Galilee Baptist Church, Panola, refuses to let a church fire dampen its ministry spirit.
Almost 10 years ago Galilee Baptist was among several churches that were “burnt to the ground” by arsonists. The Pickens Baptist Association church was able to purchase a large piece of property, clean it up and rebuild a new church building.
During the rebuilding phase Pastor Bob Little began to question what the church, the only black church in the association, could do to impact local ministry and “to bring life back to the area” that was largely unchurched.
Enter: Panola Day.
Evangelistic outreach
The church decided to work with Panola’s North Sumter Junior High School to schedule an annual evangelistic outreach event with the school’s parade each fall. The festival, this year held Oct. 17, invites local businesses to participate by selling food, T-shirts, homemade gifts and more. There also is a children’s carnival sponsored by Pickens Association every year. During the carnival where the gospel is presented in a kid-friendly way, more than 200 people have given their lives to Christ over the past eight years.
At the end of the event Galilee Baptist encourages participants to stay for the song and praise service held at the church. This year the Galilee Baptist praise team, Little and musical artist Blue Bent, of Jackson, Mississippi, provided special music.
Little said the event focused on “bringing the community together” in order to spread the Word.
Pickens Association Director of Missions Gary Farley said of the event, “It blows your mind that here you have a small town that on one day thousands of people gather and we’re able to minister to them, focusing on the children who tend to be overlooked.”
Farley said in recent years Gideons International has joined the ministry and handed out thousands of New Testaments.
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