Volunteers visit Littleton to run kids’ carnival, help residents in need

The John 3:16 Center held a carnival last Saturday that was just a portion of a weekend project that included volunteers from all over the state of North Carolina. While the kids played at the carnival, the adults spent the day fixing up, cleaning up and ministering to people in the Littleton, Henderson, Warrenton, and Roanoke Rapids areas. 

Littleton Baptist Church hosted the event, led by the Reverend Mike Currin. The event was sponsored by Littleton Baptist Church, First Baptist Church of Henderson, Warrenton Baptist Church and Wise Baptist Church, all in partnership with Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of NC (CBFNC). 

The project was billed as Family Weekend Mission Trip with the CBFNC. A letter in the June/July CBFNC newsletter titled the event “Poverty in our own backyard.” Their weekend mission was “…for individuals, families, Sunday School classes, youth groups, missions circles and others to experience and meet the needs of persons living in poverty along the north central border of our state.”

More than 500 volunteers from roughly 40 churches were involved with the event. Each volunteer had to pay $25 for the experience; they also had to pay for their own room at the local motels. In addition many of them brought along canned goods and staples to help restock the Union Mission Pantry in Roanoke Rapids. 

They were prepared to experience the following opportunities: light construction work, such as painting, maintenance, and similar tasks; demolition work; ministering to men, women, and children; working the Kid’s Carnival at the John 3:16 Center in Littleton; yard work; cleaning up trash and debris, and feeding the hungry.

Projects were lined up for both the Littleton and Henderson areas. In Henderson the Rev. B. J. Hutto, associate pastor at First Baptist Church of Henderson wrote the following on the CBFNC newsletter. “They [volunteers] will go home with new eyes through which to see needs, to see poor people not as lazy or as threatening but as people with real needs and hopes and struggles and identities as children of God.”

In the Littleton and Roanoke Rapids area volunteers worked on eight different projects. In addition to the carnival at the John 3:16 Center volunteers painted the new addition to the center. Members of the Chowan University Gospel Choir were on hand at the center to provide the music.

Participants painted a bedroom in a house on Tulip Street for a woman caring for her aunt.  

Other volunteers spent the day scraping a house in Roper Springs in preparation for painting. It is the home of a 90-year-old widow who lives on limited income. They also moved some things around for her in the house. She is a member of Littleton Baptist and the church is making it a project to assist her.

Volunteers also worked on some neighborhood beautification and trash debris removal projects in Littleton. 

In Roanoke Rapids they worked at the Pregnancy Support Center, Hannah’s Closet and The Union Mission. 

The CBFNC started the weekend on Friday when the workers arrived in the area. Each volunteer took care of his or her own lodging needs. At 8:30 a.m. on Saturday they started their day at Littleton United Methodist Church fellowship hall and then headed out to the various work sites. 

Lunch was provided and delivered to the sites where they were working. Dinner on Saturday was combined with fellowship at the Warren County High School. 

Sunday morning they worshipped at Littleton Baptist Church and the other four churches sponsoring the event.  Each church treated the volunteers to lunch before they headed back home. 

The John 3:16 Center in Littleton is dedicated to helping kids find a way out of poverty and provides programs for them. Sixty-five percent of the families they assist are single parent and most of them receive some government assistance. 

To learn more about John 3:16 Center you can visit the Website at www.john316center.org

The director of the center is Julie Jenkins.

You can learn more about the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of NC on their Website at http://www.cbfnc.org.