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Lives impacted through weekend of outreach
BR staff
May 01, 2012
3 MIN READ TIME

Lives impacted through weekend of outreach

Lives impacted through weekend of outreach
BR staff
May 01, 2012

Vera Miller sat quietly at the kitchen counter eating her breakfast this past Saturday. If you didn’t know about the eight men who were outside her front door swinging hammers and cutting wood to install a wheelchair ramp for her, you’d think it was just any typical day.

But for the 75-year-old Miller, – who suffers from Parkinson’s disease and dementia – that ramp will allow her family to more easily navigate her wheelchair in and out of their Raleigh home.

This past weekend, Miller was one of many North Carolinians who received a newly built wheelchair ramp. Through a partnership – called Rampin’Up! – between Operation Inasmuch, N.C. Baptist Men and N.C. Baptist Aging Ministry (NCBAM), the three groups joined forces to build wheelchair ramps across the state.

05-01-12ramp.jpg

BR photo by Shawn Hendricks

Vera Miller, 75, and her daughter Vicky Coerper, were among the many who received help April 28 through Operation Inasmuch. Because of a partnership with North Carolina Baptist Men and the N.C. Baptist Aging Ministry, Miller will be able to be more mobile. Baptist churches in Raleigh and Wake Forest worked together to build Miller a ramp.

Rampin’Up! helped kick off the first weekend of Operation Inasmuch 2012, a national initiative that N.C. Baptists participate in every two years to share the love of Christ through practical, hands-on projects in their community. This upcoming Saturday, May 5, churches will take to the streets again to participate in the final weekend of this year’s initiative and help those in their community.

For Vera Miller and her daughter, Vicky Coerper, the project was a blessing.

“I know God is in the middle of this,” said Coerper who has taken care of her mother the past three years in her home with husband Steve.

“All of a sudden some wonderful things started happening.”

About three weeks ago, Coerper received a call that let her know a group from Bayleaf Baptist Church in Raleigh and Wakefield Baptist Church in Wake Forest were going to build her mother a ramp. Coerper shared that in recent months her mother has had more difficulty navigating steps in the house and has taken some “bad spills.”

Those involved with the project hope the new ramps will help provide more freedom to the wheelchair bound.

The final number of how many ramps that were built on April 28 has not been reported, however, groups were signed up to build more than 300 ramps. One Baptist association was signed up to build more than 20 ramps, said Sandy Gregory, director of NCBAM.

“It was Baptists working together in partnership that made it possible,” Gregory said. “Everybody coming together. Hopefully, in two years we can do it again.”

Those who built ramps this past weekend are encouraged to share their stories by clicking here.

For the complete story be sure to check out the May 12 issue of the Biblical Recorder or future updates at brnow.org.