Hill District church has tradition of giving
For 90 years, Enon Baptist Church in the Hill District has been ministering to people in need. During its annual community day celebration held in the summer, it hires musicians and church members to distribute clothes, shoes and furniture to struggling individuals and families.
Year-round, it encourages people living on the streets to share food at its worship site on Erin Street. The building, which once housed a synagogue, sits in a tidy residential neighborhood not far from busy Wylie Avenue. But it stands out on the block with its yellow-brick facade, brightly painted red doors and red trim around the windows.
The tiny congregation has only 20 core members, but often the place is filled for Sunday services, said Raymond Harper, church deacon and pastor-elect.
Though it’s part of the Missionary Baptist movement, he said, the church can’t afford to sponsor its own mission trips to other countries where people may be recovering from natural disasters and living in poverty or amid political crisis.
“So we donate money to organizations that do missionary-type work in places like Haiti or Venezuela,” he said.
And at Christmas, the members make sure to care for their own.
Adona Shipman,35, a singlemother offour who hasattended thechurch her whole life, will receivegifts for her two youngest thisholiday season because Enon Baptistparticipates in Toys for Tots— the Marine Corps’ annual driveto provide presents for childrenwhose families may lack resources.
ThePost-Gazette’s PG Charities GoodfellowsFund supports Toys forTots by collecting donations to purchasethe toys that will be distributedby the Marines.
Ms. Shipman was born and raised in the Hill District, but her family moved to the North Side when she was a teen. But their ties to Enon Baptist were so strong that they continued to travel across the Allegheny River each Sunday.
She has continued the tradition by taking her own children there.
“Some call it the ‘biggest little church on the Hill,’’’ she said. “My grandmother plays the piano at church, we go to dinners together after services, and even the
non-blood-related members have become family to me.”
After graduating from now-closed Schenley High School, Ms. Shipman attended technical school to train as a medical assistant and worked at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC in an outpatient lab. For the past five years she has worked at Pittsburgh Mercy Family Health Center on the South Side, where she is a team lead medical assistant.
As her children’s primary provider, she has little money left after she pays the monthly bills for their modest home in the North Side’s Observatory Hill neighborhood.
The children’s fathers contribute some money, but on top of food, rent and utilities, she also pays some of the cost for sons Maurice, 17, and Ionie, 14, to attend Central Catholic High School in Oakland.
She receives tuition assistance and said private school is worth it for the boys, who both play basketball, get “pretty decent grades” and may be headed to college to study accounting.
For Christmas, she will likely give the boys gift cards to pick out their own clothes and electronic games.
Toys for Tots will help her supply gifts for 12-yearold Mekhia, and Jordyn, who is 18 months.
Mekhia, who attends seventh grade at Allegheny Traditional Academy, is a “girly-girl” who loves small purses, nail polish and craft sets to make jewelry, said her mother.
For Jordyn, a few brightcolored toys will probably suffice, “because we just hope she’ll understand this year that something’s going on with Christmas,” Ms. Shipman said.
Mr. Harper, who is Ms. Shipman’s uncle, said Enon Baptist also asks its members to refer needy families outside the congregation who could benefit from Toys for Tots.
He will pick up the goodies at the Marines’ distribution center in West Mifflin, then personally deliver them to families in the Hill District and elsewhere.
Mr.Harper, 69, who is retiredfrom the state Departmentof Banking, expects to beordained as the church’s pastorin January. He hopes toadd a weekday Bible study andmore holiday services thatmight attract attendees.
Though he now lives in Penn Hills, he has worshipped there since he was a boy, and his mother and family made the steep trek to Enon Baptist every week from their home on Second Avenue near the Brady Street Bridge.
“It’s an old family church,” he said. “We give whatever we can.”
To make a contribution to the Goodfellows Fund, use the coupon that appears with this story and send it to Post-Gazette Goodfellows, P.O. Box 590, Pittsburgh PA 15230; or donate online at www.post-gazette.com/ goodfellows.
All contributions are tax-deductible and all are acknowledged in the newspaper.