On the other end of the line was a man who said he planned to kill himself. After an initial conversation with the clergyman, the man called back and took his life as the pastor listened.

Although the experience was devastating, the minister was inspired to start a ministry for those in trouble. He started Contact Ministries, a nonprofit agency that today has spread around the globe.

But in recent years, many of those offices have closed because of a lack of funding, says Kathy Bennett, director of the Contact office in Smithfield. Only three Contact offices remain in North Carolina. The other two are in Fayetteville and Winston-Salem.

In Smithfield, Bennett and a shrinking number of volunteers lend their ears and their voices to men, women and children struggling to cope with life’s ups and downs. From an undisclosed location, Bennett and her team work in shifts to answer calls from battered wives, drug abusers and others who have simply lost hope.

A recent call that made an impression on Bennett came from a 16-year-old girl whose family had abandoned her. “She came from a very strict family,” Bennett said. “When they found out she was pregnant, they threw all of her stuff out the door and said she was no longer their daughter.”

Since organizing in 1973, Contact in Johnston County has relied on a dedicated core of volunteers to answer such calls. But as they’ve aged out, taken ill or passed away, the nonprofit hasn’t been able to replace them with new recruits, Bennett said.

Currently, Bennett said, Contact has just 31 active volunteers, many of whom work up to a dozen five-hour shifts each month to make up for a shortage of manpower.

Evelyn, a former Contact volunteer who asked The Herald not to use her last name, said she thinks fewer people nowadays are willing to give of their time. “People just don’t have that mindset anymore,” she said.

Evelyn said she volunteered with Contact for years, in large part because of the effect one particular phone call had on her personally. The call came from a 16-year-old boy who threatened to commit suicide.

“I kind of knew him,” she said. “But I don’t think he ever recognized my voice. He had just kind of given up. I think he was lonely. I think he really just needed a friend.”

Evelyn called the teen one of Contact’s many success stories. She said the man is alive and well and a thriving business owner in Smithfield.

Stories like that one are why Bennett wishes more people would see the need to help. Bennett said she wishes most that churches in Johnston would give of their resources, both financially and personally, to fill in the gaps.

If every church in Johnston County could give $50 each month, Bennett said, the agency would be able to meet its operating costs. Last year, Contact received donations totaling $14,887, or about half of what it received in 2006. As a result, Bennett said she had given up her salary and become strictly a volunteer.

And if every church could find just one or two people willing to volunteer, Bennett said it would relieve those who have been working hard to keep Contact alive.

“In my philosophy, the Lord said whatever you do to the least of these my brothers you do to me,” she said. “It is a hard work, but it’s something that is so desperately needed.”

For more information on Contact or how to become a volunteer, e-mail Bennett at contactnc@nc.rr.com.