Chainsaw gang provides four great days of service

IRVING—Three men from Irving—two from Plymouth Park Baptist Church, one from a nearby Church of Christ—literally let the chips fall where they might during the city’s recent ninth annual faith-based Great Days of Service.

Collectively known as “the chainsaw gang,” their job as part of Great Days of Service during two recent weekends was to clear brush or topple trees on owner-occupied properties identified by the city as needing pruning. Other volunteers worked on plumbing, painting and generl repairs.

Ray Lunsford and Chuck Halteman are veterans in Texas Baptist Men disaster relief work all over the country, so much so that Halteman keeps a duffle packed for quick departure on call. Close to home this time, completely equipped and in non-disaster mode, all they needed were designated sites.

“There’s just one reason we do disaster relief—to witness. We pray with the people, leave them a Bible and encourage them to trust Christ,” Halteman said.

He didn’t say, but he and Lunsford undoubtedly did their share of trusting Jesus on their most challenging Great Days of Service call this year—riding a cherry-picker up 40 feet or so to cut the top out of an enormous cottonwood tree estimated to be at least 100 years old.

During the two weekends of service, volunteers from Plymouth Park Baptist Church packed and delivered to workers about 400 sack lunches donated by Irving restaurants and grocery stores.

Since the program’s beginning in 2002, host church duties have rotated among five participating churches, with a sixth to enter the circuit in 2010.

This year it was Plymouth Park Baptist’s turn, which meant two members—Steve Epperson and Angie Walker—served as co-chairs. He moved among the couple of dozen work sites selected by city officials. She coordinated all aspects of food intake and lunch preparation and deliveries, plus helping handle constant cell phone calls to and from work sites needing help, running out of materials or running out of work.

Quick notes on her master control sheet include jottings like “a lot of work to do,” “7 workers needed,” “sand and replace floor,” “bath tub patch,” “tear down shed,” “build steps for shed” and “tree removal.”

The latter is where “the chainsaw gang” came in. Lunsford and Halteman particularly enjoyed being able to sleep in their own beds after each work day rather than in sleeping bags on church gymnasium floors as they often do on Texas Baptist Men missions.