Mission News and Reports

We asked our partner churches where they have been on mission in 2007. We published a small reference to their experience in our October newsletter. Read their stories in full here!
 

CBFNC would like to hear from you! Do you have a missions story or report to share? We want to know how the experience impacted you and how you saw God working. Please email your stories to communications@cbfnc.org. Note that due to space, time and content, some responses may not be posted.

Enon Baptist Church Baptism
Updated 9/27/07
Pastor James C. Shelley, Jr. recently had the honor of baptizing five (5) youth at Enon Baptist Church in Oxford, NC. Shelley gathers the baptism candidates in the baptismal pool together while he shares the fundamentals of baptism and the seriousness of the service. Candidates (left to right) Candace Hester, Lauren Cash, Heather Cash, Samantha Roden and Dexter Williams listen attentively as Pastor Shelley shares scripture during the service. Enon has experienced a recent surge in children and youth attendance and are in the process of seeking a Youth Minister to fulfill this need.







Student.Go Program Includes North Carolinians
Updated 7/20/07
By Courtney Hodges, CBF Communications
 Each summer undergraduate and graduate students serve across the country and around the world, working alongside CBF Global Missions field personnel and Fellowship partners. Through the Fellowship's Student.Go program, students can spend a summer or semester involved in hands-on missions.
This summer, more than 30 students will serve in such U.S. locations as Arkansas, Alabama and New York and such international locations as Africa, China and the Middle East. "Students fill vital needs on the field," said Amy Derrick, the Fellowship's Global Service Corps and Student.Go selection manager. "There are ministries that simply would not happen if these students were not there. We are amazed every year at the ways that God uses summer and semester Student.Go personnel in the lives of those with whom they minister. But we are equally amazed at how the Holy Spirit works in the lives of the students through these experiences."
Students from North Carolina serving this summer include:
Carson Foushee, Statesville, serving in China
Lauren Rogers, Greenville, working with immigrants in Fredericksburg, VA
Karen Taylor, Forest City, serving with Sowing Seeds of Hope, AL
Kristen Wood, Fayetteville, serving with Touching Miami with Love, FL
Student.Go provides a $1,000 stipend, secondary insurance, room and board, local transportation at the ministry site, and travel to orientation.
For more information on Student.Go visit www.thefellowship.info/involved/serve/student.icm or contact Amy Derrick at aderrick@thefellowship.info.



Lystra Baptist Church ministers in New Orleans
Updated 2/28/2007
By Rev. Virginia Taylor, Lystra Baptist Church's new Interim Pastor
In early October, Lystra Baptist Church's new Interim Pastor, Rev. Virginia Taylor, received an e-mail calling for volunteers to come to New Orleans to help with on-going post-Katrina disaster relief. The e-mail said that everything was in place to help people in New Orleans except for volunteers. Rev. Taylor mentioned this need to her congregation and the people responded immediately. Lystra Baptist Church sent 11 volunteers to New Orleans the day after Christmas. "That's a pretty remarkable number when you consider that our average Sunday morning attendance is 40-45," says Rev. Taylor. "And the members who didn't go helped out with food and travel expenses, so really the entire church was involved."

The group left the day after Christmas and made the trip in one day, or about 16 hours. They worked for three full days on the home of Melvin and Diane Ducre in Lacombe, LA. Melvin and Diane have been married 46 years, are retired and living on the street Diane has lived on her entire life. Their house was flooded during Hurricane Katrina and had to be completely gutted. Groups have helped them clean out their house, tear out sheet rock and put up new sheet rock. The group from Lystra framed walls, installed sheet rock, mudded, taped, sanded, texturized, primed and painted walls and ceilings. They also installed some plumbing fixtures and took down a dead pine tree.

Reid Doster, CBF Disaster Response Coordinator for Louisiana coordinated Lystra's work in Lacombe. New Covenant Presbyterian church in Mandeville is serving as a host church, allowing volunteers to sleep in their Christian Education Center. CBF has placed a shower trailer at the church for volunteers to use while they are there. New Covenant also provides breakfast for the volunteer groups. "Reid Doster and the CBF made it very easy to coordinate this trip," says Rev. Taylor. "The needs that are still down there are overwhelming. We would encourage all churches in North Carolina to consider being a part of this rebuilding effort. If our little church can make a difference, so can yours." For more information, contact Reid Doster at reid_doster@hotmail.com or Virginia Taylor at lystrabaptist@earthlink.net.

Picture is of the mission team from Lystra Baptist Church with Melvin and Diane Ducre of Lacombe, LA.

Fellowship wraps up tornado response efforts in Florida
Updated 2/20/2007
By Carla Wynn, CBF Communications
After 11 days of response, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has concluded its disaster response efforts in Lake Mack, Fla., where the second-deadliest tornado in Florida history hit Feb. 2 killing 20 people in central Florida and leaving hundreds homeless.
With much of the debris removal work now completed, the Fellowship closed its emergency relief operations Feb. 14 after 82 volunteers contributed more than 1,000 service hours in debris removal, food service to relief workers and local residents, and gift-in-kind distribution, according to Charles Ray, the Fellowship's national disaster response coordinator.
"We touched some people," Ray said. "We made a difference."
Ray worked alongside Tommy Deal, CBF of Florida associate coordinator, in coordinating the Fellowship's relief efforts.
Fellowship volunteers worked largely alongside American Baptist Association volunteers and donated $6,000 to local churches that provided food service, lodging and recovery assistance. If you would like to send an offering to help with the relief effort, please send to CBF of Florida, P.O. Box 2556, Lakeland, FL, 33806-2556, or contact@floridacbf.org.



Belize Baptist Association Mission Partner
Updated 09/20/2006:

Read a letter from the Belize CBFNC Lay Coordinator for Belize Missions, Brenda Hipp

Ukraine - Village of Hope
Updated 09/20/2006:

Read an update from summer missions in the Ukraine

Read a report from Greystone Baptist Church in Raleigh - The Children