“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” Matthew 25:35-36 and 40.
This verse sums up what the Kilmichael Baptist Church and many others in the community have done the past 11 years with Standing in the Gap, an in-house mission that helps those who need it the most. They help those who aren’t able to do it themselves with much needed minor repairs.
When people think of mission trips, they think of Haiti or countries in South America and Africa, but the very same fulfilling work can be done right here at home. After doing a mission trip for eight days in North Mississippi, that’s exactly what Tincey and David Eldridge set out to do.
“They decided to bring it back to the church,” Larry Bamberg said.
Bamberg said the Eldridges wanted to do something at home to help those in the community, and 11 years ago, Standing in the Gap was formed.
It’s a three-day mission that begins Thursday with worship and dinner at Kilmichael Baptist Church. Then on Friday and Saturday, the group holds breakfast and devotion before breaking up and do landscaping, minor construction work, and painting. We built a ramp for an elderly lady, we built steps, cleared limbs, fixed flower beds, whatever was needed that’s what we did.”
For the members of Kilmichael Baptist, they don’t have to plan a mission trip abroad, they plan their mission trip right at home. Bamberg said it’s turned into a community effort with between 150 to 200 people volunteering to help someone else.
“All in blue shirts,” Bamberg said. “A lot of people we help are the elderly and widows who just can’t take care of their yard themselves like they want.”
He said this year, the group focused on Kilmichael, Poplar Creek, and North Carrollton. He said they do work all over Montgomery and Carroll counties, wherever there is a need.
“The leadership team began searching in January. We see where the need is and that’s where we go. We’ve already found two sites that we’re going to do next summer,” he said
He said it’s a community effort that’s not just limited to the people in Kilmichael.
“For the past nine of the 11 years, we’ve had a youth pastor bring his youth group from North Carrollton down, and they help us. They came down this year as well,” Bamberg said.
Bamberg said they have volunteers who help with childcare, cook, play music, devotion and worship, and it’s all funded by Kilmichael Baptist.
“We budget for this,” he said. “We ask no one for anything. We take care of everything.”
He said the only thing that’s needed are hands, feet and a willingness to serve – the very thing that Standing in the Gap is all about.
“We like to say that we’re the hands and feet of Jesus,” he said.
