From Ray Ellington’s perspective, Ford Motor Company’s BlueOval City has changed everything about Haywood County in Tennessee.
But it hasn’t changed his faithfulness to the Lord.
In the next few years 90,000 people are expected to move to West Tennessee to work at the plant, slated to become the largest automobile production facility in the nation in 2025.
That’s a lot of new customers for The Fork Restaurant, which Ellington owns.
Ellington, nearly 88, has spent most of his life in Haywood County, growing up just a few miles down the road from the restaurant near Brownsville.
One morning during his 3 a.m. prayer time, Ellington said he realized he could do something to help the people who would soon be moving in.
“Maybe you could offer the facility to at least get something started,” he thought to himself.
He reached out to Grover Westover, pastor of Walnut Hill Baptist Church Bells, saying he wanted to have an interdenominational prayer meeting once a month.
“We just gather the first Saturday of each month to pray for revival, pray for the lost and to pray for the folks that are coming here with BlueOval City and for the folks that are already here,” Westover said.
Of course Ellington provides breakfast.
‘Everybody can do something’
Westover noted churches in Haywood Baptist Association already are making an impact on new residents. Construction workers attend one church; another has made inroads at a travel trailer park where workers live.
BlueOval City Partnership has a goal of four new church plants a year for the next 10 years in the seven-county area near the site in Stanton.
One lease on a church property has already been signed, and the procurement of two other church buildings and a parcel of land is in process, said Danny Sinquefield, coordinator of the BlueOval City Partnership with the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.
Ellington’s monthly prayer meeting will undoubtedly be critical to the success of these goals. He has a burden for the lost and a burden for revival, said Westover, who has known Ellington for 25 years.
“Who knows what God is going to do because of the obedience of one layman?” Westover said.
“Everybody can do something,” Ellington noted. “You look at the things you can do and just walk the walk and talk the talk.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Ashley Perham and originally published by Baptist and Reflector.
