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Small Things, Big Effects

By June 25, 2013June 18th, 2014No Comments

DEARBORN, Mich.—Sometimes the best way to be recharged for ministry is just to do ministry. Teens at Students Alive! did just that as they served at the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries Tuesday afternoon during the 2013 GARBC Conference. Enduring the summer heat, students painted, wiped, and mopped the ministry’s eight-story facility.

Located in downtown residential Detroit, the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries provide services for men with mental and physical disabilities. Pastor Carl Riggins, whose life was turned around when he found the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries years ago, now directs the programs at DRMM. He coordinated the project and encouraged teens while they worked.

The students made the connection from the speakers’ sessions this week: belief should always facilitate action.

“The Bible says to help widows and orphans,” says Kaitlyn Peters, 16, from Hagerman Baptist Church in Waterloo, Iowa. “If we really believe every word of the Bible, but don’t show it, then what’s the point of believing?”

Earlier the students had heard a message from Mel Walker, vice president of enrollment and external relations at Baptist Bible College. A youth ministry veteran, Mel desires to see students give their lives to Christ for ministry. He spoke to the students from Acts 12 about John Mark, the church’s first student missionary.

“The number one time people quit going to church and walk away from God is after they graduate from high school,” Mel says. “My heartbeat is to challenge them to give their life to Christ for ministry, to go on for God.”

These students get that, and they’re excited about their ministry this week and in the future.

Christian Sampson, 15, is from Evangel Baptist Church, Taylor, Mich., right down the road. He has already been serving at the conference with the children’s ministry, but was able to help at the rescue mission too.

“It’s cool to reach out to a community who needs Christ,” Christian says. “It’s something really small that you can do, but it can have a big effect.”

In the evening session, Brian Cederquist, associate pastor at Good News Baptist Church, Grand Rapids, Mich., tied it all together with a message from I John 2:7–11. “The Scriptures say it everywhere . . . ‘love one another as I have loved you!’”

Visiting from First Baptist Church, Great Valley, N.Y., Sarah Nicholson had described the day’s outreach activity as “a way for us to exemplify a picture of our love for God and for other people.”

“I love that we get to come here with a bunch of other like-minded people.”

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