On June 28, a team of eight will leave on a 30-hour plane ride to Pampanga, Philippines, for nine days of missions work. While there, the team, which includes a school teacher and a school principal, and two certified in the medical profession, among others, will have the opportunity to minister to 1900 students in three different public schools where they will be allowed to teach Biblical values, distribute Bibles and hygiene kits.
A trip to two different soldier camps of the Philippines National Guard will afford them the opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and distribute more hygiene kits and Bibles. A trip is also planned into the mountains to visit the Aeta people, a primitive tribe of the Philippines.
While there, their host church will be the Amazing Grace Baptist Church located in San Fernando. The trip is being coordinated through International Christian Publishers located in the Philippines.
On July 12, a team of 26 from Tuscanooga Baptist Church will fly to Arizona to minister to those on the Navajo Indian Reservation located near Lupton, Arizona. Based at the Tse Si Ani Baptist church, the team will rent vans for providing transportation to bring in an anticipated 200 children to Vacation Bible School, complete with serving them meals each day. In the afternoon, some team members will be making visits to the homes in the poverty-stricken area while others will be working on needed repairs to the church building. A “Teen Night” is also planned with games and a time for worship.
The Tse Si Ani Baptist Church was begun years ago by Roy Hawthorne, one of the original Navajo “code talkers” from World War II. The work is now being carried on by his son Reagan.
The work in the Philippines and the Arizona Navajo Reservation are two mission endeavors which have been supported for several years by the church at Tuscanooga. The pastor, Casey Ferguson, also traveled to Costa Rica on a recent mission trip.
Located four miles northwest of Mascotte in the rural Tuscanooga community, which was once home to Seminole Indians, this location has been a church site for worshipers since Civil War days. Recently the attendance has made it necessary to go to two Sunday morning services (9:30 & 11:00). Since January 2019, 42 people have joined the church as new members.
On January 24, 2019, a tornado-like storm came through the community completely destroying the church parsonage and damaging the church building. Construction of a new parsonage is underway and work continues on repairs to the church facility. Ironically, 100 years ago, in 1919, another storm swept through the community which completely destroyed the church building. However, the work of God’s people will not be defeated. Even as long ago, when worshipers had to sit on boards in the open air under the trees for a time, so today the work of Jesus Christ continues on at Tuscanooga. Despite the current construction on the church facility, last week’s Vacation Bible School had a high attendance of 240.
