More than 12,000 backpacks are expected to be donated by Alabama Baptists across the state in this year’s Christmas backpacks effort, a ministry partnership between Alabama WMU and the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
The majority of the backpacks will be distributed to children and teens living along the Mississippi River. The ministry is an annual effort to reach some of the nation’s poorest families.
“I’m expecting this to be our best year yet,” said Pat Ingram, missions and ministry consultant for Alabama Woman’s Missionary Union.
Churches and associations have been packing backpacks in recent weeks as part of the annual ministry. The backpacks are being collected at 13 sites around the state and then sent to the Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief Center in Prattville, Ingram said. Volunteers from churches in Autauga, Elmore, Montgomery and Chilton associations unloaded the first truckload of backpacks in Prattville on Oct. 28.
Generosity, willingness
Each new backpack is filled with toys, hygiene items, art supplies, candy, food and other goodies, along with a copy of the Christmas story. Each is packed with an age range and gender in mind and tagged accordingly by the packer.
Volunteers are helping Alabama WMU and SBOM staff members box the backpacks by age and gender so the correct number of backpacks requested can be sent to ministry sites, Ingram said.
“We can do this because of the generosity of Alabama Baptists who have provided enough backpacks and the willingness of volunteers to unload, count and box thousands of backpacks,” Ingram said.
Some of the backpacks will go to nine Alabama church plants through direct partnerships with associations and churches, she added. Many churches have collected backpacks and will distribute those through direct partnerships as well.
The backpacks provide Christmas gifts and much-needed food for recipients during the holiday school break, as well as an opportunity for local ministries to make contact with the families who receive them.
“I am glad to be an Alabama Baptist,” Ingram said. “Our churches and associations are literally being the hands and feet of Christ through this ministry.”
For more information about Alabama WMU’s Christmas backpacks ministry, click here.
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