CARTERSVILLE — “We’ll grieve. We’ll miss these two men. But as we grieve, we know this is only a brief event.
“Now is the time for us to pick up where they left off. It’s time for us to carry on their work.”
Pastor Don Hattaway used these words in comforting a shellshocked crowd of family and friends during prayer meeting at Tabernacle Baptist Church Wednesday night, barely 32 hours after a truck accident in rural Honduras claimed the lives of church members Ric Mason and Perry Goad.
In speaking of the deceased, church members talked about a desire to contribute to others, by whatever means.
Vicki Barnes heads Tabernacle’s Ghana Bandage Project, a ministry where unused envelopes and torn sheets are used to create bandages sent to a Baptist Medical Center in West Africa. Goad and Mason helped her load the last shipment of 55-gallon drums containing bandages Jan. 19.
“I’m shocked. [Ric and Perry] have been going here for so many years. You keep thinking they’re going to come back, but they’re not,” she said.
“Ric was very active in the community,” said Tom Bandy, a deacon at the church. “He had gone on the Honduras mission trip for many years. Both of his kids had gone on the trip with him at different times.”
Bandy also noted Mason’s role as executive director of the Etowah Foundation, a foundation that has assisted students by awarding $2.3 million in college scholarships. Prior to that Mason was owner of The Meating Place, a popular local restaurant.
Since 2001, Mason had been a part of Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief Unit 6F, a feeding unit based in Marietta.
“Perry was like a brother to me,” said Allan Early of Goad, who was involved in the church’s television ministry. “I’ve known Ric for years through things like coaching soccer together. It’s hard to believe [they’re gone], but it’s true.”
Early was originally slated to go on the trip, but ended up staying in Georgia. He remembered the spirits of the group as he drove them to Hartsfield-Jackson Airport for their flight to Honduras.
“You could tell they were excited about going,” he said. “It was just another opportunity for them to go and minister.”
Goad and Mason died after the truck transporting their group slid off the road in mountainous area of Honduras Tuesday morning. A third member of the group, Martha Fuller, a member of Newnan First United Methodist Church, also died in the accident.
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