DALLAS (ABP) — Baptists around the nation are doing something constructive to remember a day characterized by destruction.
In memory of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship will host a day of mission projects Sept. 13.
Current, the Fellowship’s young leaders’ network, coordinates and promotes “11-on-11,” a mission service project for individuals of all ages.
“I love that it [11-on-11] was intended for younger people and now everyone wants to be involved,” Ashley Gill, the group’s national co-coordinator, said. The young leaders’ network will help local churches organize projects in several different states.
The project began with network members in 11 states taking part in local mission projects nationwide. Since then, the project has grown and become a way for Baptists across the states to connect with each other through the coordinated projects and to serve God.
In 2007, 11-on-11 had 14 mission projects held simultaneously in 12 different states. The project is slowly gaining speed as more churches join the effort this year, Gill said.
The projects are designed to help build up the neighborhoods in which they take place.
Projects in the past have included gardening in a park or home, picking up trash, participating in Habitat for Humanity workdays, and helping in a homeless shelter or soup kitchen.
“It’s the small things that make a difference,” Shannon Rutherford, Current’s other national co-coordinator said. In 2007, she joined 12 college students at Louisiana State University to help paint a building.
“You just got a feeling that it’s not just me,” Rutherford said. “That there are people all over the country that are doing the same thing. You feel connected to something bigger.”
“Folks are able to engage in the community. They are going out and being the presence of Christ and making a good impact on the community,” Gill said.
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