That's the famous line delivered by Clint Eastwood in the 1985 film "Pale Rider." It's not just hickory, but any type of burnable wood that the people who volunteer for the Wood Ministry are interested in.

The volunteers' mission is just to help heat the homes of the less fortunate residents of the East Mountains.

"Being able to help other people in the community is a huge benefit to the volunteers," said Roger Comstock, who helps organize the labor and deliveries. "It changes our hearts … You see some pretty hard times out there for people."

The group is made up of volunteers from the Mountain Christian Church in Cedar Crest and other East Mountain churches and residents. Comstock said it began about seven years ago, when he was unemployed and had to find a way to heat his own home.

"I had excess wood left over … and helped some people in the community and church with their wood situation," he said.

By the next year Comstock was working again, but he had also become aware that there were people in need of firewood. Since then the ministry has grown, with about 40 volunteers, 15 of whom are out cutting or delivering wood in the area every weekend. The group has its own hydraulic wood splitter and tailor.

Often it isn't just home heating fuel that the ministry delivers, according to Mike Oliver. Oliver has been Comstock's partner in crime, so to speak, since around the time the ministry began.

"People don't just need wood, a lot of people need companionship. Nobody comes to see them," he said.

One resident who received a wood delivery was paralyzed on the left half of his body after a heart attack. Oliver said the ministry also did a bit of repair work to the man's home. Volunteers also just to sat with the man and talked with him.

When they deliver the wood, the volunteers also bring a kind of care package, a basket with hot chocolate and a few comfort foods and a prayer book. They also ask to pray with the person receiving the wood.

"Not everybody is open to praying. If they'll let us, they'll pray …" Oliver said, adding that many people who receive wood also become volunteers themselves. "We help them, now they're helping us," he said.

According to Comstock, that's a way to help recipients of the wood help themselves as well. If they are physically capable of chopping wood, but don't have a truck or chain saw, they are encouraged to come along and load wood for themselves, along with a little extra for others in the community.

"We're here to really help people, not to supply them and have them be dependent on us for wood," Comstock said. "We help them get through the harder times."

The ministry is looking for volunteers or for dead and downed trees in the East Mountains to distribute to elderly and disabled people. The group will remove dead trees on residents' property, as long as they are accessible by trailer, for distribution. Contact Roger at 238-2295.