Birmingham group helps Omaha Indians

For 35 members of First Baptist Church, Birmingham, Thanksgiving was spent not with the familiar faces of family but with members of the Omaha tribe who live on the Omaha Indian Reservation in Macy, Neb.
  
Approximately 70 people attended the meal, which was cooked and served by the missions team in a gymnasium on the reservation, said Bobby Wilson, trip leader and missions intern for First, Birmingham.
  
He said team members seemed to enjoy the nontraditional celebration more than “the usual hustle and bustle” because they spent time together doing ministry.
  
Along with serving the Thanksgiving meal, the team did some construction and cleanup projects in the area and held two backyard Bible club sessions at the Omaha and Winnebago reservations, working alongside Ron and Alpha Goombi, missionaries with the North American Mission Board.
  
Wilson said the Goombis had visited First, Birmingham, during a missions conference and the Birmingham Baptist Association church wanted to help them in their work. And although the team was helping others, Wilson said it received many of the blessings. “The neatest thing about the trip was watching the joy of ministry blossom in people’s hearts as they ministered to others and watching people’s gifts develop as they found their (ministry) niche,” he said. 
  
The church plans to return to the area in the spring to help the Goombis with a women’s conference and may take another trip in the summer, Wilson said. (TAB)