NORFOLK — The young adults at Freemason Street Baptist Church in Norfolk got their hands dirty for missions at a seamen's center. Virginia Intermont College in Bristol worked with a shelter for families facing homelessness and abuse. Gayton Baptist Church in Richmond worked with a non-profit organization helping families transition out of homelessness.
These groups were among 20 Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-related churches and organizations that participated in this year's Eleven-on-11 day of service. Facilitated by Current, the Fellowship's network of young leaders, local missions projects that day offered a constructive way for Fellowship Baptists to make a difference in their communities and honor the memory of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Photo courtesy of Freemason Street Church
Young adults from Freemason Street Baptist Church in Norfolk painted and cleaned the International Seamen's House in Norfolk.
“Eleven-on-11 was a great event for the young adults of our congregation,” said Abby Thornton, minister of spiritual formation at Freemason Street. “People in this age range are eager to be involved. They don't want just to give money to missions but want to get their hands dirty right in their own community. This event helped speak to that passion in our congregation.”
The Freemason Street group worked at the International Seamen's House in Norfolk, a hospitality ministry for merchant seafarers from around the world.
“This is a ministry that our congregation has supported for decades, but most of our group had never even seen the section of Norfolk where the house is located, let alone known anything about this ministry,” Thornton said. “With a few hours of work, we were able to improve a space enjoyed as a home-away-from-home by people from all over the world, and also have our own world-views — and community-views — broadened a bit.”
Meanwhile, teens associated with a program at Metro Baptist Church in New York City learned the value of not just feeding the homeless but talking with them and hearing their stories.
Metro Baptist Church, located in Hell's Kitchen just a stone's throw from the events of Sept. 11, 2001, has participated in Eleven-on-11 for the past two years. This year, former Richmonder Amanda Hambrick, director of youth programming at Rauschenbusch Metro Ministries (a ministry of Metro Baptist Church), took a group of teens from a youth center associated with the church to work among the homeless at a shelter on Madison Avenue.
“[It was] kind of funny that we're on Madison Avenue and there's a homeless center here,” said Angelo, one of the youth. “That's like the most extreme money and the poorest in the same place. Something's not right about that.”
“I was happily amazed that Angelo, a freshmen in high school, was able to notice the blatant injustice present in his own city; something that some people never notice, or choose not to notice,” said Hambrick, one of the CBF's field personnel.
At the center, four of the youth served hot lunches while the rest of the group played games and talked with the clients.
“Our teens' initial responses to the homeless were challenged,” Hambrick said. “We projected that if everyone would take the time to hear people's stories, events like 9-11 could possibly be prevented.
“I loved seeing the youth from the teen center — youth who themselves have stories that often include homelessness, economic strife and exposure to gang and domestic violence, drug abuse and other realities of urban life — realize that the gift of their time on a Saturday morning, their willingness to listen to another's story and their ability to see the homeless as dignified and significant members of society are some of the greatest things they can offer the world.”
Ashley Gill, associate pastor at University Baptist Church in Hattiesburg, Miss., and Shannon Rutherford, minister to college students at University Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, La., coordinated the projects.
Some of the other projects completed on Eleven-on-11 Day include:
• University Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, La., put a tarp on a couple's roof in the aftermath of Gustav, and cleaned a room in a child development center.
• The Oaks Baptist Church in Lyons, Ga., provided care and cleanup at a hospice house.
• Columbus Fellowship Church in Columbus, Miss., created a community garden wall and cleaned up a local park.
• The Cooperative Student Fellowship of Mercer University worked with HIV/AIDS patients in a housing/resource center.
• University Baptist Church in Hattiesburg, Miss., cleaned and made minor repairs at the local Christian Women's Job Corps office.
Both the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia and Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond were among the sponsors of Eleven-on-11.
Other sponsors of the event included the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, Campbell University Divinity School, CBF Church Benefits Board, CBF of Florida, CBF of Georgia, CBF of Mississippi, CBF of North Carolina, Duke Divinity School, Kentucky Baptist Fellowship, Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology, and PASSPORT Inc. Through these sponsorships, Gill said, T-shirts were sent to volunteers at each site as a token of appreciation for their participation.