Area churches send out summer mission teams

Grace Presbyterian Church in Chelsea sent 33 adults and youth to Clarkston, Ga. in the Atlanta area. This is the church’s fourth year to host a camp for the children of international refugees living in that community. The week-long camp offers horseback riding, archery, swimming and fishing for approximately 95 children that participate.

Inverness Vineyard Church youth group went to Summer of Service in Cincinnati, where they not only were inspired through Bible teaching and uplifting worship but also did several service projects in the community. In addition, Senior Pastor Bubba Justice went to Kenya to commission the formation of an association of Kenyan Vineyard Churches; lay minister Edmund Perry traveled with a team to Kitgum, Uganda, where he helped launch the Alpha Course at the IGF Community Church; David Crim was part of a team that went to Corinto, Nicaragua; and member Evan Clinkscales made a return trip to Manila, Philippines to hold weekly worship services and Bible studies with groups of men who are involved with gangs and women who their ministry has trained to make handbags to sell to support their families.  

Chelsea Community Church sent a group of over 40 youth and adults to assist with a construction project at Rhema Church of God in Brooklyn.

Meadow Brook Baptist Church took a team of 24 youth and adults to do construction, evangelism, home visits, VBS, sports ministry and worship services at Iglesia Evangelica Paz de Dios in Santa Clara, Belize. The church also sent a group of over 30 volunteers to assist Baptist Builders for Christ summer project to rebuild Mountainview Baptist Church in Phil Campbell, Ala. The church was destroyed in the April 27, 2011 tornadoes.

St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church in Chelsea adopted a family in Greensboro, Ala. and helped them build a house over the summer in partnership with the local diocese and with Episcopal Relief and Development. The church also furnished the house and became good friends with the family who lives there.

First Christian Church’s high school youth worked with outreach programs with Second Presbyterian Church in Lexington, Kentucky.

St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church partnered with other area Catholic parishes and the Consolata Sisters of Greene County to do construction work around Eutaw, Ala. in Alabama’s Black Belt region.

Christ Church United Methodist sent a team of youth and adults to do construction work and share the gospel in Costa Rica. They also sent a team of nine to work with children and share with people in homes around Guatemala City, Guatemala. Two members from this team also traveled to East Asia in May to share the gospel on college campuses.

Oak Mountain Presbyterian sent a team of seven to Sacred Road Ministries in Washington state to do light construction and Vacation Bible School on an Indian reservation; OMPC’s former youth minister Chris Granberry started the ministry. Another group of 15 traveled to an Indian reservation in Warm Springs, Oregon through the same ministry. Their youth also took trips to Belize and New Orleans to work with children and do construction.

Valleydale Church sent 53 high school students to serve the less fortunate in Baltimore through the Dream Center there. Fifty-two middle school students attended a Student Life camp to serve families in Cedarville, Ohio. The church sent a team of 11 to conduct a children’s camp in Burlington, VT among the refugee and local population in the city. A medical and teaching team of 11 traveled to Bardar, Moldova, as a part of their church planting efforts there.

Double Oak Community Church returned to Yacama Indian Reservation for the sixth year, where they had 60 kids in Vacation Bible School. Their youth went to Chicago to work with a ministry in downtown called Lamp Post on service projects around Ebeneezer Baptist Church in downtown. Internationally, a group traveled to Honduras to work with Forgotten Children to minister to abandoned street children in Tegusagapa and an orphanage outside the city. Also, a group went with a group from the Church at Brook Hills to minister at Richard Wurmbrant School in northern Romania; the school’s foundation is based in Birmingham.

North Shelby Baptist sent a group of about 25 high school and college students to two small communities in Antigua, Guatemala, to pass out food packets and visit with the families. Another group of middle schoolers traveled to Hayden, an area in the mountains in Kentucky, to work with children and do some construction for people in need there.