By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer
ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBM) – Instead of going to the beach or amusement park for spring break, middle school students from Calvary Baptist Church, Alexandria, chose to stay home for a mission “trip.”
By the conclusion of their April 2-4 effort in Alexandria, the 25 sixth through eighth grade students, plus 10 adult leaders, were reminded they do not have to travel to another part of the United States or thousands of miles overseas to share the Gospel and show the love of Christ to others.
“We talk about missions and a lot of our middle schoolers think it’s overseas,” CBC Middle School Minister Anthony Work told the Baptist Message. “But missions also are in our backyard. Our Jerusalem is right here in Central Louisiana. We brought to light that they can serve and pour out in those places that are familiar and need Jesus’ love too.”
The team shopped for food items and supplies that they used to fill boxes for the Fostering Community, a local non-profit organization whose mission is “to improve the lives of children impacted by foster care through advocacy, resources, and support.”
The students also toured and spruced up the CENLA Pregnancy Center building and grounds; packed meal bags and food boxes and distributed them at the Food Bank of Central Louisiana; toured and learned about the various ministries by state strategists whose home base is the Louisiana Baptist Building; assembled hygiene bags for future distribution by Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief teams; prayed for students at three local schools and the parish; and helped prepare CBC rooms that are used for Sunday meetings of Life Groups.
They bunked at CBC and used the shower trailer from Philadelphia Baptist Church, Deville, that was stationed at the Baptist Building.
LBDR Associate/Volunteer Mobilizer Mark Morelock commended the students for their keen interest throughout the tour.
“It was great to see that Calvary, one of our Louisiana Baptist churches, is making a conscious effort to engage their youth in missions activities and introduce them to Louisiana Baptist missions and ministries,” Morelock said. “They were very engaging and had questions not only about disaster relief but state missions. We had the opportunity to talk about that from the state convention level all the way down to the local church. We need to continue prioritizing engaging our youth about missions activities because they are the future of the Louisiana Baptist Convention.”
Two highlights of the week for Work were when his students connected with a recipient of one of the food boxes they had packed at the Food Bank of Central Louisiana, and when they delivered food and hygiene boxes to foster care families.
“Our supervisor heard us talking during a break about the Food Bank and she shared that she still is a recipient of the bags,” Work said. “At that moment our kids put aside their own feelings of being hungry and tired after a long morning at the Food Bank and focused on her needs. Our students felt led to pray for her and the bags as a result of that conversation.
“Later that afternoon after we delivered the boxes to the Fostering Community, our students told me that they had a lot of emotions come up,” he continued. “Those ranged from them ‘feeling unworthy’ to ‘things in their own lives’ to ‘shocked and a loss of words.’”
