Churches large and small can be found in nearly every city and county across the state. For most people a church can be found a block away or a few miles down the road. But just because the church building is nearby doesn’t mean the church body is fulfilling its responsibilities of reaching the community.
But how can a church body truly know its neighbors, help where needed, touch lives with the love of Jesus and be a foundation that points those in need to Christ?
On Sept. 27, A Day of Hope (ADOH) afforded Tuscaloosa churches the opportunity to do all these things and more.
A simple thought — “Let’s take one day to serve together where we show the love of Jesus in practical ways to our community” — snowballed into a 72-project, community-wide event that brought together more than 600 volunteers representing about 50 churches.
The day became a reality by working through The Hope Initiative — a program created by Mayor Walter Maddox in 2009 as a partnership between the “City of Tuscaloosa and the faith-based community to focus on making long-term improvements in areas with high crime rates,” according to www.tuscaloosahope.com.
Eric Boykin, missions strategist for Tuscaloosa Baptist Association and director of The Hope Initiative, was the humble mastermind behind the event.
“Our prayer is that God would get all the praise and glory for this, not the Baptist church, not me. It’s all about the Kingdom,” Boykin said.
And there was much praise to be given to God after ADOH was completed.
Projects included building eight decks, putting up drywall in three homes, power washing homes for elderly couples, replacing a front door for a single mother, putting siding on a home that had been left by a contractor after April 2011 storms — the list goes on and on.
Boykin discovered many of the project needs by word-of-mouth but churches and individuals also submitted needs on tuscaloosahope.com. After a project was posted, a team of two traveled to survey the site to make sure there was a legitimate need, to verify accurate locations and to make plans for the logistics of each project.
The website also served as the portal to sign up to serve on a project. Teams didn’t have to be from a single church or one location. Some projects consisted of a Baptist volunteer, a few volunteers from a community church and a Catholic all working together on one team, Boykin said.
And it wasn’t just churches serving. Volunteers from the Housing Authority, Children’s Rehabilitation Services and the mayor’s office participated.
Maddox served on “Project #25: Crowell Pressure Washing,” as listed on the website.
“Pressure washing, weed eating, cleaning up, you name it,” Maddox said of the project. “We did whatever we thought we could do to help.”
He and his daughter, Taylor, along with six other volunteers, worked at the Crowell home and Maddox, who recently marked nine years in the position, said it was “one of the most meaningful days of me being mayor.”
“I was glad to be a small part of A Day of Hope,” Maddox said.
Looking back at the opportunities to serve and give back to the city after the April 2011 tornadoes, Maddox said ADOH gave volunteers that same feeling.
‘God truly blesses you’
“We benefitted the most from doing the volunteer work because God truly blesses you and rewards you for your service,” he said.
Irby Jackson, pastor of Crestline Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, and five volunteers from his church worked on the team that built a handicap ramp for Mylan Marks, an autistic 12-year-old who is wheelchair-bound. The boy and his family live below the poverty line and could not afford to build a ramp. They used to struggle to get Mylan and his wheelchair in and out of the house, but not anymore.
Jackson said, “It meant a great deal to see the kid’s face as (his family) pushed him up the wheelchair ramp the first time. It was like watching your own kid open a Christmas present. And he was so excited.
“I feel like the purpose of the Church is to make disciples and we do that by loving God, serving others and worshipping together. … I saw this as a great opportunity to support missions.”
At every project site volunteers were encouraged to tell community members, “We just want to show the love of Jesus in practical ways.”
Boykin said the catchphrase was “an easy way to introduce the gospel to people.”
ADOH went so well that leadership plans to make it an annual, possibly biannual, event, Boykin said.
“Volunteers were coming back saying that it was amazing. ‘I don’t even have a relationship with a black person or a Hispanic person,’ they’d say. This allowed our churches to do something together (in places that are underserved),” he said.
ADOH was made possible by the Alabama Baptist State Convention who gave a $5,000 Love Loud grant to help fund the projects. Habitat for Humanity also gave $5,000.
“We didn’t have any projects that stopped because of a lack of funding,” Boykin said.
Jackson said ADOH was “one of the best days and opportunities to serve God by helping a family who desperately needed it,” and he plans to lead his church to serve again next year.
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