This past weekend was an incredible weekend for Bell City UMC.
First, we had the Mission Blitz on Saturday morning. At 7am, on a Saturday morning no less, 15 church members arrived at the church. After a wonderful breakfast and prayer, the group headed out to make an impact on the community of Bell City, and, man, did they ever. The group went to Main Street and washed the windows of the all the businesses. They swept the sidewalks and in between all that they handed out vouchers to people that can be used at local businesses on behalf of Bell City UMC. The group then went to the Bell City Apartments and swept sidewalks and cleaned cobwebs off building and just generally cleaned up around that area. One in the group was met by a resident who said that they could not have come at a better time. They also met a pastor from Sikeston who was curious about what was going on. He was told about the Mission Blitz and said he would be interested in participating next year. Vouchers were also handed out at the apartments. Several in the group went out and visited with several of our members who are unable to get out. They said their visits were more than welcome and that those they visited were grateful for the church. In the end, I was told that those who went out as the hands and feet of Christ were the truly blessed ones. As a church, we made an impact on Bell City, but I truly believe that this ministry, led by our lay leader, George Rendleman, made a huge impact on Bell City UMC.
While being the hands and feet of Jesus Christ was still fresh on our minds on Sunday morning, we invited Steve and Terry Smith and Melissa Sample of Haitian Island Ministries to come and share with us what is going on in Haiti. We heard a wonderful message from Steve where he read from the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. He emphasized the word “partnership” found in verse 4 and stated that because of the church’s partnership with Haitian Island Ministries many thousands of children will not go hungry. He them turned the presentation over to Melissa who showed several pictures of the children in Haiti and the schools being built in Haiti and how through your financial help more schools are being built and more children are being fed. Terry closed the service and talked about the offering we as a church gave them last year. She told us the amount and that the amount given would fully fund the feeding program for sixteen months. In my opinion, it gets better from there. When Steve, Terry, and Melissa were finished, we took up a second offering for the morning with the entire amount of this offering going to Haitian Island Ministries. I can tell you that the total amount of this offering was the biggest we have ever given to Haitian Island Ministries and it totaled $1,738.14.
But the weekend was not done. Pleasant Hill Church had a singing Sunday afternoon. There were approximately 38 people in attendance and 18 of them were from Bell City UMC. We sang and praised God for almost two hours and it was just a wonderful way to end a truly incredible weekend.
