For Pastor Curtis Carlisle, the word “thanks” just seems inadequate to say for the construction work an Alabama Campers on Mission (ALCOM) team recently completed at his church, Mount Missouri Missionary Baptist Church, Hurtsboro, in Russell County.
From June 14 to 29, the days were filled with endless activity at the church site as the ALCOM team devoted time and energy to build a new sanctuary and fellowship hall.
The existing Mount Missouri Missionary Baptist structure had extensive termite damage as well as roof damage. According to Ken Conaway, ALCOM co-project coordinator at the site, it was determined it would cost less to rebuild entirely rather than to repair the existing building.
During the project, the ALCOM team dried in the new structure, put in siding and installed windows and doors.
Mount Missouri Missionary Baptist is believed to date back more than 150 years. The new church building will be located at a different spot on the property, and Carlisle noted that design plans for the new church also vary from the old structure.
The new building will hold 250–300 people in the sanctuary and about 200 in the fellowship hall and will be the third known structure in the church’s history.
The all-volunteer ALCOM team of about 20 represented many areas of the state, including Fort Payne, Eufaula, Dothan, Elberta, Shorter, Montgomery and Union Springs. There were also volunteers from Jacksonville, Fla.
ALCOM volunteers travel in their RVs for missions projects. For construction projects like the one at Mount Missouri Missionary Baptist, the church pays for the building materials and ALCOM volunteers the labor.
“We’re just a group of mostly retired people” and go and work wherever the Lord wants us to go, explained Pete McKnight, president of ALCOM.
Conaway reported that 260 individuals contributed a total of 46,552 hours to ALCOM projects in 2011. Thirty-three construction jobs were completed and more than 25,000 gospel tracts were distributed at a number of events where ALCOM volunteers served. Volunteers were integral in disaster relief and house construction work following the April 2011 tornadoes that devastated many parts of the state.
In addition to the construction work at Mount Missouri Missionary, the ALCOM wives assisted at the site in numerous ways. According to ALCOM volunteer and Ken Conaway’s wife, Judy, the women sewed reversible dresses from donated fabrics that will be sent to Third World countries.
“We are surely blessed by God to have them (ALCOM) here,” Carlisle reported during the construction.
(TAB)
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