For three years some new converts to the Orthodox Christian faith traveled from their homes in Telfair County, Georgia to St. Innocent Orthodox Church in Macon to worship with other Orthodox Christians.
      In December 2000 Archbishop Dmitri allowed us to start our own mission station in Helena, Georgia. He gave us permission to use Saints Constantine and Helen as our Patron Saints and name our mission after them. Hieromonk Innokenty Chmerko came down from Macon once a month on a Saturday to serve Divine Liturgy for us. We met in what used to be the office of a heavy equipment dealership in Helena. Here is a picture of our old sign.

Our Old Sign

      On Sundays we did the Typica service and on Wednesday nights we had Vespers and a Bible study. The Kehayes - an Orthodox couple who had moved to a nearby town from Seattle, Washington - helped us with our Bible study and our singing. In October 2001 Father Ted Pisarchuk, the director of missions for our archdiocese, visited our mission and served the Divine Liturgy. In the Autumn of 2001 we got a choir director who knows a lot about music - Michael Dykes. On January 6, 2002, Father Deacon Athanasious Hilton started coming down twice a month and bringing us the Eucharist from St. John the Wonder-worker Orthodox Church in Atlanta. This was really great! We got communion twice a month and on a Sunday. Since Deacon Athanasious was not a priest, he could not serve the Divine Liturgy, but he could do the Typica service with litanies and serve us the Eucharist. Here is a picture of Father Deacon Athanasious.

Deacon Athanasious Hilton comes out of the Royal Doors to do the Gospel reading.

      On February 3, 2002, at St. Mary of Egypt Orthodox Church in Norcross, Georgia, Archbishop Dmitri tonsured Steve Cravey to be a reader. Father Peter Smith also prayed the prayer of catechumens over Lida Kniffen on this day and she became our first catechumen. Here is a picture of Reader Stephen (the man wearing black) going to the Chalice to take Communion.