It’s the season of giving as well as singing and acting in Alabama Baptist churches. Ministries such as Operation Christmas Child are up and running, as well as activities to raise money for missions work.
Alabama churches are continuing to support Franklin Graham’s Operation Christmas Child ministry. Operated by Samaritan’s Purse, the ministry is predicted to send more than 7 million gift-filled shoe boxes to children in some 90 countries suffering from war, terrorism, disease, famine and poverty, according to an Operation Christmas Child press release.
Covington Baptist Association Director of Missions Larry Cummings said, “Our churches are heavily involved in Operation Christmas Child.”
He added that Hopewell Baptist Church, Andalusia, served as the collection site for the association.
Hopewell Pastor Barry Wilkinson said the association gathered 2,409 boxes to send to the regional collection site in Atlanta.
At press time, Chad Geist, director for the Southeast, said that 111,267 shoeboxes had been delivered from Alabama.
He noted that for this year, all the boxes processed through the Atlanta collection site are marked to be shipped to India.
A send-off celebration was held Nov. 29 at the Atlanta site as boxes from Alabama, Georgia and Florida began their trek overseas.
Alabama churches are also sending shoebox gifts to children in Gulfport, Miss. Operation Gulfport Kid, a ministry created by First Baptist Church, Gulfport, hopes to put a gift in the hand of every kindergartener through fifth-grader in Gulfport.
Stan Albright, associate pastor of missions and evangelism at NorthPark Baptist Church, Trussville, in Birmingham Baptist Association, is coordinating his church’s involvement in the program.
Albright said this ministry is the first opportunity First, Gulfport, has ever had to connect directly with the local public schools because the church will be allowed to distribute the gifts in the schools.
Other churches in the state are using the season to raise money for global and local missions opportunities.
Southside Baptist Church, Greenville, in Butler Baptist Association, raises money for global missions each year through it Sweets for Lottie Moon fellowship. Planned this year for Dec. 18, the event is in its third year.
The bake sale and silent auction of homemade desserts has raised as much as $1,000 in the past, according to Sara Jean Atkins, the church’s Woman’s Missionary Union director.
The women of Tannehill Valley Baptist Church, McCalla, in Bessemer Baptist Association will host their third annual craft bazaar Dec. 3. The event features 30 craft and gift booths and homemade breakfast and lunches.
Proceeds fund the women’s ministry community outreach and missions efforts throughout the year.
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