More than 220 missions volunteers from children to senior adults gathered to serve in eastern Kentucky during national Woman’s Missionary Union’s (WMU) Familyfest July 19–24. Participants represented churches, groups and families from Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
Todd Rader, pastor of Ephesus Baptist Church, Winchester, Ky., and chairman for the missions development committee of Boone’s Creek Baptist Association, said, “Familyfest is a wonderful opportunity for individuals, churches and associations to be directly involved in hands-on ministry opportunities that will impact communities for Christ.”
Executive director for Kentucky WMU Joy Bolton said, “As families serve together during Familyfest, the experience away from home and from other distractions allows for special bonding time. Both parents and children see one another in a new light as they serve side by side.”
Tammy Glad, a member of Turning Point at Calvary Church, St. Augustine, Fla., served at Familyfest with her husband and daughter. “I was blessed to watch so many of our children loving on the Kentucky community at Choo Choo Park. Watching our children living out God’s Word was amazing,” Glad said.
David Allen, a 14-year-old volunteer from Graceview Baptist Church, Tomball, Texas, served with his grandparents during Familyfest.
“Age should have no limit in serving, helping and sharing God with others,” he said. “This might be my first but [it’s] not my last missions trip. And sharing it with my grandparents is the best.”
This Familyfest was a partnership between national WMU, Kentucky WMU, Boone’s Creek Association and Appalachian Regional Ministry. Appalachia, a cultural region that stretches from New York to Mississippi, is one of extreme poverty having 37 of the 100 poorest counties in the United States. According to the North American Mission Board’s website, more than 70 percent of the region is unchurched with some counties as high as 90 percent unchurched.
Volunteers worked in Appalachian communities in eastern Kentucky in partnership with a variety of churches, schools, local ministries and nonprofits. They led backyard Bible clubs and evangelism ministries, prayer-walked, prepared classrooms for the new school year, made blankets for senior adult shut-ins and did some light construction.
Suzanne Reece, national WMU ministry consultant and onsite coordinator of Familyfest, said when the volunteers were serving at a local school, the principal continued to thank her for bringing volunteers.
Bolton said, “This is our prayer that people will go home and see their own communities in a new way by seeing needs and opportunities they’ve never taken note of before.”
Even the local volunteers said they became more aware of the lostness in their own state. One shared that Familyfest was a time “to rethink how we ‘do church’ and reach out” when their team encountered person after person who used to be in church but is no longer.
Place of service
Rader said, “I have returned amazed at what God can do when we place ourselves in positions of service for His kingdom. Familyfest may just be the spark that you are searching for to personally become more involved in missions.”
National WMU offers Familyfest opportunities for all volunteers age 6 and up and Missionsfest for volunteers age 18 and up. Future opportunities include Missionsfest in Toledo, Ohio, Oct. 1–5 and Familyfest in Indianapolis, July 18–22, 2015.
For more information, visit wmu.com/trips.
(WMU)
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