Ask Terry Stone what she will remember most about the week Families on Mission spent at Klein Baptist Church, Harpersville, and she will talk about the children’s smiles.
Stone, whose husband, Joe, serves as pastor of Klein Baptist, had joined other church members in praying for a way to reach families with children in their community, many of whom feared the strangers who knocked on their doors.
It had been more than 10 years since the Shelby Baptist Association church had held any type of Vacation Bible School (VBS), but volunteers from the association and Families on Mission made it happen. Twenty-one children attended VBS at the church in the mornings, and in the afternoons, 18 more, most of them children of local migrant workers, participated in a backyard Bible club at a local RV park.
“By the end of the week, they (the parents and children) weren’t afraid (of us) anymore,” Stone said. “People had loved and cared for these children that week. That was a moment Families on Mission brought us.”
Families on Mission is a ministry of the North American Mission Board that allows family groups — children, youth and adults — to serve together in a missions experience. Each day for a week, volunteers participate in family devotions, worship, evangelism training and ministry projects in a selected area. Shelby County was one of seven sites around the country that was touched by the ministry this summer.
Susan Long, a member of First Baptist Church, Alabaster, served as project coordinator for Shelby County, along with her husband, Scott. The Longs participated in Families on Mission in Helen, Ga., in 2008 and were immediately hooked on the concept.
“Missions trips are often for youth or senior adults or couples, but we were looking for an opportunity for our family to do missions together. We got that through Families on Mission,” Susan Long said.
In part because of the Long family and its experience with Families on Mission, Shelby County was selected as a site in 2009 and again this year.
During the week of July 25–30, 132 people, representing more than 30 families from Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Missouri, Virginia, Colorado, Florida and Alabama, came to Shelby County ready to work. They participated in 16 projects at eight churches: Klein; First, Alabaster; First Baptist Church, Vincent; First Baptist Church, Columbiana; Grace Baptist Church, Montevallo; Northside Baptist Church, Calera; First Baptist Church, Pelham; and Crossway Baptist Fellowship, a new church start in Pelham.
To prepare for the volunteers, Debbie Snyder, ministry development director for Shelby Association, worked with churches to develop specific ministry projects, and then she and Long worked together to match families with the appropriate project.
“We had to make sure that the family structure would fit the project,” Long said.
Volunteers conducted VBS and sports camps, distributed more than 6,000 packets of information for Crossway, gave away Bibles, completed light construction projects at churches and in neighborhoods and shared the gospel wherever they went. They also worked with a hospice group and at a nursing home, hospital and health clinic. By the end of the week, 51 people had been saved, including seven volunteers, and at least 975 people had heard the gospel.
“God was so glorified … in our worship and our work,” Long said. “Every family who participated gained an understanding of how to take this back to their community and do ministry on a regular basis.”
Shelby Association Director of Missions Hugh Richardson said the churches and their communities gained something, too.
“The benefit to those who receive a loving touch through the ministry, whether through the gift of a Bible or something done on their home, is that they are introduced to Jesus Christ,” he said. “The benefit to the churches is that they receive help to carry out short-term projects, like VBS, painting and maintenance or literature distribution.”
For more information on Families on Mission, visit www.namb.net and click on the Mission Opportunities tab.
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