Kevin Scarbrough, 17, a member of First Baptist Church, Valley, in East Liberty Baptist Association and 38 other church members participated in a missions trip to Tuscaloosa to show the love of Christ while serving in missions opportunities June 17–23.
“It was really fun — we got a lot done and were really productive,” Scarbrough said about his first missions trip experience.
First, Valley, and Forest Lake Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, jointly organized a kids camp and basketball camp for children from Forest Lake Baptist. The camp was held at McKinney Park at the beginning of each day.
Despite the roasting temperatures, after the camp students rolled up their sleeves for construction work on two local homes — one affected by the April 27, 2011 tornadoes — through Compassion Coalition of Tuscaloosa County.
The day concluded with Vacation Bible School for Forest Lake during the evenings.
Throughout the week, the group was hosted by Ridgecrest Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa.
“This is our first year to help in Tuscaloosa,” said Tim Andrews, associate pastor of family ministries and interim senior pastor for First, Valley. “We just ended our four-year partnership with a church in New Orleans after helping them with their needs following Hurricane Katrina.”
As the partnership ended, Andrews began to look to create another missions opportunity and found his church could assist Forest Lake affected by the April 2011 tornadoes.
“We had a great trip and had opportunities to show the love of Christ through hands-on ministries and to share the love of Christ through witnessing to those we crossed paths with during the week,” he said. “One of the encouraging things to me was seeing students lead Bible study devotions and share their faith during the week.”
Scarbrough was among the students who led devotions to camp participants.
“I enjoyed sharing with the students at the camp, and I would love to continue to do missions trips in the future,” he said.
(Brittney Knox, TAB intern)
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