Singles are looking for ways to make their lives meaningful. Over the last several years, many books have been written to try to help the individual in obtaining a purpose in life. At First Baptist Church of Columbia, South Carolina, this purpose has been achieved by two mission trips to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In 1980, the Singles Department at First Baptist wanted to reach out beyond the confines of its own community, so the Home Mission Board suggested that they look to the Delaware Valley Baptist Association, and especially Philadelphia, where they might be some help to this fledgling Southern Baptist ministry. With some advance work between Baxter Wynn of First Baptist, Columbia and Gaynor Yancey of Philadelphia, the agreement was reached. First Baptist would send twenty singles to Philadelphia to conduct two Vacation Bible Schools in the Kensington area of Philadelphia and work out of the Frankford Avenue Baptist Church. Ms. Yancey, who was the Director of Christian Service Ministries for Delaware Valley, served as their contact and guide.
The group from First Baptist consisted of teachers, artists, technicians, and other assorted professions, who used their vacation time for this project. Each grade, pre-school through sixth grade, had a worker, and there were four people who did puppet shows for both schools.
The twenty singles lived in Frankford Avenue Church for the week that they were there. Due to the high-crime area where the church was located, the door to the church had to be locked at all times. There was a doorbell at the entrance to the church, and a code had to be set-up whereby the singles would know if one of their own was at the door, as opposed to just anybody trying to get into the church.
The first day of Vacation Bible School was a complete disaster. All of the plans that were made by the teachers failed. The children would not listen to their teachers. There was an atmosphere of total anarchy on the part of the children, and the singles went back to the church that afternoon feeling frustrated and helpless. The plans that had taken over three months to formulate were shot down and destroyed in a little over three hours. The fifth and sixth grades wither knew all of the Bible stories or didn't want to listen. The pre-school area had to contend with the mothers of the children watching over their little ones, since they didn't trust the singles.
At the beginning of Tuesday morning, before VBS, there was a prayer meeting, where the singles asked God to give them strength and patience with the children. They also prayed that the hearts of the children would be opened to the message that they had to give. A miracle happened that morning, because when the group began the schools, the children paid attention to their teachers and to the puppet shows. It was as though an entirely new group of kids had replaced the old group. The rest of the week was very successful. The plans were altered to meet the needs of the children. For example, the fifth and sixth grades were told stories about Nicky Cruz and gang-fights in New York, because they seemed to listen better to stories that they could relate to.
Over the course of the week, the singles group had been told to lock-up everything, because the children were inclined to steal. At the end of the week, the group had been very fortunate that nothing had been taken. Friday afternoon, there was no one in the church when a couple of singles needed to get into the locked church. Seeing their predicament, a couple of children came to their rescue by taking off the screen to one of the windows and climbing in to unlock the door. The singles asked them why they had not done this before, and the children responded by saying that they liked this group from First Baptist and didn't want to hurt them.
When it came time to leave Philadelphia, the hearts of both groups of people were breaking. The children had grown very fond of their teachers, and the singles didn't want to leave the neighborhood. Several kids tried to hide inside the vans or on the top of the trailer, but the singles had to reluctantly tell them to go. As the two vans of singles left Philadelphia, the children ran after them, and there was not a dry eye in the group.
With the enthusiasm that they brought back from their trip, the Singles made their church aware of the mission opportunities in the Philadelphia area, so plans were started to return to Philadelphia the following year.
In March, 1981, Gaynor Yancey visited First Baptist in Columbia to thank those who had been to Philadelphia the previous year and to acquaint the church with the continuing need for social ministries. In May, the singles signed up to teach Vacation Bible School. Where there were twenty people who signed up in 1980, over seventy people expressed an interest in going to Philadelphia this time. During the next three months, several singles dropped out, but almost forty singles did make the commitment to go to Philadelphia.
Many changes were made, mainly due to the size of the group, but also because there was more to do this year. The church that they would be working in was Trinity Baptist Church in the Fairmount Park area of Philadelphia. The neighborhood was not as rough as the one in Kensington, but perhaps just as run-down. There would only be one school, instead of two, so there was more specialization on the part of each person who went. For example, the church needed repairs, so there were some people who went for the expressed purpose of helping with the construction. In the area of the VBS itself, there were the teachers for pre-school through sixth grade, but there were also people in charge of crafts, telling Bible stories, recreation, and puppet shows. Another difference was the attitude of First Baptist Church in sending the singles to this mission place. In 1980, the WMU gave the singles food for the week and planned out meals, but this time around, the church as a whole gave money to the group to use for their expenses. The most meaningful difference was that of prayer support. Certainly, there were people praying for the first trip, but the second trip was more prayer-oriented. Each member of the mission trip was assigned to one or more people in the church to pray for that person, by name, every day of the week. The strength of that prayer was evident the first day of VBS, because over sixty children came to the park where the school was held, even though only about twenty children were expected to attend.
In addition to the puppet show being performed for each grade every day, a day camp, which was not related to the VBS, allowed their children to attend the shows, and the singles used that ministry as a special witness to the neighborhood.
On Friday, the singles worked with the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades in presenting the plan of salvation to these children. Several children responded favorably to this overture by the singles, and Bibles were distributed so that every child would have his own copy.
When the singles left Philadelphia this time, there were no children running after the vans, mainly due to the fact that they left in a blinding rainstorm, but a couple of children stood out in the rain to say goodbye to their favorite teachers.
First Baptist Church Singles are doing something for the Lord and are also doing something for themselves in improving their own self-image. They plan to continue this cooperation with Philadelphia long into the future.
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