Send Relief, Serve Tour Meridian

Forty southern Baptist churches have gathered in Meridian to complete mission projects that will benefit people in the Queen city.

Over the next two days through the organization, Send Relief, dozens of mission projects will be completed.

“God tells his people to seek the welfare of it’ city for when it thrives you thrive. We want to see our cities thrive”, said Nathan Vanhorn, pastor of First Baptist Meridian. “In all sorts of different ways. I’m a part of a downtown beautification project. We have groups beautifying parks, schools. We have a mobile hamburger unit going around just passing out free hamburgers to say God loves you, here is a meal to people who need it.”

One of the special projects was an idea from Terrence Roberts, pastor of Parables church. A group from the Serve Tour worked together to build a prototype Conestoga hut, a tiny house, that will provide emergency shelter for the homeless.

Roberts says the huts will not be used as of now but hopes that in the future the city will sign off on the project.

“As pastor of the church here in the community, we experience our neighbors and people in the community who are suffering from homelessness and are experiencing homelessness”, stated Pastor Roberts. “I started looking at ideas and I found this concept being used in Oregon. Churches are building these Conestoga huts and using them to help give a hand up to someone who is tiring to get out of homelessness.”

Out of the forty churches that are participating twenty-three of them are local.

“I was asking our group, “Who has come to the farthest distance?”. We have a big group from our hub that has come from Oklahoma. So, it humbles us, encourages us, and blesses us that people all the way over there, who have nothing to quote on quote benefit from this are pouring into this city”, said Pastor Vanhorn.

The serve tour will continue on Saturday to complete the mission projects.