Our Missions

We are excited to be working with The Bay Six Project in Mingo, Ohio. We are going to use our Church building at an extension of their Brown Bag Diner.
All are welcome to stop in every Monday & Friday from 3:30 – 5:30 PM and grab a free Brown Bag Lunch! We believe God is calling us to Invest and Build in our Local community and this is just another way for us to do that! We are thankful for what The Bay Six Project is doing for the community in Mingo and we are excited to work with them and bring their ideas to Follansbee!
You can check out more about them at thebaysixproject.org

WHAT IS THE BAY SIX: BROWN BAG DINER?

We know that there are kids (and adults) in every community who do not get enough to eat. Most students will eat lunch during the school year in school at around 11 am or Noon then will go until 6 pm or later before eating dinner. Some not eating breakfast, and some even not guaranteed dinner. On the weekends or during summer break it can become unbearable. In hopes to combat hunger and serve the families in our community, we are working alongside The Bay Six Project to provide meals for Families and to make sure no child goes hungry.

So starting on May 8, 2023 we will begin serving meals twice a week as part of our Bay Six: Brown Bag Diner After School Meal Program. This project allows families to stop down at our location in Follanbee, West Virginia between 3:30 pm and 5:30 pm on Monday and Friday to grab a FREE “brown bag” meal.

Each meal consists of 6 items typically: a main choice , a salty snack, a sweet treat, a healthy side, a drink, and then a breakfast item for the next day. They can choose to eat it in our building, or take it home with them.

Currently we are providing the bundles to the Brooke Hancock Family Resource Network, located in Weirton WV.   It is their mission to help families and provide support for family development.  The BHFRN offers a variety of services at no cost to help families facing unexpected situations,  no matter their financial circumstances. Their trained and supportive staff is here to provide each family with quality care and the support they deserve.  We are looking for financial support for this RCC Mission and donations can be passed to either Rob or Casey Greiner or Ed and Cindy.   Also, if anyone is interested in serving on this ministry team, they can let Casey , Rob, Ed or Cindy know.

 

OUR STORY:

HVCM is one of the great mission stories in the history of the Christian Churches and Churches of Christ. The mission was founded in 1956 by John and Marge Pemberton along with Dr. Dennis and Lucy Pruett. John was a prisoner of war during WWII and made a vow to God that should he get home, he would serve HIM the rest of his life. 6 months later he came home. Once home, he and his family moved to Grayson, KY to attend Bible College and prepare for whatever God had planned for him. While there, he met another WWII vet who had made a similar promise. John and Dennis became lifelong friends and partners in this great mission. Dennis went on after Bible college to receive a medical degree. 
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The mission began with the simple philosophy of reaching the whole person for Christ; the body, mind and soul: The body through healthcare, the mind through education and the soul through the gospel message of Jesus and His church. 
Nearly 70 years later, those simple promises made, and kept, have resulted in thousands of lives changed for eternity! 
You can find out more by visiting our website at hippovalley.org

On May 9, 1909 (the same year that Ernest T. and David Weir and J.C. Williams founded the Weirton Steel Company), Weirton local Mrs. Mollie Wilkens Owings organized a small Baptist Sunday School under an apple tree on Avenue B within blocks of the new mill. This work would soon become Weirton’s First Baptist Church. A ministry began for all the children and their families who had come from many cities and nations to Weirton to seek a better life.

In 1917 the Women’s American Baptist Home Mission Society sent the first missionary to Weirton to work with the Baptist group to help meet desperate community needs. Mrs. Olive Lord served as that first missionary (1917-1918) and is credited as the founder of the Weirton Christian Center. During those first five years, Christian Center activities were held in local homes and in three houses on Avenue D donated by the Weirton Steel Company. Programs were designed to assist the immigrants who came to work in the mill. By 1922, with help from Weirton Steel, the first part of the Center was erected on Avenue D (adjacent to the original First Baptist Church building).

The Weirton Christian Center soon became the “Community Center” for immigrants new to the area. The center taught English and Citizenship courses and administered immunizations at the health clinic. Over the years, Senior Citizens and other groups met in the club room, high school graduations and other events were held in the gymnasium, and there was even an outdoor pool at the Christian Center. During the 1950s the Center began to emphasize individual-centered programs and established outposts primarily for kindergarten in various locations in the town. The high school boys had a basketball league, and the afterschool program offered dance lessons, drama and plays, formal dances, Bible studies and more. You can find out more about this mission by going to weirtonchristiancenter.com

Greetings from our brothers and sister who meets at Santiago and Rio San Juan Church of Christ in the northern side of Dominican Republic.

My name is Joaquin Reyes Parra married my wife Arselina and we have three adult children, the Lord had blessed us with 37 years of missions works.

Our mission efforts consist in spreading the gospel to the souls at any place and circumstance fulfilling the appreciation learned from our Lord and saviors Jesus Christ, giving by grace what we had received by grace.

Thanks for your commitment letter received on march and your willing to support and help us in this missions.

Besides the personal assistances from your church, with two teams that came already to helps us to do evangelistic and communities projects and to hands out the MAGI 1250 children in different areas.

This support is to helps Keyla Raquelina my daughter to be involved in the basic and special school as to help with VBS and to activate the young groups from churches. It also helps to build windows upstairs at Rio San Juan and for the feedings projects.

The Lord had helps us to plant 6 churches already here at Santiago and we keep helping the Church at Rio San Juan.

 Help children in two schools and to provides according the resources

 Help spiritually the members of the churches to mature and be ready to continue guiding the news believers in theirs walks with Jesus.

 Help peoples to have health care such s as: prosthesis, surgeries and general medical assistances.

 help missionaries from Haiti to get settle or provides a better way to be safe this side of the country.

All what we do is for the glory of God and the benefits of the most needed, thanks for sending Rob and the team and for your support.

It is my prayers that the Lord reward each one of you and His Church.

Your in Christ

Joaquin Reyes Parra

For many years I helped to start and directed 3 Christian schools in the city. They currently run between 500-700students each. I am now the field director for the CrossRoads Mexico team. Our team has grown this year and I am so blessed to workwith amazing people. God always provides for His work to be accomplished.

This year we have been blessed by 3, yearlong interns. They are so young and talented and have been a huge blessing to me. Crossroads has been building affordable homes for christian families since 1991. This year we completed house #36. Our team also works with the immigrant population coming through our border city by providing shelter, food,friendship and a church family! 1000s of people from all over the world have stayed at Carlos’ “ranch” over the lastcouple of years. I love meeting and serving these people.

By the time they make it to us they are completely exhausted and often sick. There are families that are only with us for a few days but others stay for months and we are able tominister to them in a very special way. God connects us to people who need us the most and because of Northside weare able to meet many of their basic needs. This year, CrossRoads started an English school and our interns help us teach. I have always loved teaching children and now really enjoy teaching adults.

Crossroads partners with Bethany Christian Church that ministers to local families as well as to the very transient community of immigrants. We also partner with Casa de Paz, a children’s home in our city. We would love for you to come and visit or intern with us. Thank you for enabling me to serve in Piedras Negras.

Judy Minton Lopez