Association’s 10 churches try new format, provide Backyard Bible Clubs ‘in a bag’
By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

Leslie (left) and Jimmie Lee Nolen, Royal Ambassadors at Hickman Baptist Church, Hickman, help prepare bags for the Backyard Bible Clubs sponsored by churches in New Salem Baptist Association. Looking on is Sue Turner Hall.
CARTHAGE — For more than 11 years, New Salem Baptist Association had sponsored Backyard Bible Clubs in low income areas.
The plan was to do it again this year, but COVID-19 entered the picture and it appeared the association would not be able to minister to children in Carthage and surrounding areas, said Marty Dodge, director of missions for New Salem Baptists.
To not do anything was not an option for Dodge. “We’ve got to do something for the kids,” he said. Knowing that it was not feasible to do a live BYBC with volunteers working with the children, the association, with the help of the mission committee, developed “something different,” Dodge said.
The association decided to do a “portable” Backyard Bible Club that will be delivered in bags to neighborhood children. Churches are in the process of preparing the bags that will include a Bible lesson for the week, activity page, pencils, crayons, tracts, Scriptures and, of course, the snacks and treats that go hand-in-hand with children’s activities. [Read more…]


