In partnership with other churches of the Centennial Baptist Association, Almyra First Baptist Church has participated in missions outreaches in Arkansas. the congregation worships at Thanksgiving and Easter with the local Methodist congregation, and the church conducts outreach ministry to an elementary school in Dewitt. In other local outreaches, church members volunteer for a month each year at a food bank in nearby DeWitt, Ark. “It’s great for relationships in the church people can sit around and talk.” “It’s a great opportunity for us to serve kids and serve adults,” Hibbard said. A church-wide meal follows the children’s Bible study, and plates are delivered to the homebound. Wednesday evening activities are one way Almyra First reaches the local community. “We’re doing a whole lot of prayer, doing what’s in front of us, strengthening our children’s programs and keeping them strong,” he said, “because parents who won’t come to church want to send their kids to church.” “We’re creeping up, hoping for 60 in the coming year. “There’s not a lot of community growth and change,” Hibbard said. The square-plotted rural village of 12 blocks began in 1891 as a railroad stop and farming village. “We give to support missionaries who are faithfully serving the Lord wherever they are, even when they’re not in man’s eyes being highly fruitful.”ĭoug Hibbard, pastor of First Baptist Church of Alymra, Ark., is shown with, from left, his son Steven, wife Ann, and daughters Olivia and Angela.Ībout 500 people live within a five-mile radius of Almyra First Baptist Church, 319 in the town itself. “That’s part of what we are as a church, and that’s one of the benefits I see in the Cooperative Program,” Hibbard said. We can’t say, ‘We didn’t see fruit so let’s try some place else.’ That’s why, when it comes to our missions giving, we don’t need immediate results.
“Here in a rural environment it can take years for us to really see a lot of fruit,” Hibbard said. The congregation is intentional in keeping Cooperative Program giving at 30 percent, the pastor said. She grew up on the field and we know the stories We like the fact that through the Cooperative Program we let missionaries be missionaries and not have to stress about going back home and raising money so they can stay on the field.” “I am married to the daughter of CP-funded missionaries. “The Cooperative Program is the most efficient way to keep missions funding going,” Hibbard said. Almyra First Baptist Church, organized in 1896, has given 30 percent to missions through the Cooperative Program for 60 years.
0 kommentar(er)
