involved in a similar ministry and brought the idea to association leadership.
That first year it began with one rest stop on I-95 north at Carson, Va., said Conwell, pastor of Readville Baptist Church in Sussex, Va. Today it also includes rest areas at the Virginia line on I-95 north and on I-85 both north and south at Dinwiddie, Va. Petersburg Association receives permission from the Virginia Department of Transportation to work these centers from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
“We offer bottled water, coffee, lemonade and have Bible tracts and other literature available,” said Conwell. “At one rest stop where a volunteer has connections with the Gideons International through her husband, New Testaments are available for pick up. They typically give away about 100 New Testaments in a day.”
Association volunteers work at outside tables at three of the rest areas, said Conwell. At the Carson rest stop the association is allowed to set up in a corner of the lobby of the welcome center. On Memorial Day volunteers from six Petersburg Association churches worked two to three hour shifts at four rest areas. One of its churches, Smyrna Baptist in Dinwiddie, has adopted the I-85 north rest stop and its members provide all of the volunteers there. Conwell said 15 to 20 churches in the Petersburg Association support the rest stop ministry through donations of bottled water, paper products and supplies.
Petersburg Baptist Association volunteers are located in the lobby of the rest stop of I-95 north at Carson, Va., offering travelers cold water and lemonade on Memorial Day.
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“For the most part we get a lot of compliments and notes of appreciation from travelers,” Conwell said. “Those that do stop are asked to fill out a sheet indicating their hometown and how many are in their party. It helps give an idea of how many people are served by the rest stop ministry,” which typically is 3,000 to 4,000 persons among the four rest centers.
Some people may see volunteers and pass by without stopping, he said, but many take free coffee, water and coloring books for their children and insist on leaving a donation. “We discourage donations from motorists, but sometimes they just insist,” said Conwell.
Sowers can recall many people who he has met through the rest stop ministry. One year a group of motorcyclists stopped and asked if one of the volunteers would take a photo of them. As this was taking place he said a couple of women traveling from Raleigh approached and recognized one of the cyclists who she had met at an airport prior to his deployment to Afghanistan.
“Our folks enjoy talking with travelers,” said Conwell. One year he met a man and his son from Australia. The son was in school in Alaska and they were visiting historic sites in the United States. And last year on Labor Day he had a conversation with two couples from Syria who had recently relocated to Washington.
“If they ask we talk with people about spiritual matters, but we don’t browbeat people with the gospel,” said Sowers. “Most of the people who we encounter are not from this area, so it’s not a ministry that we do to reach people for our churches,” Conwell adds. “We do it to reach out to people in their time of need.”
On Memorial Day Sowers said several persons of Middle Eastern descent stopped and talked for about 10 minutes and picked up literature, including a New Testament. Faysal Sharif, the Virginia Baptist Mission Board’s Kingdom Advance Ambassador for Muslim Ministries, was headed home after the holiday weekend and happened to stop there — encountering the Petersburg Association volunteers and introducing himself. A while later Sowers said he noticed several from that group with Bible in hand sitting on a bench talking with Sharif.
“I believe that he was witnessing to them,” said Sowers. “You can’t plan for something like that to happen.”
Barbara Francis ([email protected]) is on the staff of the Religious Herald.