HENDERSON, N.C. (ABP) — The small Flint Hill neighborhood in Henderson, N.C., hadn't seen traffic like this in years.
Cars and church vans packed into a small lot, bulldozers moved through the neighborhood, and dumpsters crowded the street — all in the shadow of a local church wanting community change.
“Whenever you see something like this unfold, you know God did it,” said Brenda Pearce, pastor of Greater Little Zion United Holy Church, a congregation trying to transform its struggling community.
The congregation came a step closer Nov. 4 as members of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship churches in North Carolina converged on Vance, Warren and Halifax counties for a weekend missions blitz. About half of the 500 participants helped in Henderson, where First Baptist Church has been partnering with Pearce and other African-American churches for community change.
“Your being here sends a powerful message to us that we are not in this mission alone — that we are joined by other Baptists who care all across our state,” Paul Baxley, pastor of First Baptist, Henderson, told participants before work began. “What you are doing is making an investment in hope.”
The event was sponsored by CBF of North Carolina and hosted by four area churches already active in their North Carolina communities: First Baptist, Henderson, Littleton Baptist, Warrenton Baptist and Wise Baptist.
“We couldn't do this without local churches taking the lead,” said Larry Hovis, coordinator of CBF in North Carolina. “This is a local-church-driven mission.”
The blitz was motivated in part by work done by Together for Hope, CBF's national rural poverty initiative working in 20 of the poorest U.S. counties. Participants, who came from all over the state, included children like Jonathan Dean, who came with Summit Church from Webster, N.C., and the retired B.F. Waddell, who fired up a chainsaw as he celebrated his 86th birthday.
“If you can [serve], you might as well,” said Waddell, a member of McGill Baptist Church in Concord, N.C.
About 30 miles away in Littleton, N.C., Emily Lemons encouraged children while she helped with carnival games.
“It shows them that somebody loves them and cares about them,” said Lemons, a member of Ardmore Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, N.C. “Hopefully they'll make the connection that God loves them.”
That hope was shared by many serving in Littleton, whether they were spinning cotton candy at the carnival, making supply kits at a pregnancy support center, picking up trash around the community or painting the local community ministry center.
And a little goes a long way in Littleton, where Littleton Baptist Church pastor Mike Currin was thrilled with how much had been done in one weekend.
“There's no way [our church alone] could do all these things we're doing in one day,” he said. “This gives people hope that people care.”
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