Posted: 3/03/06
Red River senior adult VBS sparks mission trip
By George Henson
Staff Writer
PARIS—Senior adults in Red River Valley Baptist Association decided they weren’t too old for Vacation Bible School, and that led them to realize they weren’t too old to participate in missions, either.
Last August, Gloria Parker—whose husband, Don, was pastor of First Baptist Church in Roxton—was upset when her church elected not to have Vacation Bible School for its children.
“I was grieved before the Lord that not only were our children not going to have Vacation Bible School, but neither would their families have the experience,” she recalled.
About that time, Parker’s fibromyalgia interrupted her sleep, and she was impressed in prayer that even if there were no Vacation Bible School for children, there could be one for senior adults.
No one in the association recalled a senior adult Vacation Bible School conducted in the past, but Parker was determined.
On a trip to a Christian bookstore in Dallas, she found a single kit left for adult Vacation Bible School, and “I thought that one probably had my name on it,” she recalled.
The Vacation Bible School was held five consecutive Mondays from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.—90 minutes for missions and Bible study, with the last 30 minutes reserved for a meal. The first session was at First Baptist in Roxton, but the next four sessions rotated among other churches in the association.
The Monday afternoon sessions averaged more 50 participants, and a couple of weeks drew more than 70 people.
At one meeting, Parker asked participants for ideas for the future.
“One lady said she wanted us to do something outside ourselves, something that would benefit others,” Parker recalled.
That was the starting point for a mission trip to Alabama next month. A group of senior adults from the association will travel to Alabama to work with the E.L. Hodges ministry there.
The ministry collects excess Bible study materials and ships them around the world to ministries that cannot afford to pay for them.
The Texas group will sort the materials, and volunteers who are physically able will shrinkwrap and load them up for shipping, said Mike Cosgrove, director of missions for Red River Valley Association.
“It’s going to be a way for senior adults to do international missions without the expense of going overseas,” he said.
The trip will meet several needs for parti-cipants, he added.
“A lot of senior adults like to travel, but many also want to make a difference. This will also be a great time of fellowship for us,” Cosgrove said.
“I just wish they could be on the other end to see the joy on the faces when the containers are opened up,” he continued.
Playing a part in seeing that literature is used rather than being a thrown away especially addresses a desire for Parker, who is now a member at First Baptist Church in Paris after her husband’s retirement last September.
“I had a burden for years about literature that was thrown away, and I was thrilled that someone not only had a burden about it, but also was doing something about it,” she said.
And doing something is the job of everyone, regardless of age, Parker believes.
“The Lord will be coming back soon, we believe, and we all have a lot of work to do before he does,” she said.
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