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Church women find sweet way to raise money for missions

Photo by Larry Smith, East Tennessee State University Members of Sulphur Springs United Methodist Church in east Tennessee prepare Valentine treats to raise funds for mission projects.

They’re teachers, businesswomen, housewives and retirees. They’re United Methodists. And they’re meticulous.

Each winter, in the weeks before Valentine’s Day, these United Methodist Women rush out of their homes, offices and classrooms, and converge in the kitchen at Sulphur Springs United Methodist Church in rural Washington County, Tenn., where they lace on aprons and make turtles.

It’s a good time for candy production. The church covered-dish dinner schedule’s a little lighter with the passing of the holidays, and it’s still eight months before parishioners barbecue 450 chicken halves for the Harvest Festival.

People around Sulphur Springs live by tradition, so it’s likely the UMW’s four years of immersion in chocolate and caramel will turn into decades. The Carders, the Squibbs, the Sherfeys and the Deakinses have lived between these ridges for nearly two centuries. Wedged among encroaching brick ranch houses are cattle farms that have been in the same families since the 1820s. The Sulphur Springs Pizza Parlor occupies the site of an old blacksmith shop and grocery store.

Last year, Sulphur Springs United Methodist held its 185th camp meeting. Beside the current church sits a metal-roofed shed, built in 1900 from many of the hand-hewn beams Pastor William Milburn hauled out of the woods and lashed together for the original structure back in 1845.

Photo by Larry Smith, East Tennessee State University Bobbie Carder (right) and Carolyn Maden create chocolate turtles to sell at the annual Valentine’s Day fund-raiser.

“The congregation historically has shared a unique relationship with nearby Sulphur Springs Baptist Church,” says Jonathan Jonas, the current pastor. “In previous generations, it was not at all uncommon for married couples to divide their participation and membership between the two. The husband might be a member of one, and the wife a member of the other.

“One leader in our congregation says he avoided listening to a sermon for years as a child by choosing which parent he accompanied to church. Since both congregations were circuit churches, they didn’t have preaching every week, and he always attended whichever church wasn’t having preaching that Sunday.”

Behind the bricked, 400-member Methodist church, which dates to 1921, is a Community Ministry Center, dedicated in 1995, where the winter candy-making takes place. On one of the stainless steel countertops there’s a sheet of round-cornered, computer-generated labels, each reading “Pray for Peace” and ready to be centered on a cellophane bag of chocolate turtles or hearts.

“The money from this candy all goes to mission projects,” says Bobbie Carder, who has taught fifth grade next door at Sulphur Springs Elementary School for 36 years.

“We’ve purchased a telephone tree system that allows us to stay in contact with all our members. We’ve bought a house that will function as a help center and food pantry for the community. We’ve bought groceries for folks who are having a hard time. We’ve paid light bills.”

Photo by Larry Smith, East Tennessee State University Festively packaged chocolate is ready to sell during Sulphur Springs United Methodist Church’s annual fund-raiser.

“The candy sold here at Sulphur Springs has an effect on those recovering from the tsunami in Southeast Asia and supports our mission work in East Africa.”

For two and a half hours after school, the church kitchen is filled with vats of melting chocolate. Practicing the patience that has come from years in elementary school classrooms, these United Methodist Women carefully spoon the hot chocolate into plastic turtle-shaped molds and drizzle in fat-free caramel that retains some of its molten liquidity after the candy sets. A pecan half is nested on top, the candy is cooled, and then it’s iced with more milk chocolate.

A blend of peanut butter, cream cheese, and butter forms the center of the hearts, which are encased in chocolate, and there’s always a batch filled with coconut and butter.

For Valentine’s, the candy is bagged in cellophane with pink and red hearts and tied with wired red foil. It’s all sold by word of mouth, at $2 a bag.

To these devoted ladies, Valentine’s Day is more than Cupid and arrows. It’s a time to express the caring and compassion of a community of faith going back 200 years, through the sweetness and joy of chocolate.

*Sauceman is the executive assistant to the president for university relations at East Tennessee State University. This feature first appeared in The Kingsport (Tenn.) Times-News in 2005.

News media contact: Jan Snider, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5474 or newsdesk@umcom.org.