Kansas Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists (KNCSB)

Team finds vast needs in West Memphis, Ark., area

A Kansas team served in mid-March in Marion, Ark., (West Memphis area) and tackled a variety of community service projects. One of the projects was demolishing a widow’s home that burned in December when a space heater overturned.

A steeple raising and community-service projects were among the highlights when a Kansas team served in mid-March at New Hope Baptist Mission, Marion, Ark. (West Memphis area).

New Hope serves impoverished mobile-home communities along Interstate 55, just north of where it joins Interstate 40.

Trinity Baptist Church, Pittsburg, Kan., organized the team of approximately 35 people. Joining the project were volunteers from Tri-County and Twin Valley Baptist associations, the youth group from First Southern Baptist Church, Lawrence, Kan., as well as volunteers from other parts of Kansas.

Men from the church assisted in the steeple-raising project along with Ken and Darla Ponath from Alberta, Canada, and Glenn Stigler from Faith Baptist Church in nearby Bartlett, Tenn.

The Ponaths served this winter in various volunteer projects in the South. Ken Ponath leads the Canadian Baptist Builders while his wife heads disaster relief for the Canadian National Baptist Convention.

Stigler and the Ponaths previously worked with KNCSB teams in New Orleans and Greensburg, Kan.

Along with the steeple-raising project, the team kept busy doing maintenance on the church’s buildings and construction projects in the community, plus outreach and an after-school Bible club since local children did not have spring break until the next week.

A team from First Southern, Lawrence, served at New Hope in the summer of 2008. First Southern Baptist Church, Topeka, Kan., also has sent summer teams there and provides gifts for New Hope’s annual Christmas party in December.