The congregation at Bells Run Baptist Church in Whitesville prefers to do things a little differently when it comes to worship, church activities and even mission trips.
Pastor John Cummins said the one way he feels their church is unique is that families come in and sit together as a family, which he said helps to make that dynamic stronger. While the church does offer a nursery and age-specific Sunday school classes and activities, there is no youth group or age division during worship time. Although they do encourage youth activities, he said they never prohibit parents from attending.
“Our church focuses on family type ministries, things families can do together,” said Cummins.
Cummins and his family have been at Bells Run Baptist for 19 years, and packing shoeboxes for Operation Christian Child for the last 15. The first year they participated, Cummins said they had around 30 shoeboxes, encouraging them to set the first challenge at 100 boxes, which they were able to reach after the first two to three years.
This year the church that sees an average Sunday morning attendance of 40-60 people, packed 763 shoeboxes.
“It builds excitement in a little congregation,” Cummins said, adding that last year they packed right at 700 boxes.
Bells Run has established a year-long collection process where each month a different item is collected to go into the boxes that need to be prepared for mailing by the middle of October. Items can consist of anything from (non-liquid) toiletries and small toys, to small clothing items and school supplies. The items simply need to follow the guidelines set by Samaritan’s Purse, and be able to fit into an empty shoebox (along with $9 for necessary postage).
“It’s a nice community-building event,” Cummins said. “It allows people to contribute whatever level they’re able. People can donate throughout the year and it’s not as stressful.”
The church’s goal for next year is to try to pack 1,000 boxes, but “we don’t want to sacrifice quality for quantity,” Cummins said. Instead, they encourage others to choose gifts that are well thought out.
“It was one way with we being a small church that we could minister to people,” Cummins said. “It was something anyone could be involved in because it costs between $10-20.”
Sunday school classes and small groups can be found collecting items to go with a certain theme, or taking on the role of packaging or providing for a certain age group.
Cummins said the effort to shop for and fill the boxes cannot only become contagious, but it allows the focus to shift off of the individual and onto others at Christmastime.
John’s wife, Vicky, said that, although the church does not have a large elderly population, many in the congregation do have grown children and are not able to shop for younger ones on a regular basis. Because Christmas is a holiday that can be very much geared toward children, Vicky said this is an opportunity for church members to shop the sale racks for small children, knowing they are able to make a difference.
Now that National Collection Week (Nov. 12-19) is over, the shoeboxes have been boxed up and sent to the Atlanta processing center where they will be loaded onto trains, trucks and airplanes in preparation for around the world delivery. Boxes are given unique barcodes that can be tracked so that the senders can see which country their box was delivered to.
John Cummins said that before the boxes are put in the hands of children, there is an informational flier placed in each box and a special event is held.
“We also know that with everyone of those boxes the gospel is going out,” Cummins said. “We’ve heard many stories where entire families have come to know Christ through a shoebox that was given to one of their kids.”
This gives Cummins encouragement that his small Whitesville church is making a large impact globally.
