Columbia Baptists help crank out mobility

By Jennifer Harris
Word&Way News Writer

Inside a noisy, but remarkably clean shop, 85-year-old Mel West oversees the operations of the PET Project. Five members of First Baptist Church, Columbia, join the “regulars” at the volunteer organization to load 166 PETs, or Personal Energy Transportation, for shipment to Cameroon.

The PETs are hand-cranked wheelchairs, built with three wheelbarrow wheels and tires and a cargo space. PETs are “designed to provide the gift of mobility to persons who have lost the use of their legs due to polio, landmine injury, amputation, disease, etc.”

According to West, over 21 million people in the world crawl on the ground due to lack of other means of mobility. “If the 21 million persons were all in one line of crawling people, it would be a line 30,000 miles long,” he wrote in a dedication litany.

When a request for a large shipment of PETs came from the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Board, West immediately called John Baker, pastor of First Baptist, and asked if the church would like to assist the project by paying for shipping.

Baker “jumped at the chance,” said West, and asked if there was a way to be involved beyond the finances. The church missions team, chaired by Larry Rollins, toured the shop and liked what they saw.

“God has spoken to us through the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, asking us to bring relief, comfort, hope and dignity to some of the ‘least of these,’” Baker read during a dedication service after loading the PETs. “We have learned about our sisters and brothers in need, and are providing for some of them the previous gift of mobility which Christ and his disciples gave to the lame of their day.”