Twenty adults and youth from First Baptist Church Lowry City travelled to Statesboro, GA June 25-July 2 to work with the Christian Social Ministry there. This was the third time the church has sent a team to assist the CSM, with pervious church trips were done in 2010 and 2016.
Pastor Jeff Ferguson of FBC Lowry City commented "We travel 34 hours round-trip to support Christian Social Ministries because it's a great investment in Kingdom work since CSM shares the Gospel of Christ with thousands of Bulloch County residents annually, interviewing those in need and pointing them to Christ. CSM also meets residents at their point of need through the Clothes Closet, Food Pantry and Utility Assistance ministries."
The team spent the week sorting through 40ft metal containers full of donated items, pricing the items such as clothes and shoes, and then displaying them for sale. Pastor Ferguson pointed out a new addition to CSM's ministries, "this year there is the 'Shoe Store' a separate room where children can select one pair of name-brand, new shoes arranged by size. Many of these children have never had their own pair of new shoes, typically having hand me downs, this is something we take for granted."
Lumber was removed from an newly acquired building and a large warehouse was re-arranged to be safer & more efficient during the week.
While on the trip, the team from Lowry City attended worship at FBC Statesboro and visited the oldest Baptist church in the South, FBC Charleston, SC which moved to be freed from religious persecution in Maine in 1682. "That's 202 years prior to the founding of our church in 1884, it is humbling to realize the legacy of Baptist churches we are apart of" Ferguson shared with the team while visiting at the Charleston church. A planned tour of the church was not able to be taken but for good reason, FBC Charleston was having VBS during their normal tour times.
"We had to deal with some Covid issues, high temperatures, Georgia gnats and the threat of alligators at our camp but the Lord blessed us from start to finish throughout the week." This is the 13th year FBC has done an organized mission outreach, not even allowing Covid to stop them in 2020 as they worked out at their Associational camp in Warsaw, MO, totally remodeling one of the cabins for use once the pandemic was over.
