Montevallo First Baptist children serve community

Published 2:42 pm Wednesday, February 22, 2017

By STEVEN CALHOUN/Staff Writer

Montevallo First Baptist Church had its first Children’s Ministry Day on Feb. 18 at the church.

Children colored, crafted and learned about the importance of helping others. Hettie Wagner from Shelby Emergency Assistance came to speak to the children about the three families they had collected four overflowing laundry baskets of goods for.

“The same things that you need, they need,” Wagner said to the children. “Thankfully, we have a church family that helps each other.”

Every year, thousands of churches associated with the Women’s Missionary Union participate in this national day of service for communities. The theme for the Children’s Ministry Day this year was “Love Your Neighbor.”

Darlene Smitherman oversaw the ministry day at MFBC. According to Smitherman, the goods the children collected will go to three families in need that SEA helped select.

A widow with three children, a family whose father had back surgery and is out of work for a few months and a young couple with a five-month-old baby will all benefit from the children’s work.

The families will receive material goods as well as expressions of good will from the children, who made cards with loving messages, drawings and Bible verses in them.

The children made colorful sacks filled with snacks for patients at the Fresenius Kidney Care dialysis clinic in Montevallo. They also made cards thanking church members who donated items to the cause.

The older children and teens went with an adult chaperone to do yard work for a man who fell from a two-story building and could no longer work in his yard. According to Smitherman, the man had been active in his yard before his injury and even helped others work in their yards, so the young workers were returning the favor.

For more information about events at MFBC, go to montevallofbc.com.