New Around the Mission
Morningside Outreach at Christ Anglican
April 13, 2011
Morningside kids share a Wednesday night meal with their Supper Shepherds.
When Christ Anglican in Mobile, Alabama hosted their Families on the Wall event last Fall to teach children how to pray in a weekend retreat setting with their parents, they had no idea that the seeds of those young prayers would result in unchurched children suddenly showing up on their doorstep week after week.
“Right after that retreat, kids from the Morningside neighborhood adjacent to our church property started showing up at the church unaccompanied by their parents,” explains Cathy. “They were waking up early and walking a long distance by themselves.”
An undeveloped wooded area on the church property sits between Christ Anglican and Morningside Elementary School where 80% of students live at or below the poverty line. When the congregation purchased the property six years ago, they immediately partnered with Morningside Elementary School hosting teacher appreciation breakfasts and luncheons, providing supplies and uniforms, afterschool programs, tutors and many other acts of outreach to assist in serving the community. While the enduring relationship continues, it wasn’t until after the prayer weekend with the children of Christ Anglican that Morningside children began to plant themselves around the church campus to partake of activities.
“We just love on the kids, and they keep coming back,” shares Cathy.
A brother and sister stand with their mother and godparents from Christ Anglican during service of baptism.
On the third week of a discipleship series, teachers shared the Gospel message and invited the children to respond. Eight of the ten children present that day prayed to receive Christ. That is when leaders decided to accompany the kids on their fifteen-minute trek through the woods back home to meet their parents and ask for permission for the kids to receive baptism and communion.
“Almost all the parents were gracious, some invited us in and gave permission to baptize their children,” remarks Cathy. The mother of a brother and sister in that group of kids is now participating regularly in church activities, and a team of church members is in the process of designing and building a bridge through the woods for easier access.
For those children who don’t have a parent bringing them to church, volunteers in the church family, referred to as Sunday and Supper Shepherds, meet and sit with the children for dinner on Wednesday evenings and worship on Sunday mornings. Because many of the children are unchurched the “shepherds” explain the liturgy during times of worship.
Cathy reports that special relationships have developed between the shepherds and many of the children, and plans are underway for another group of children to receive baptism during their Easter vigil.
As children stood on a giant map with flags of different countries waving in their hands to offer prayers for the nations during the Families on the Wall event, they were unaware at the time that God would answer their prayers and increase the Kingdom right in their own backyard.
Posted By: Dana Bincer
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