Twice a month, Shriner Richard Agent and his wife, Carol Jo, transport a child and one parent to a Shriners Hospital. “I believe God has a purpose for everybody, and this is our ministry,” Agent said of his and his wife’s volunteer outreach. Often the Millington couple leave home in the early morning hours to get a child to a hospital on time for a procedure or doctor’s checkup.

It was on one of those recent early morning trips that the Agents met 2-year-old Abbey and her parents, Rev. Ed Eubanks, pastor of Hickory Withe Presbyterian Church, and his wife, Marcie. Abbey was born with a cleft palate. Searching the Internet for the best place for her daughter’s surgery, Marcie discovered the Shriners Hospitals for Children.

Abbey was evaluated at the Chicago hospital when she was 4 months old. She returned for surgery at 16 months. The most recent visit at 28 months, as those in the past and any until she is 18, will happen with no financial obligation by her family.

“We chose to drive up for Abbey’s surgery and we paid for our meals on the trip. But we didn’t have to,” said Ed Eubanks. “The local Shriners (Memphis) took care of our travel expenses. They paid for our room. And the greatest thing was it cost nothing for Abbey’s experience in the hospital…”

Drivers from West Tennessee usually take children to one of three hospitals. They travel to the orthopedic hospital in St. Louis, the burn center in Cincinnati, or to the hospital in Chicago where the specialty is working with spinal cord injuries or cleft lip and palate.

Editor’s Note: Ed Eubanks is a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America and is a graduate of Covenant Theological Seminary.