This is a repost of an article written by then 13-year-old Hope Watson about our ShareFest 2009 event.  We hope you will join us for ShareFest 2011.

A crew of over 100 members of First Baptist Church set out to complete a mission that dreary, drizzly morning of September, 26. Though the weather was poor, the workers’ spirits were up, as the crew began to tackle the tasks they were determined to complete. The outcome would glorify the Lord in the form of blood, sweat, and tears!

As far as blood goes much was given in the form of donations to the Red Cross. Over 24 productive units were donated which will help 80 struggling people in our community.

When it comes to sweat plenty was shed by volunteers of the Binder Lake and South School improvement projects. Work at Binder Lake involved collecting trash scattered around the area, filling many bags and helping the environment. At South School the crew of FBC and Southridge Baptist members partnered together, and spent their time repainting faded tiger paws on the front sidewalk, touching up a dull map of the states on the playground, and adding a fresh coat of paint to most of the floorboards and exterior doors of the school. Another group endured the rain while planting and re-mulching the flower beds, bringing life to South School’s landscaping.

And for tears there were none, only smiles on the faces of the humble volunteers.

Other projects included stuffing 50 toiletries bags that will impact the students in need at South School. These bags contained toothpaste, deodorant, and shampoo. They were assembled by Sharefest volunteers. A food drive supporting the Samaritan Center also took place in preparation to Sharefest events. Nearly 250 pounds of food were given by members of our congregation. Every project was completed and had a positive effect on the community, bringing joy to the giver and the receiver.

Those from ages 6 to 70 truly played their parts as God’s servants during 2009’s Sharefest event.   -Hope Watson, age 13

Sunday, September 11, is our annual Summer Missions Celebration in both the 8:15 and 10:45 am worship gatherings.  On the 10-year anniversary of September 11, it seems fitting to celebrate the good that God continues to do in our community, our nation and around the world.  What happened ten years ago didn’t stop us or keep us at home in fear.  It continued to inspire us to reach out to our hurting world and to share the love of Jesus Christ.   That is something to celebrate.

If you are visiting this blog for the first time, welcome.  We hope you will subscribe to this page in some form or fashion using the links in the right sidebar.  This will allow you to know when we post new information here.   While the missions blog may not have an active post each week, it is a great source for information about our mission partnerships and service opportunities.  It is also an active place whenever we have a trip because this is where we post stories and pictures while we are away.

So, take some time and look around! And welcome.

Sondra and her two sons, Matt and Chris.

January is National Mentoring Month.  It is a great month to hear from some of our South School Mentors. This week let’s hear from Sondra Allen who began mentoring this year.

“A wise and trusted counselor” is what you find if you look up the word ‘Mentor’ in the dictionary. As I meet with a precious six year old every week at South School I’m not sure how much wise counsel is given, but I walk away blessed by having spent just a few brief moments listening, playing, teaching, hugging and giggling.

I treasure those moments I spend with her and I take away far more than I leave with her.  My prayer is that we are building a trustworthy relationship that she can count on.  Someone she knows she can count on to be there to listen, play, teach, hug and giggle.  You know, I think if it’s what I needed Jesus would giggle with me.

Why don’t you consider being a mentor?  I can guarantee you’ll be blessed.

- Sondra Allen

If you are interested in becoming a mentor, please contact Beth Schmidt, South School Coordinator.

Pat Swearingen and Kyle Camden enjoy the Christmas give-away in Pine Ridge.

On December 18, eight members of First Baptist Church traveled 15 hours north to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.   We were pulling a trailer that was packed tightly with every inch of space taken by Christmas gift boxes, coats and other donations, including 100 bottles of soap donated by Unilever.  We were on our way to spend a few days with our partners, Wings as Eagles Ministries, (WAEM) to deliver Christmas to the Lakota Native Americans on Pine Ridge.

Every year, WAEM provides a bright spot in the lives of so many adults and children who might otherwise not have Christmas gifts. Because of your generous donations of money, coats, and Christmas shoeboxes, we were able to help WAEM bring Christmas to the Rez.

Christmas distribution at Porcupine

We met up with two other teams – a team from Nashville and a team of college students from Southwest Baptist University.  The first day was spent trying to sort through all the donations that had been brought by all the teams, the gifts that WAEM had purchased with donated funds, and  donations that had been mailed to the Dream Center over the previous month.  Needless to say, there was a lot of things to sort. We also helped load up a lot of gifts with some leaders from the Northern Arapaho tribe.  Every year they come down to pick up gifts to take to the people on the Wind River Reservation. The needs are great on so many of the reservations in the US.

The crowd at Billy Mills Hall

On Sunday night, we had our first distribution event at the Billy Mills Hall in the town of Pine Ridge on Pine Ridge Rez.  Over 300 hundred individuals came out for the event which lasted a couple of hours.  There were music groups and drama presentations from the SBU team.  A Lakota man, Tim Whiteface, shared his testimony in song and word.  And then, let the chaos begin!  Organized chaos but still chaotic.  We served elder bags first to all men and women over the age of 60.  It is very important in the Lakota culture to respect the elders.  After that, children were called by their gender and age to line up and receive their gifts.  There were a ton of items and although we wished we could give everyone an equal gift, we could not.  We also ran out which broke our hearts.  But Lori and Gary Mcafee, WAEM leaders, made a promise to come back out and bring some more in a couple of days.  Most of our guys from FBC worked security in the parking lots – protecting vehicles and the building from graffiti.  Although sad, this is a daily reality of the hard life on the reservation.

On Monday, we prepped gifts again during the day and that night held another large distribution at the Porcupine school in the town of Porcupine.  Hundreds came out again to sing Christmas songs, to hear testimony from Tim and others, and to receive gifts.  On this night, I believe we were able to provide every person with a gift of some kind.

On Tuesday, we sorted the remainder of the gifts and then drove to various communities.  Everything is spread out on the reservation so it might be easy to miss a pocket of people.  We traveled to Potato Creek, Manderson, and Wounded Knee and gave out gifts from the trailer.  Santa was with us as well to bring smiles to the children.

Wednesday morning the team headed out at 5:30 am for the long trek home, arriving back at the church at 10:30 pm.  It was a trip full of blessings and education.  We had a chance on Tuesday morning to take our team to the Lakota Cultural Center at the Oglala Lakota College which was very educational and informative not only of the history of the Lakota but also the progress that the college is making on the Reservation.  We then traveled to Wounded Knee to visit the massacre site and the memorial grave.  Today, December 29th, is the 120th anniversary of  the massacre at Wounded Knee.  It is a somber place but we grieve just as much for the battle that is currently waging on the reservation – a battle of poverty, hopelessness and despair.  We are blessed to partner with such an amazing couple that serves God and labors on behalf of the Lakota people every day of their lives. We have so much to learn but it begins with that first step.  We hope that maybe you will join us on our future trips to Pine Ridge in June 2011 and December 2011.

You can view all of our pictures here.