Every Sunday, Barbara Giles and her fellow One Step class members come to Hurricane Baptist Church, Gilbertown, with $2 in hand.
One dollar goes toward shipping costs for Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, an outreach ministry of Samaritan’s Purse that collects and delivers gift-filled shoeboxes to children in more than 150 countries.
Missions project
The other dollar goes toward a missions project of their choice. Their most recent project was a monument of the Ten Commandments which was placed in the church just in time for its 200th anniversary celebration.
“We just prayed and wanted to present something to the church,” Giles said of the monument. “We just felt like that’s what God wanted us to do.”
The One Step women’s group had been collecting the funds for the monument for about two years, and it was installed the Thursday before the Sunday celebration.
The May 15 celebration service began at 10 a.m. and featured three former pastors as guest speakers: Lonnie Baxter, Jim Hill and Tyler Powell.
For the occasion, church historian Shirley Giles compiled a 93-page church history that was given to each family present. As Shirley Giles presented the history before the church that morning, a slideshow of historical photos was displayed on a screen behind her.
Lonette Berg, executive director of the Alabama Baptist Historical Commission, presented a certificate to Hurricane Baptist honoring its years of faithful service. Special music that morning included bagpiping by Steden Giles, a former member of Alabama Pipes and Drums, and several singing groups comprised of church members.
Special recognition
More than 15 long-time member families were recognized for their dedication to the church.
All in all, it was a great day, concluded Barbara Giles, who also served on the six-person planning committee for the occasion.
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