February Edition

Groundbreaking Relationships

by Terri Byrd

On Friday, December 23^rd a small group of people huddled together in the cold wind blowing through McDonald Chapel to celebrate a groundbreaking ceremony.  Nearly 8 months before, on April 27^th, 2011, a tornado carved a path through Birmingham, destroying hundreds of homes including the home of Chris and Hannah Myrick.

The Myrick’s new home is being built by the McDonald Chapel Revitalization Partnership, a partnership created by several different agencies, churches, and groups to help the recovery and rebuilding efforts in the McDonald Chapel community in Birmingham.  The partnership includes Volunteers of America Southeast and the Alabama Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, two organizations who had partnered together previously after Hurricane Katrina and with Sowing Seeds of Hope, Alabama CBF’s rural poverty initiative in Perry County.

Sadly, Chris and Hannah Myrick have experienced more tragedy than this tornado.  In fact, eleven years ago in April of 1998, Hannah and her sister huddled in the hallways of Open Door Church, just two miles from her new home site and a member of the Revitalization partnership, when a tornado ripped apart the church and their home.  Hannah still remembers the loud fury of that tornado and the sound of people screaming in its aftermath.

In 2008, Chris and Hannah were married and started a family with Chris’s two children from a previous marriage, Nathaniel and Hannah.  Sadly, Chris and Hannah suffered a miscarriage in early 2009.  However, they moved forward in faith and love and were soon pregnant again.  In April of 2010, their baby girl, Olivia Grace was born and looked healthy at first.  Two hours after her birth, Olivia Grace stopped breathing and was transferred to NICU and later to Children’s Hospital.  After weeks of tests, Olivia Grace was diagnosed with the very rare Congenital Disorder of  Glycosylation Type 1K.  Only ten babies have ever been recorded with this disorder in medical history. In July of 2010, Olivia Grace died.

Tragically, Chris and Hannah lost three other family members in the next 9 months including Chris’s loving stepfather who died in a sudden accident on April 21^st, 2011.  Just six days later, their rental house and both of their vehicles would be destroyed by the April tornado.  Saddened and discouraged by incredible loss and devastated financially by medical bills and loss of many of their possessions, the Myrick’s didn’t know where to turn.

However, hope and help were a part of their future.  Their faith sustained them and the McDonald Chapel Revitalization Partnership began to put together a plan to build the Myrick family a home.  Some property owners in McDonald Chapel donated their land to Volunteers of America Southeast and they, in return, gifted the deed to the land to the Myrick family.  Members of the partnership including VOA Southeast, Faith Chapel Christian Center, Alabama CBF, and local churches have given donations and pledged volunteer labor to build the house.

The donation from Alabama CBF came from the donations made by individuals and churches to the Disaster Relief Fund of Alabama CBF.  “Thanks to the generosity of churches and individuals across Alabama and from other states,” said Ronnie Brewer, Coordinator of Alabama CBF, “we have been able to provide funds to several areas across our state where our churches and people have partnered to help in recovery.”

“Several ministers and members of Alabama CBF churches have played integral rolls in the partnership in McDonald Chapel and our long-time partnership with VOA is invaluable,” Brewer said.  “We can’t thank them enough for serving alongside us and others in the work that is happening in this community.”

Rick Ousley, the VOA representative in Birmingham, said at the groundbreaking ceremony, “Thanks to the McDonald Chapel Revitalization Partnership, we are able to do together what none of us could do alone.”

So, two days before Christmas, the Myrick family gathered around a shovel and turned the earth on the site of their new home.  Once again, Chris and Hannah are expecting a baby.  “We are hoping to have the Myrick’s in their new home by Easter,” said Ousley.  “Together, we hope that April 2012 will be a time filled with joy and a time to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and the resurrection of hope for the Myrick family.”

January Edition

Bidding Wars

Mission causes win at church’s annual auction

By Terri Byrd

Pastor Jay and Melanie Kieve got so caught up in their church’s mission auction that they were bid- ding against each other. He says the annual event is a fellowship opportunity as well as a fundraiser for the Pelham, Ala., congregation.PELHAM, Ala. — When you enter the doors at Crosscreek Baptist Church, you hear lots of laughter and catch the aroma of hamburgers and chocolate. Members and visitors crowd the fellowship hall of the small church, piling plates with mini burgers, taco salad, and homemade fudge and brownies.

Children from two to 12, dressed in Santa hats, circle the floor in picnic fashion with cupcake icing on their faces while adults gather in folding chairs with plates on their laps — and checkbooks in their pockets. This good Advent Sunday is time for Crosscreek’s 26th annual missions auction.

Proceeds from the auction of homemade items and services support Crosscreek’s mission efforts and its partners for the coming year. Those include a mission trip to Mexico, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Alabama CBF, Global Women and CBF missionaries Jon and Tanya Parks.

Typically, the church raises one-fourth of its annual missions budget from the auction. Crosscreek pastor Jay Kieve is a young man with a bald head, a wicked sense of humor and a strong sense of justice. He greets everyone who walks through the door with a smile on his face and a warm hug.

Jay’s wife, Melanie, has a contagious smile too and links her arm through mine as we head to peruse the tables laden with auction treasures.

“The missions auction is a fellowship event as well as a fundraiser for missions,” said Jay Kieve. “We enjoy good food and good company as we vie for Christmas items.”

With a long history of doing good, this early December event helps set the tone for Crosscreek’s Advent and Christmas celebrations. And items created by children often bring the highest bids.

The missions auction began in 1986 when the women’s missions group at Crosscreek sought new ways to raise funds to support international missionaries. During the first few years of the auction, only the women’s group participated in purchasing homemade items and food. But soon the auction grew to include the entire congregation.

Now, each year congregation members and friends contribute items to be auctioned that range from homemade cakes and pies to furniture, home maintenance services, quilts and decorative items. Some items come from minis- tries and mission endeavors around the world. At the latest auction, notable entries included hand-painted bobble-head Santas and snowmen, handmade Christmas ornaments, and a unique outdoor shower.

Cowboy-hat-wearing auctioneer Fred Wilhite calls for bids. A volunteer, he holds the bidding open until pies sell for $70 or a child’s painting fetches $80 or more.

A bobble-head Santa brings in $210. Whoops of laughter explode around the room as bidding wars and friendly “fights” break out over favorite items.

“If you raise that bid one more time, I’ll break your legs!” cries out one lady seeking the much-desired three pounds of Fantasy Fudge on the auction block.

“OK, it’s yours,” laughs a man, two rows ahead, as he lowers his hand. They end up sharing the fudge.

Pastor Jay bids on a decorative metal Christmas tree. Melanie’s hand quickly rises to counter the bid.

“Hey, you’re bidding against me!” he calls out to his wife.

“Oops! Sorry honey,” she laughs. “You go right ahead.” Everyone in the room laughs.

However, they are outbid by a church member who pays a high premium for the decorative Christmas tree — and then gives it to the Kieves as a gift before leaving the church that evening. With the bidding conducted in a fun and playfully competitive manner, Crosscreek’s mission causes are the real winners of the night.

The emcee for the evening is David Farry, a chaplain and church member who has served on the missions committee. He moves the evening and the items along with delightful puns that keep the crowd moaning and laughing.

“I started emceeing when I was on the missions committee and they needed a volunteer,” he said. “And then I had so much fun, that I continued.”

This year his wife, Stacy Farry, is co-chair with Cathy Lee of the missions committee that spends months preparing for the auction.

“We have a saying,” says David Farry. “What happens at the missions auction — spreads around the world.”

There are no leftovers. Every item is sold and followed by a round of applause.

When the auction comes to a close, Kieve offers a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing: “God of multiplication, God of all great gifts, God of all creation, we give you thanks.”

As the prayer flows, the meaning behind all the fun and fellowship rises to fill the room. More than $6,000 has been raised in less than two hours by fewer than 100 people — all in a fun-filled effort to support important mission endeavors and the people who serve the name of Christ near and far. BT

—Jay Kieve contributed to this story. He can be reached at pastor@crosscreekbaptist.org for information on holding a missions auction.

December Edition

RENEWAL OF A CALL

Tuscaloosa pastor in right place at right time

Story and photos by Terri Byrd, Baptists Today Contributing Writer

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — “I remember it like it was yesterday,” said Mary An Wilson of her call to ministry when she was but 11 years old.

            Wilson recently became the pastor of Woodland Forest Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa, Ala., at the age of 66. But she recounts the earlier experience with clarity.

            “When I was 11, I was at a worship service and, during the invitation, something happened inside of me that was so otherworldly that I remember looking around to see if other people had felt anything,” said Wilson. “I knew then that God was calling me to the ministry, but it wasn’t a time when women were accepted in most ministry areas.”

            Mary An remembers really paying attention in church as a teenager, memorizing the words the ministers said during baptisms, the Lord’s Supper and weddings. Yet at that time, the only woman she knew who worked in the church was an organist. And the only other women ministers she knew of were missionaries.

            “I knew as a teenager that my mom wouldn’t let me become a missionary and move away,” she had resolved.

            After high school, Mary An attended Judson College, a Baptist-related women’s college in Marion, Ala., where she pursued degrees in biology and chemistry.

            “I was strongly influenced by the presence of Oma Dell Franklin Ely who was our (Baptist Student Union) director,” said Wilson. “She was the first woman I’d met who had a seminary degree and was working in ministry.”

            Ely encouraged Mary An in her spiritual growth and her heart for ministry. However, it was the mid-1960s and Ely made sure that Mary An knew that the only reason she was able to be the BSU director at Judson was because it was an all-female college.

            Seminary was on Mary An’s agenda following college graduation until her father opposed the idea. So she turned her attention to a career, and later graduate studies, in microbiology.

            Mary An had met Ron Wilson, a student at Samford University who also served a church in Bessemer, Ala., as minister of music. Their relationship grew following her graduation and led to marriage while he finished his college degree.

            Then the couple headed to Fort Worth, Texas, where Ron began studies at Southwestern Seminary while Mary An worked as a microbiologist. After Ron completed seminary, they returned to Alabama where he served as a minister of music and their family began to grow. Mary An resolved that her earlier clear call to ministry would be lived out as the wife of a minister and an active worker in the church.

            A few years later Ron joined the staff of First Baptist Church of Tuscaloosa. Mary An became the children’s choir coordinator and the church music secretary.

            “During those years I discovered how important relationships are,” she said. “Our relationships with God and with each other. I had 60 to 70 volunteers who served in 14 children’s choirs. The relationships I shared with some of those people were very important to me.”

            Wilson points to a “Walk to Emmaus” weekend in 1991 in which a young United Methodist pastor Lona Lynn Euler-Higgs spoke on “The Means of Grace.” Mary An said she cried for four hours straight that day, when “I saw what I had lost because my denomination basically rejected both me and my call.”

            Between 1997 and 2001, Mary An explored spiritual formation and directorship through the Upper Room Academy and Sursum Corda. Her call to ministry was strongly reaffirmed.

            In 1998, Mary An was invited to offer a prayer at an Alabama Cooperative Baptist Fellowship event. When she arrived at the meeting, she sat on the front pew to wait for the service to begin. Mart Gray, Alabama CBF coordinator at that time, invited Mary An to sit on the platform of the church.

            “It was the first time that I remember being treated like a minister and invited to sit with the other ministers,” she said. “But some people weren’t happy that I had gone.”

            Changes were taking place at the church they served. After 25 years as music minister, Ron was asked to become minister of senior adults. A shift in musical style occurred, and Mary An’s work came to an end.

            “It was 1999 and I decided that I would just retire early,” said Mary An. “I told Ron that I wasn’t going to do anything and that if someone needed help with something, they could call me.”

            The next morning, Jonathan Ivy, pastor of Woodland Forest Baptist Church, a small congregation in Tuscaloosa called. He asked Mary An if she would be willing to help him in
ministry at Woodland Forest.

            “I asked, ‘With what?’ He said, ‘Everything.’”

            Jonathan called Mary An for 10 days in a row, and she finally agreed to meet with him. After three hours of drinking coffee at Cracker Barrel, she agreed to try it for six months.

            She began as associate pastor in October1999 and was ordained the following year. She and Jonathan worked together until he resigned early this year. In September, Woodland Forest called Mary An to be pastor.

            The April 27 tornadoes that ripped across the Southeast tore through Tuscaloosa, killing dozens and leaving thousands without homes. The Woodland Forest facilities were left intact, but homes all around them were destroyed.

            “Thankfully, Marsha Sprayberry, director of Project Blessings, had recently renovated the home of one of our church families,” said Wilson. “She said that she decided to join our little church because she was looking for a church that helps people.”

            When the tornadoes came, Woodland Forest opened up the church building and Marsha and Mary An organized the efforts of Project Blessings and the church family from the church’s old gymnasium.

            “For days we had 18 wheelers arriving from all over the U.S. bringing supplies to the area,” said Wilson. “We fed 2,000 people a day for the first couple of weeks and then fed hundreds for weeks after that. We clothed hundreds of people and gave away supplies (food, personal hygiene items, diapers, etc.) in the tens of thousands.”

            “For a church that has only 45 to 50 people on Sunday morning,” she added, “God gave us the resources to help thousands in our community when tragedy came.”

Pastor Mary An Wilson (fourth from left) has found her congregation eager to respond to community needs.             Clothing left over from the tornadoes response could have been given to another agency, but after prayer and conversation the church decided they had been given an opportunity to continue a ministry. Various agencies in Tuscaloosa now refer people to Woodland Forest’s clothes distribution.

            “We have a long way to go,” said Mary An. “We’re a small, multi-ethnic church with few financial resources. But we have an energy to move forward and continue to be the presence of God to this community.”

            Mary An said the church is beginning to see growth from youth and young families. “I’m praying that God will show us the changes we need to make and the courage to make them.”

            Walking around the church grounds, she has a twinkle in her eyes and a spring in her step. She is here for a season and intends to do all she can to minister with the people of Woodland Forest during the time at hand.

            “I feel so blessed,” she said. “I walk around and feel God is in this place. Who would have ever thought that this little church could do so much to help so many and that I would be here to be a part of it?”

            “I always knew that God had called me to be a pastor,” she said with a smile. “It just took me 55 years to get here.” 

November Edition

Soul Food

by Terri Byrd for Baptists Today

In Elba, Alabama the place to be at lunchtime is the Just Folk Coffeehouse right off the town square.  Just steps away from the courthouse across the street, it’s where the locals who are working in town walk to for the daily special, conversation, and a piece of pie. It also happens to be the church office for Covenant Community Church and where the pastor, Mart Gray, spends time talking with people. 

On the day I’m having lunch with Mart, the special of the day is lasagna served with salad and breadsticks and the dessert of the day is Hershey Pie.  But Ken, who comes every day, swears by the chicken salad.

“I eat the same thing pretty much every day,” says Ken.  “And they know how I like my chicken salad sandwich.”  As the server hands Ken his sandwich at the counter, she also stands and waits while he opens up the sandwich and then she hands him the Louisiana hot sauce … because she knows that’s how he likes it.

In 2004, Mart Gray was the Coordinator for Alabama CBF and had his office a couple of doors down from where the coffee house now stands.  At the same time, he was starting Covenant Community Church and building a church building a few miles away. 

“We started the church in 2004, began building early in 2005(began building in May 2004, and had our first service in the new church building on September 11, 2005,” said Mart.  It wasn’t long after that Mart resigned as the Coordinator of Alabama CBF to pastor Covenant Community full time.

In 2007, the church acquired the coffee house space as a gift from the Cash family in Elba. “We had a dream for a coffee house where people could gather,” said Mart. “And I knew that it would be good for the church to have an office where I could meet more people.”

In the late 1990’s and the early part of the 2000’s, some businesses and people began to move out of downtown Elba because of past flooding. But eventually, the corp of engineers rebuilt the levee and then the Auburn Urban Studio, part of the school of architecture based in Birmingham, came and surveyed the community. The Urban Studio has a goal of helping to bring life into older, smaller communities across Alabama.

“They suggested that Elba make the downtown area a destination for gathering … a place for people to meet and get to know each other,” said Mart. “And a place where art, entertainment, and food could bring people together which was exactly what we were thinking.”

The coffee house opened in 2008 and held their first concert that fall featuring singer/songwriter Ellis Paul. Just Folks now has a monthly concert series and sells season tickets with approximately 65 to 75 people in attendance at each concert. Artists and patrons alike love the space and the intimacy of the coffee house.

The coffee house and the church also feature the work of local artists.  The painting over the fireplace in the coffee house, called Dinner on the Grounds, was commissioned by an artist called Toby(Toby Hollinghead)who also wrote a story to go with the painting. Paintings and crafts line the walls and the shelves in the coffee house and they hold a craft festival at Christmas.  The church uses art for spiritual expression and education as well.

The first painting gifted to the church was an offering of thanksgiving to the congregation of Covenant Community Church.  A woman who was displaced by Hurricane Katrina found herself in Elba and the members of Covenant gave her shelter and a community while she was in transition. An artist, she told Mart that she was going to paint them a picture. When she was ready to move and settle into a new home, she left a painting behind as an offering of gratitude. The people of Covenant were amazed by the painting of an angel, more than six feet tall, painted on recovered wood (the wood was just purchased locally) after the storm. Today, that same painting hangs among others in the fellowship area of the church.

Three years ago, the deli next door to the coffee house closed and the people of Elba began asking Mart and some of the church members to consider offering lunch. So, the church added a kitchen and now serves lunch to 35 or more customers a day with church volunteers running the restaurant.  One of the church members, Patty, volunteers more than 40 hours a week to keep the restaurant open and the food prepared.  Other church members volunteer for a day or two during the week.

“Just Folk is where it’s at,” says Jimmy who volunteers on Wednesdays. “The pay is great too … a chicken salad sandwich and a coke!”

Just Folk is also the home of the church’s youth group and hosts their Bible study time and fellowship. Although the big screen television on the wall features news during the lunch hour, it also features the youth Bible study DVD curriculum or the women’s Bible study program.  The coffee house is free to other faith groups who need to hold a meeting or a fellowship as well.

“Some people may ask why a church runs a coffee house,” said Mart. “But the people of Covenant really believe that this is our signature ministry. It’s a way to connect to the people of our community.”

Since opening Just Folk, the church has grown.  “We’ve had some people join Covenant, but we also have people who have simply become part of a fellowship of people who come to meet and talk at the coffee house,” said Mart. “In some ways, we’ve become the church on the square. There are days when you may just need someone to talk to … and a piece of pie.”

October Edition

Madison congregation nourishes children through Weekend Backpack Snacks ministry

by Terri Byrd

MADISON, Ala. — There was a question that kept arising in the hearts and minds of a group of people at Trinity Baptist Church in Madison, Ala. “For kids who are receiving reduced or free lunches at school, what are they eating on the weekend?”

As they began to investigate the answer to their question, the group discovered that a United Methodist congregation in nearby Huntsville was addressing that same issue.

“There was a Methodist church in our county [that] was creating backpack snacks for kids to have on the weekends, and they invited us to come and shadow their program,” said Glenn Bowers, minister of education and missions at Trinity Baptist. “We spent a couple of weeks going to watch them collect food, put it into bags and deliver them to a local school in their community.”

What this group discovered was a ministry they knew could be recreated at Trinity Baptist Church — one that would make a difference in their community and a ministry their congregation would wrap their arms around and be excited about.

But they knew they would need some help as well. So they asked Cooperative Baptist Fellowship to partner with Trinity through an It’s Time grant to help fund the Weekend Backpack Snack program along with two other ministry projects.

“Our It’s Time grant went toward three ministries: a ministry to senior adults that helps provide needs for their homes, the Circle Project at a Title I school in our area and the Weekend Backpack Snack program,” said Bowers. “We are so thankful for the partnership of CBF in helping to facilitate these ministries in our community.”

Trinity formed an “It’s Time committee” that approached the Madison Board of Education to inquire about the schools with the greatest needs in their community. The board identified the schools with the largest number of children receiving free or reduced lunches.

The Trinity group then approached one of the school’s principal and counselor to see if they would be interested in working together to provide healthy free snacks the children could take home for the weekend.

“We immediately found a school that was excited to join us in this project, a school that had 50 children [who] could benefit from our ministry,” said Bowers. “For the school, it was very important that they were able to implement the program but maintain respect and privacy for the students.” The church and the school agreed that Trinity would deliver the snacks and that the counselor or teachers would put the snacks in the children’s backpacks on Fridays at a time of the day when other students wouldn’t notice.

“I knew there was no way we could take on providing 50 bags a week for 33 weeks a year unless the whole church embraced this ministry,” said Bowers. “So we invited our Sunday school classes to donate specific snacks and then sign up for a month when their class would pack the bags and deliver them to the school. We had so many donations for our first year that very little of the grant actually went toward

purchasing food!”

Trinity’s administrative team for the Weekend Backpack Snack program includes a volunteer inventory director and a volunteer purchaser. Children in the church decorate the bags and then classes fill the bags with healthy foods including soups, fruit snacks, cheese crackers and fruit. A trailer behind their church building houses all of the supplies and has space for a team of people to put the 50 bags together each week.

The church had to follow specific guidelines by the WIC program and health department for storing and handling of food supplies, but the organization of the program made it easy to comply with all the regulations.

“We really have a system that works smoothly and makes it enjoyable and rewarding for the volunteers,” said Bowers. “The people in our congregation have been inspired by this ministry in such a powerful way that they want to do more.”

Bowers said enthusiasm for the project led to a recent meeting with a second elementary school in their community where they hope to begin the ministry in January.

“We are currently enlisting other Madison churches to come alongside us and view the program so they may assume a similar ministry to one of the other Madison elementary schools,” said Bowers.

During the 2010-2011 school year, Trinity Baptist Church’s Weekend Backpack Snack ministry gave out a total of 1,543 snack bags at 33 weekly distributions to 53 different local school children.

“It is our hope that other churches are inspired to do the same until all the children in our town who receive free or reduced lunches have healthy food to eat on the weekends,” said Bowers. “We really believe we are impacting the lives of kids in poverty in our city.” BT