When Punxsutawney Phil — the notorious groundhog who predicts the arrival of warmer weather — appears next Feb. 2 on Groundhog Day, he may be located on Baptist property.
With the help of Baptists from Etowah Association and other states, the Conemaugh Valley Baptist Association (CVBA) in Pennsylvania plans to purchase the 93-acre sportsman’s club that houses Punxsutawney Phil’s home, Gobbler’s Knob. The CVBA wants to build a Southern Baptist retreat and training center on the land, said Bob Thornton, director of missions for Etowah Baptist Association (EBA). And, of course, Gobbler’s Knob would remain protected.
“It would give them a great opportunity for missions,” Thornton said, “because 43,000 tourists come through there.”
Doug Pilot, associational missionary with the CVBA, said churches and individuals in Alabama have already given $12,000 to the effort, making it the second largest contributor behind the state of Pennsylvania.
And while the groundhog provides a national interest to the happenings of the CVBA, Etowah Baptists plan to be involved in much more than the purchase of the land.
EBA officials entered into partnership with the CVBA Sept. 23, signifying the beginning of a partnership within the North American Mission Board’s and the Alabama Baptist State Convention’s Impact Northeast program.
During the partnership with the CVBA, Thornton said the focus will be on strengthening existing churches and planting new ones. “In the nine-and-one-half counties covered by the CVBA, there are only 28 churches,” Thornton said. “There are two to three counties with no Southern Baptist work.”
And Hale Baptist Association (HBA) may join EBA in the partnership. EBA began developing a mentoring partnership with the HBA the same day it signed a partnership agreement with the CVBA.
Thornton said although the EBA has participated in several associational partnerships over the years, this would the first mentoring partnership. HBA will vote on the partnership at its associational meeting in October.
“I think it will enhance our association,” Thornton said. “We need that freshness of someone from the outside looking in and asking why we do this or how do we do that.”
So during the years of the EBA/CVBA partnership, Hale would join in, first as a spectator, then gradually handling the leadership and planning of a trip on their own. “[By the third year] we would push [Hale] to the leadership forefront,” Thornton said.
HBA director of missions Denny Goodwin led the effort to form the partnership after learning of Thornton’s desire to train others to do associational partnerships.
“Our director of missions had a passion for us to get involved in missions as an association, but we had never done it,” said HBA’s Antioch Baptist Church Pastor Arthur Thomas.
Thomas and two youth from the church joined the EBA missions team this summer in Pennsylvania. That team and four others worked with five churches in six cities doing door-to-door surveying and witnessing. Besides the EBA group were teams from First Baptist Church, Southside; Southside Baptist Church; First Baptist Church, Glencoe; and Paden Baptist Church.
First Glencoe’s team of 13 experienced great results with the door-to-door witnessing.
“For three days of witnessing, we made 127 contacts, shared the FAITH presentation 62 times, gathered the names of 37 prospects and had 17 salvations,” Jerry Ingram reported. “We also had 20 professions of faith through the day camps. It was really exciting to go to a place where the people were so receptive and hungry for the Word, and to see the Lord work in a mighty way.”
Pastor Vince Whittington attributed the team’s success to God and “to the fact that the home church was here praying for us.”
While not all the teams had the same results, several said results were not the mission; following God’s command was.
“Some do the sowing and some do the reaping,” said Kevin Graves of Dwight Baptist Church. “God just tells us to go and tell, He doesn’t say to go and make them accept.”
The door-to-door witnessing also changed the teams. The youth from Southside had not gone through FAITH, so they were partnered with an adult who had.
Gina Harbison, student coordinator at Southside, said several youth expressed an interest in the FAITH program following their experience with it.
“Every year the missions trip changes the kids in some way,” she said. “This made them more evangelistic. [Now when] we talk about any outreach they get excited about it.”
Along with surveying the communities, all teams held backyard Bible clubs. The clubs are usually geared to children, but some adults and youth attended as well. And some clubs had as many as 31 children, while others had as little as four attend.
Marie Southern of Mount Pisgah Baptist Church said their backyard Bible club had only four children attend, “so we figured our job was not just to minister to the young, but to minister to the old, too.”
Because Southern’s team had set up behind a nursing home, she and another team member decided to visit the nursing home residents.
Other projects included construction work, prayer walking and student outreach.
First, Southside, took 35 youth and adults to work with New Church in Punxsutawney. The men finished roof work, hung Sheetrock and also put up siding, while the women held a backyard Bible club. Both groups came together in the evenings to work with student outreach and door-to-door surveying.
Pastor Mike Hulsey said the hard work and grueling pace fueled a new respect and understanding between the generations.
“It was encouraging to see the youth see needs and be hungry to see that need met,” Hulsey said. “The first wall God took care of when the adult men saw the boys working hard even in the 90-degree heat. The second wall came down when quitting time came and the boys still wanted to minister.”
Hulsey said the attitudes of the youth changed as well. “This is probably one of the first times some of the kids got to do something with an adult other than their parents, that was something other than the fun stuff, like vacations or retreats,” he said. “Especially for the guys, having an adult willing to take the time to teach them how to do something let the students know there are adults who care about them and will accept them for who they are.”
The youth of Paden also left lasting impressions on the EBA team.
“They were an inspiration for us,” said Faybe Thornton of Southside Baptist, “seeing that they watned to be a blessing to someone else.”
Paden Pastor Jerald Adams said, “It was thrilling to see our youth and the interest they had. It was a working trip, and they were serious about it.”
And they want to go back, said Alice Parker, who is the Acteens leader and went as a chaperone. “Some of the youth have stayed in contact with the pastor and leaders there,” she said.
Hulsey said, “I hurt for them [Pennsylvania Christians] because they desperately want to see God do something, but they need God’s people there to get it done.”
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