LYNCHBURG, Va.—The Network House, a safe place for abused women and children, is just one of the mission sites where volunteers served July 23-27 during MC2, an annual mission event sponsored by the Virginia Baptist Mission Board at Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center.
Each morning throughout the week groups of volunteers put into practice the theme from John 10:10 of “Live the Life: ‘I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.’”
The Stop Hunger Now packaging event was an opportunity for all ages to work together to package 15,000 meals.
|
Site coordinator Dawn Fischer admits she has a collection of MC2 T-shirts that she’s received since the early 1990s (when it was known as Family Missions Week.) Each year she writes a blog describing the numerous sites and volunteer leaders. Her accounts verify that there are many MC2 devotees who return each year for worship, discipleship, fellowship and intergenerational mission projects.
“Partnerships are essential,” says Fisher, “as we try to find people and organizations that can provide sites and materials, while we provide the volunteers.” Over 30 sites were offered at MC2 this summer and every year they change.
“This is a training ground for all ages to learn from one another,” recounts Debbie Dawson, who works with Fischer organizing the mission projects. “They don’t have to go to Africa to be missionaries. They can do it here.”
Rebuilding Together Lynch-burg, a nonprofit organization that rehabilitates the houses of low-income homeowners, particularly the elderly and disabled, has been a long-time partner. MC2 volunteers worked at various sites doing home repair and renovation.
MC2 teams traveled to Bedford, Va., to partner with Christian Ministries, the Bed-ford Pregnancy Center and the Bedford Hospice House. They organized food, clothing and household items and assisted clients. Some team members painted and did landscape work for these organizations.
Landscaping projects also were performed for the Central Virginia Training Center, a home for the mentally and physically disabled. MC2 volunteers were also able to visit some residents with the assistance of on-site chaplain Calvin Staton.
At the Daily Bread worksite, volunteers served over 100 people at the soup kitchen each day.
A Backyard Bible Club was conducted for children at the James Crossing Apartments. Teens spent time playing with children at the Jubilee Family Development Center.
Gleaning for the World is a worksite where MC2 can go international. At its Lynchburg facility teams served by checking dates, packaging and organizing food and medical supplies that will be sent to countries around the world.
Volunteers working on campus at Eagle Eyrie were involved in a variety of projects, including landscaping, repairs, window-washing, making benches for the fire pit area and the woods above Dogwood Hall.
A large group of 7th graders (in training for missions off-site next summer) began work on the Labyrinth trail which was to be continued by volunteers at Eagle Eyrie’s Work Blitz weekend, schedule for Sept. 7-8.
“One project that highlights the intergenerational focus of MC2 is the Stop Hunger Now packaging event,” says Nathan White, director of communications and marketing at Eagle Eyrie.
This year over 200 people gathered in Dogwood Hall Auditorium to package 15,000 meals to will be shipped around the world to support school feeding programs, he reports, and an offering of $1,495 was given by 350 campers and their leaders to continue the packing of 16,000 meals next summer.
“Not only is MC2 a week of missions, it’s a week of renewal as volunteers develop relationships and encourage each other and build the body of Christ,” says Fischer.
Barbara Francis ([email protected]) is on the staff of the Religious Herald.