Inspired by Jesus’ great commandment to love God and others, the congregation of Fellowship General Baptist Church spent the last week demonstrating that love in various practical ways throughout the community.
“As a church, we’ve had a long-standing motivation, if we see a need to bless people with a love of Jesus, to show them the love of Jesus in practical ways in our community,” Pastor Byron Beck said. “We have a lot of need-meeting ministries that we’ve been doing for decades.”
More than half of the church’s approximately 500-member congregation participated in a new ministry — 4 PB, funded in part by a pay-if-forward gift the church had received.
Last year, Beck said, the church received a significant gift from a family in the community.
“It was a family we had helped years ago,” Beck said. “They received some money and wanted to bless our church with it … because they knew we helped people.”
Beck said the church used a portion of the money to meet immediate needs, but held onto the bulk of it until it was decided how to use it.
While at a conference in Orlando, Fla., last year, Beck said, he attended a workshop where another pastor had talked about a ministry such as 4 PB.
“To do what he wanted to do required having a large sum of money that you could invest into it,” Beck said. “I immediately thought of this money and thought it would be a good application for it to bless the community.”
Beck said 4 PB had three components — pay it forward, service projects and appreciation meals.
The pay-it-forward ministry, he said, involved surprising people “with monetary gifts to meet a need,” whether it be at a laundromat or restaurant.
Pat Henthorne was among those who went to the laundromats.
“We’ve been more blessed than the people who we’ve given the money to,” said Henthorne, who indicated one woman
“wanted us to pray for her son.”
Henthorne said team members also helped an 11-year-old girl, who was in charge of doing the laundry for her family.
“It’s a blessed experience for us,” Henthorne said.
Another pay-it-forward team ministered to the students at Three Rivers College.
The 10 team members, according to Martha Kirkman, served 63 students, who in live the dorms with a meal.
“We were also able to just hang out with them and get to know them,” Kirkman said. “We played corn hole with them and had door prizes.
“We had snacks and coffee to send with them back to the their dorms.”
Kirkman described it as a really fun evening and “such a blessing for all of us on the team ….
“A lot of those kids are living away from home for the first time and don’t know many people, so it was good to be able to just serve them and show them Jesus’ love.”
For the service projects, “we looked in our community and tried to identify things that were broken or needed painting or needed repair,” Beck said.
One of the service projects was at Haven House.
“They removed an older wooden play set that has been here many, many years and really was beyond repair,” said Mary Ann Allen, Haven House executive director.
Team members, Allen said, also removed other play pieces that were “not in good repair and replaced all those with newer equipment.”
Alexsa White with the 4 PB team said all of the shelter’s playground equipment was being replaced.
“We bought a swing set and then we got new scooters,” as well as such items as a children’s basketball goal and new balls.
Team members, White said, also painted and cleaned the area, as well as added new mulch.
The project surprised those at Haven House, Allen said.
“We didn’t even ask,” but are “really, really grateful that they thought of us,” she said.
Haven House’s grounds, Allen said, are “pretty restricted” as they are surrounded by houses and streets.
To have a designated area, where the children can “play safely and be blocked off for privacy means a great deal,” Allen said. “It’s really exciting for us, and the families we served.”
The “yard work” team, Beck said, drove around town, looking for yards that need mowing and then knocking on doors to offer their services.
Team leader, Richard Carr, according to Beck, “went beyond that. He bought mums and gave mums to the people they did stuff for too.”
One of the more unusual ideas is the “pray and go” teams, Beck said.
On the afternoon of Sept. 22, Beck said, team members prayed for every home in Batson Mini Farms. A door hanger saying the home has been prayed for was left behind.
“Our goal is to cover the whole town,” Beck said. “If it takes three years, that’s what it will be.”
Beck said while many of the other ministries have more tangible results, “we trust God to do his work in the people’s hearts and lives.”
For the third component for the 4 PB ministry, “we selected groups in the community and are blessing them with some type of special meal or meals,” Beck said. “The teams have been creative.
“We gave them all $500 in which to do that meal. Some of them have done wonderful things; they have cooked some really good meals.”
One team of 12 took turns taking lunch to all three shifts at the Poplar Bluff Fire Department.
“We chose the fire department because we appreciate their service and our church had a fire a few years ago,” said Cindy McIver. “They responded and took care of it.”
Fire Chief Ralph Stucker said his department was much appreciative of the meals.
“It was very much a surprise. It’s a good time when (someone) brings food, especially when they’re staying here and eating with us,” he said.
Stucker said he found it “pretty interesting” when team members told “the story” about how the ministry came about.
It’s a very nice thing they are doing for the community, Stucker said.
Ellen Rossi said her team provided two meals at the Poplar Bluff Community Supervision Center.
“Not only did we do a noon meal” for the staff, “we also did a 5:30” meal for the staff and clients, she said.
“We just felt like we wanted to do that for them,” Rossi said. “They were just so appreciative. So many nice comments came from them.”
Rossi said she was approached by one “young man” who “just touched my heart. He came up to me and said, ‘You know this just reminds me of the meals from grandmother cooked for me.’”
James Berry, the district administrator at Probation & Parole, described it as “absolutely wonderful to have support from the community.”
The fact the church thought “about us and come out really made my staff feel wonderful,” Berry said.
The center’s clients, Berry said, 100% appreciated it.
“We hope that it will build more community ties for them,” he said.
According to Beck, some of the recipients, such as the nursing home staffs, were chosen because they “don’t normally get appreciation and recognition and thank yous.”
What was learned throughout the week, Beck said, is that some of the teams have been creative in how they used the money they were given.
“They have gone beyond what I dreamed, which I think is a good part of the process,” Beck said.
While there is no way to measure the impact 4 PB had, Beck said, “we hope it will help people have an ever more positive view of Jesus and how he loves us (and) that they’ll see the love of Jesus through the ways in which we tried to help them.”
Plans, he said, already are being made for 2020.
Beck said he has thought about what would happen if every church in Poplar Bluff took this on as a mission and what impact that could have.
“If every church in town did this, it would change the general perception of Jesus,” Beck said.