Two Silas teens share faith with American Indian children in Oklahoma

A small locket belonging to 13-year-old Kristen Campbell holds something even dearer than a photographic reminder of friends or family members — it holds the remembrance of a soul she helped lead to salvation, a young American Indian girl named Makayla.
   
“She gave me this locket to remember her by,” said Campbell, a member of Black Creek Baptist Church, Silas. “She said she wanted me to have it because I prayed with her. She was one of the first people I had ever led to the Lord and I’ll never forget her.”
   
For Campbell and fellow church member Carlo Freda, 16, the end of July didn’t bring those last few days of fun and relaxation before beginning another school year. It brought a week that changed their lives, a week spent ministering to American Indian children in Oklahoma.
   
It was a missions trip that brought more than 100 young souls to Christ. 
   
The two teenagers, along with Mickey Bryant, Black Creek Baptist minister to children and youth, joined some nine other churches from Alabama, Georgia and California as they traveled to the town of Falls Creek Assembly to minister to the people of the area. 
   
The group ministered at Indian Falls Creek Baptist Assembly, a Southern Baptist-affiliated camp, sharing the gospel with more than 2,000 people, most of whom were American Indian.
   
“We work with Native American children of many different tribes — Creek, Seminole, Shawnee, Cherokee and others — and the majority of them have never been to church before,” Bryant said.
   
He has traveled to the camp each summer since 1993 and said this year, he wanted to take two teens ready to take on the challenge of reaching the unreached.
   
“Over the past several years at church, I’ve tried to teach the kids to stand up for God,” Bryant said. “Carlo and Kristen really took that message to heart. That’s why I wanted them to go with me this year.”
   
As part of a group of older teen missionaries at the camp, Freda shared his faith mainly through skits, music and drama. 
   
But he also had time for one-on-one discussions with the young people who had come there to hear about Christ, he said.
   
“I was mainly there as a counselor for the teenagers,” Freda explained. “At first, it was hard to talk to them about God, but after a while, it was easier.”
   
During the course of the week, he was instrumental in leading three teenagers to Christ.
   
Campbell’s ministry included working with children age 11 and under. It was, she said, a time that challenged her to be bold with her witness and see others through the eyes of compassion.
   
“You see those little kids and it breaks your heart,” Campbell said. “They have almost nothing and they seem like they really need you.”
   
According to Bryant, the statistics of domestic abuse, alcoholism and similar problems run high among the American Indians of that area. It is those statistics, he said, and the faces of the children affected by them, that keep him coming back to the camp each year.
   
Bryant said the American Indian culture is full of different religious groups, some still using “medicine men” and practicing earth-related worship.
   
“These kids really need this camp,” he said. “Without it, they might never hear about Jesus. It was good for them to hear the gospel from other kids. They can relate to them sometimes better than they can to adults.”
   
Through one-on-one discipleship and prayer, Campbell was able to lead five children to Christ.
   
“I talked to one little girl and asked her if she had a best friend,” Campbell said. “She said, ‘I don’t have any friends.’ So I told her Jesus would be her best friend if she would let Him.” 
   
After years of participating in the ministry of the Falls Creek camp, Bryant said he still sees it as a calling — one that he has now passed on to the two teens.
   
“It just changes you, makes you feel better inside,” Freda said. “Leading someone to the Lord is probably the best feeling in the world.”