Muscle Shoals church expands children’s ministry

A little more than a year ago, if you were to have walked into the preschool and youth facility at Highland Park Baptist Church, Muscle Shoals, then you may have seen church members on their hands and knees. 
   
They weren’t necessarily praying but they were writing poems, inscribing Bible verses and signing their names on the newly constructed concrete floors. 
   
They were participating in a blessing of the building.
   
Now that blessing seems to be paying off. 
   
Highland Park Baptist is growing, and children and youth are filling the hallways of the building, said Jeff Eddie, associate pastor of administration, children and junior high. 
   
“Over the past year, our average attendance has increased by over 35 children each week,” he explained.
   
Eddie, who has pictures hanging on his office wall of the blessings written on the concrete before the carpet was put down, said the 15,000-square-foot building “adds a whole lot of fun” to Highland Park.
   
Along with ministry offices, nurseries and Sunday School rooms, the preschool and youth building has two multipurpose rooms. 
   
And the rooms are built with versatility for growth and a variety of activities, Eddie said.
   
Since moving into the new building, the children’s ministry has added children’s church on Sunday mornings and Team Kids on Wednesday nights. An after-school Bible study has also been added, Eddie noted.
   
“Our goal is to place the building blocks of faith into the lives of our children so that they will have a strong foundation on which to build their faith as they grow and mature,” he said. “Through weekly programs and activities, we strive to bring children to a saving knowledge of the Lord and then to lead them into a life of service for Him. 
   
“The purpose of special events and activities is to help children develop friendships that will encourage them in their walk with God,” Eddie explained.
   
Pastor Ted Vafeas added, “A few years ago, the Lord gave us a master plan of six phases to house ministries and worship.
   
“Phase one was for our children, which is our future,” he said. “If I had had a building like this as a child, I would have cried to stay at church because it would have invited me to come in, and then the teachers would have invited me to come to the Lord and learn of Him.”