LYNCHBURG — Virginia Baptists' MC2 Missions Connection Celebration involves participants of all ages in doing missions. Each morning, youth and adult teams participated in mission/service projects throughout the Lynchburg area. Three projects from this year's MC2, held at Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center July 14-19, illustrate the way God uses these mission experiences to touch lives.
Lynchburg resident Clara Marshall is in her 90s, lives alone and is dependent on a wheelchair. As part of MC2, a team installed new vinyl siding on her house. Marshall appreciated the company as much as the work. As the crew put siding on the front, she sat at the front door, talking with them through the screen. When they began working on the side of the house, Marshall shifted to the side door to continue the conversation.
Photo by Alice Rusher
Kids at the backyard Bible club at James Crossing apartments “power up.”
The job was completed in just two mornings, and the construction team left for another worksite. The next day another MC2 team arrived to do some landscaping in Mrs. Marshall's yard. Sitting in her wheelchair on the sidewalk, Marshall admired the new siding, and then her thoughts turned immediately to its practical benefits. “Everything just looks so beautiful,” she said. “And I'm thinking about winter time and how nice and warm it's gonna be.”
Across town at the James Crossing apartment complex, an MC2 mission/service team held a backyard Bible club that drew 25-30 children each day. Meeting outdoors in the shade of a large tree, the youth and adult leaders involved the children (ages 2-10) in crafts, songs, Bible stories, puppet presentations, and games with a large parachute. According to site leader Theresa Crenshaw from Victoria Baptist Church in Victoria, “The children loved the puppets, the crafts, and the parachute. But most of all they loved being held and hugged.”
One 8-year-old boy, named Queshawd, learned many of the songs by heart. When the team gave the children Bible story books to keep, Queshawd read the story of Adam and Eve and exclaimed “This is my favorite book!” “This same boy shared in prayer time that his mother has a tumor,” said Crenshaw, “and our hearts broke at his concern and love for her. She's the only family he has.”
Photo by MC2 Photo Team
Youth install siding on a house as part of MC2.
A grandmother who lives in the apartment complex was also touched by the effect that this week of ministry had on the children. “God has called [her] to continue the ministry throughout the year with the children,” said Crenshaw.“ She reads and writes very little, but her heartfelt desire to serve and to share the love of Christ was evident as we prayed with her throughout the week.”
In another Lynchburg neighborhood, a team of six youth from Linden Heights Baptist Church in Staunton and Bowling Green Baptist Church in Bowling Green renovated several rooms in the home of Jennie Dyke. Led by Kathy Shereda, pastor of High Hills Baptist Church in Jarratt, and her husband, Paul, this group replaced the kitchen floor, hung new sheetrock, plastered and painted, and installed new screen on several doors and the back porch.
As she watched the team working, homeowner Jennie Dyke said with a smile, “The Lord always provides.”
When Shereda noticed that Dyke had only a microwave to cook with, adults from High Hills Baptist searched the internet, located a high-quality used stove, and contributed the money to purchase it. The church's choir director went shopping and returned with over a dozen bags of groceries.
Jennie Dyke's granddaughter, Mandze, 13, helped with painting and cleaning up at her grandmother's house. At the end of the week, the team invited Jennie and Mandze to Eagle Eyrie for a pizza supper in their lodge and to attend the closing worship service. Before leaving for home that evening, Jennie Dyke made a request: “She asked if Mandze could join our group next year, stay on the mountain with us, and work in Lynchburg doing missions so she could give back as others had given to them,” said Shereda.
Photo by Alice Rusher
In another MC2 project, youth help two senior citizens with crafts at the Adult Care Center at Court Street United Methodist Church.
These were only a few of more than 30 youth mission/service projects. Some adults worked building a Habitat for Humanity house, while others at Eagle Eyrie knitted afghans and blankets for hospitalized children and infants. Preschoolers and children looked at clothing to decide whether it was good enough to give away. In all of these ways, Virginia Baptists were doing missions as a part of MC2.
MC2 also included dynamic, intergenerational worship; opportunities to meet and learn from missionaries; and afternoon seminar sessions on a wide range of topics, such as healthy dating, self-esteem and discerning a call to ministry. There was also the opportunity for adults to train for service with the Virginia Baptist Disaster Relief Temporary Child Care Units.
A total of 585 children, youth, and adults were involved in some aspect of MC2. Photo slideshows from this year's MC2 are available at www.mc2-va.com.
Kathy Shereda's group from High Hills Baptist is already anticipating next year's MC2. “I am still so full of God's Spirit after such a great week,” she wrote in an email. “It was transformative on many fronts. Our commission was to go — go and tell, go and do, go and share, go and love. We came home and shared our experiences and pictures with our church. We are already planning for next year.”
The 2009 MC2 Mission Connection Celebration will be held July 13-18 at Eagle Eyrie.