News-Record.com

Darrell Hayden has a smile on his face and look of satisfaction when he discusses tutoring Mu, a sixth-grade Montagnard refugee child at Mendenhall Middle School.

Hayden has made many other contributions to the community but feels this tutoring program is one of the most blessed programs he has been involved with.

"I would most heartily recommend tutoring to anyone who has the desire to help refugee children," Hayden said.

"You need not be a licensed teacher, just a friend and have a willing heart to spend some time sharing with these children," he said.

"Mu has the most beautiful smile," Hayden said. "He has come from being a very quiet boy to one who is full of life, well-mannered and has a great desire to learn."

One morning while listening to TV, Hayden heard Betty Stratford from Mendenhall discuss the need and opportunities available at the school to tutor refugee children.

The more he listened to Stratford's appeal, the more he felt this was God's new plan for him to help others.

He discovered that Stratford started the refugee tutoring program at Mendenhall on her own with no financial support from the school system.

"What a blessing it is for me to be with my friend Mu twice a week during the school year and see him grow in body, mind and spirit," Hayden said. "We laugh, we share, and yes, we learn together. We have become very close friends."

Hayden was born and grew up in High Point and attended High Point City Schools until the 11th grade, when he transferred to Jamestown High School. He graduated from there in 1952.

He attended High Point University and Guilford College.

He served on active duty with the Coast Guard for more than 39 years, serving during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts and then during Operation Desert Shield and Desert

Storm.

He and his family have lived in Greensboro since his discharge from the Coast Guard in 1957.

In 1994, he was asked to serve as a delegate from Mount Pisgah UMC to the Western North Carolina Conference.

At the conference, Hayden said, "I bowed my head and closed my eyes and asked God to let me come back to him and to work for him. Although I was raised in a Christian family, baptized in the Methodist Church at age 12, I did not feel I was doing what God had planned for me."

In an auditorium filled with 3,000 people, Hayden rededicated his life to the Lord.

"I asked God to use arrow management on me," Hayden said, "which meant he was to point me to where I should go and then shoot me to the

target."

From that moment on, he pledged to go and do whatever God asked of him without question.

Returning from the conference, Hayden took the 34-week Disciple Bible Study course at Mount Pisgah church.

"I told my friend and class facilitator Darrell Sayles that I had been moved by the disciple study and felt God was calling us to do something with it," Hayden said.

"Darrell suggested we pray about it. Later, Darrell came in and asked me what I thought about taking the disciple study to prisons.

"I said, 'That's it! Let's do it.'"

Eventually, they were invited to bring the study to Forsyth Correctional Center, a minimum-security prison for adults in Winston-Salem. Each Saturday for 34 weeks they met with 14 inmates.

Finally, the class was brought to Mount Pisgah's 11 a.m. worship service for their graduation and to receive their certificates of completion.

Mount Pisgah now purchases Disciple Bible materials for the prison ministry and has several members facilitating the study in prison.

With 16 prisons in North Carolina participating in the program, the Disciple Bible Outreach Ministries of N.C. was born.

Darrell Hayden and Darrell Sayles are the co-founders of this ministry.

Hayden served on the Community Resource Council at Forsyth Correctional Center for more than 10 years. He plans to return to the prison ministry this fall and co-facilitate the Disciple Bible Study.

In 2000 he was commissioned a missionary with the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church and was assigned to help develop the prison ministry in North Carolina.

He worked with the Rev. Mark Hicks, past associate minister of Mount Pisgah UMC, who was assigned by the Western North Carolina Conference to develop a prison ministry in North Carolina.

Along with Hicks and LuAnn Charlton, he worked for six years to develop a training program for potential volunteers, recruiting, training volunteers and locating prisons to have a disciple Bible study.

As a young man, Hayden once dreamed of being a military chaplain. He believes there is a special place for lay people to work in ministry as well as clergy. "In some ways my dream as a young man has come true," Hayden said.

"I served in the U.S. military, and now I am serving as a member in God's service."

Hayden is a certified lay speaker in the United Methodist Church, a 32nd degree Mason, a Shriner, member of the American Legion, Reserve Officers Association and Military Officers Association of America.

He has three daughters and four grandchildren. He and his wife, Marcia, are active members of Mount Pisgah UMC. He is retired from Carolina Steel and the Coast Guard Reserves.

To contact Darrell Hayden, call 644-1030.

To contact Peggy Longmire, call 288-9040 or e-mail her at rlongmire@triad.rr.com