Eva Chiphe
Photos| Cheris Hodges/Herald-Advocate
BENNETTSVILLE— There are Angels Among Us and the Herald-Advocate, along with Champion Media will be celebrating these amazing people on Oct. 12 at The Skye from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
This is the first year that Marlboro County has been a part of the annual Angels Among Us magazine, which covers Anson, Richmond, and Scotland counties in North Carolina. We’re excited to be able to highlight the goodness of Marlboro County’s angels.
The inaugural Marlboro County angels are Eva Chiphe of Clio and Roger and Anne Griggs of Bennettsville. Here’s a sneak peek into their stories that will be featured in the magazine.
Roger and Anne Griggs
It was a cold winter day when Anne and Roger Griggs were heading out of town for some well-deserved rest and relaxation. As the couple drove out of town, Anne Griggs noticed a woman walking through town and she didn’t have a hat or gloves. She was someone the Griggs had seen walking through Bennettsville before. But that day, Anne Griggs said it was “freezing cold.”
“We stopped and whatever we had in the car, we gave it to her,” she said. “I think it touched both of us that there was a need here in the town. So, that weekend we went to the community kitchen down at the beach and checked it out and saw how it operated. We both talked about it and we said, let’s see if this is what God wants us to do. And we started working on it and sure enough, it came together.”
What came together was the Community Kitchen of Bennettsville. For two years, the Griggs looked and prayed to find the right building for the kitchen.
After hearing a sermon series entitled “all in” at the beach, Roger Griggs said those sermons were directed at him and his wife. And, according to Roger Griggs, they weren’t all in because of a property they owned at the Lakewood Campground.
“We put it on the market for sale. Immediately on October 31, 2018, we were given our current building, courtyard, and rear parking lot free of charge.”
The building, which hadn’t been occupied for more than 40 years needed work. And lots of it. “God sent us 12 volunteers — we never called any of them,” he said. The volunteers provided services ranging from plumbing, carpentry, and roofing in November 2018. On May 1, 2019, the Community Kitchen of Bennettsville began serving meals to the needy in the city.
Eva Chiphe
How do you show love?
If you’re Eva Chiphe you start a club to show and teach students to love with a servant’s heart. And Chiphe knows what it means to have a servant’s heart because she has a big one.
Around Marlboro County and the town of Clio, Chiphe is known for passing out blessing bags to community organizations and nursing homes. She organizes the Children’s Business Fair and hosts the Children’s Business Plan competition, which promotes youth entrepreneurship. Chiphe serves as the missionary president of Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, where she —among other things — serves the sick and shut-in members of the church. “The Blessing Bags are to help people in need. We gave them to all the nursing homes, the food pantries, the Community Kitchen, and DSS for foster care children.” Chiphe said for the foster children, the bags have toys and things to brighten their day. And for the nursing home residents, the bags contain toiletries and items they might need.
And Chiphe is the founder of the I Love Club, which teaches students to choose love. “The I Love Club was organized to teach children how to love and the importance of love in their lives.”