Hopewell United Methodist Church held a fundraiser to help pay for a bomb shelter for a church in Ukraine.
The May 20 included “a little bit of everything,” according to Pastor Mike Evans. Attendees could purchase many items, including baked goods, clothing and donated goods. There was also a car wash. The Culpeper County Sheriff’s Department and the Virginia State Police were also on hand to do fingerprinting for children.
“We’re trying to do things to get the community involved in and we’re trying to support what Culpeper Baptist Church is doing, raising funds for Ukraine,” the pastor said. “We’re trying to be a community event that people can rally around.”
Hopewell approached Culpeper Baptist Church about helping it to reach its goal of raising $25,000 to support churches in Ukraine. The money is mostly earmarked for reinforcing churches as bomb shelters so citizens can seek sanctuary while under attack. The rest of the funds will help with other building projects, medical supplies, food and water.
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“We often pick up a lot of things that we support and work on, do a lot of community things,” said Robert Fuqua, a local resident and the church’s former choir director. “This church is amazing, it does a lot of things and we appreciate the community helping us.”
Evans gave credit for the event to Nancy Weaver, a member of the church’s congregation. Thanks to her, the church was able to put everything together in under three weeks.
“We bounced around ideas on how to help Ukraine,” Weaver said. “The situation is so dire and we read in the paper about Culpeper Baptist Church sending funds to help build two classrooms and a bomb shelter. We felt we had to get in there and do something.”
Evans said Hopewell aspires to support Culpeper Baptist Church in reaching its donation goal. The church has been working with the European Baptist Foundation to distribute funds to churches in the war-torn country. According to Evans, the Culpeper community had donated about $180,000 over the last two years.
The pastor said the church has collected $2,262 so far, with more donations coming in.
Hopewell United Methodist Church is located at 23557 Lignum Road in Lignum.
