A Worldly Ministry
A Columbia, South Carolina church organization reaches out to improve not just the community, but also the world.
Sweat. Fatigue. Blood. Dehydration. This is not something that would describe a normal church organization that volunteers with Salvation Army, or works at the soup kitchen downtown Columbia on the weekends. In fact, this scene does not even describe Columbia, but an area far from developed where poverty and crime flood the area, Cancun, Mexico.
When one would think of Cancun, they might think about the tourist attraction where everyone around the globe goes to party on spring break and over the summer, but what about the area in Cancun that is hidden by the world’s perception. A place where houses collapse frequently, and where few of the families dad’s come home sober and spend time with their children. Midtown Fellowship, a church organization based in Columbia, South Carolina, takes on this challenge of cleaning up Cancun for the 5th year in a row.
“Our goal [at Midtown Fellowship] is to spread the word of Jesus, and use this goal to motivate others in the community and internationally to learn about Jesus,” Galen McAneney, mission trip leader, said. “Around the world, there are about 1,000 different people groups that have never heard anything about Jesus, and we look out to reach those people.”
In Cancun, Alphonso Grant, a partner with Midtown Fellowship, has started up his own churches in that region called, Cancun Vida Life Church. Midtown which consists of mostly college aged students and many from the University of South Carolina, look to not only help out the individuals in Cancun spiritually and physically, but also look to enhance their spirituality also.
“This is my third year going to Mexico and the first time leading the group,” McAneney said. “When I went to Mexico for the first time, I was not a believer, but through constant work and revelation, that is where I met Jesus.”
Midtown fellowship not only helps out internationally in Mexico, but also ventures further south to Brazil and across the eastern hemisphere to Brazil. In both countries, Midtown looks to establish partners in which they can frequently work with to better global situations going on in each country.
“Around the world, especially India, we have been working with Project Rescue the last two years. [Project Rescue] is a project that helps rehabilitate sex trafficked girls and tried to get their life back on track,” McAneney, said. “Sex slave trafficking is very prominent in Asia and India, which is one of the locations in which we are going to, is one of the main areas for this activity.”
Grant Faulkner, a senior at the University of South Carolina, is planning the two-month trip to India which will last from June to August in 2011. Many of the leaders of Midtown Fellowship embrace college students to volunteer to help out with the organization and in some cases Midtown provides internships for college students.
“Our business council consists of one full-time paid employee and 6 college students that deal with check deposits, reimbursements, and all sorts of things,” Michael McFadden, family and life group leader, said. “We also have had an interns for graphic and [visual communication] majors that deal with advertising design, web site design, videography, and editing video.”
Some students, including the graphic and visual communication interns, have received college credit and independent study credits for their work with Midtown, but most of the students that work with Midtown are volunteers who head up and help out with many projects including the mentor program at Hyatt Park Elementary School located on North Main Street in Columbia.
“One of the big things we do for the community is a mentor program at Hyatt Park Elementary,” Jay Hendricks, worship leader, said. “A couple of years ago, we wanted to bring in mentors after school for kids. We learned that we could get a grant to do this, and we got it so we used that money to run this program, in which all or the money goes to help this school.”
Hendricks emphasized that this mentor program with Hyatt Park is a great opportunity for freshman and sophomore students that might be majoring in early childhood education at the University of South Carolina, or any other university.
“[Students] will get a real hands-on experience about how teaching is like in the real world,” Hendricks said. “They will find out if they have a passion to teach and make these kids smarter or it will be too hard for them in enough time to switch [majors].”
Before the mentor program was started at Hyatt Park, the school’s PASS test scores were one of the lowest in the state, including the third graders who struggled in math, English, social sciences, and writing. In 2009, the percentage of third graders meeting standards compared to the state percentage was 38% less in English, 46% less in math, 55% less in science, and 32% less in writing. (Information from www.schooldigger.com)
“We found out that the scores have improved over the first two years of the program, which is really something special, since it is linked back to us,” Hendricks said.
Besides hosting Homeless for the Homeless every year, in which the ministry tries to raise awareness and money for the homeless population in Columbia, Midtown does not do many events that promote students to get involved with the organization.
“We are pegged as the college church, but we don’t push the church on campus,” Hendricks said. “I think the way we do things relates to the students and we think we have something genuine that the students like. We do not want to be one of those organizations that try to enforce principals or moral standards on students. Instead, we want to be an organization that has the reputation of “Man, those guys sure love Jesus.””
Besides multiple leadership opportunities, internships, spring break trips, and being a resume builder, Midtown wants to let students know that it is a great place to just hang out socially and have fun.
“When I started going to USC, I did not know if I could find a church organization that would compare to the one I had back home,” Brittany Mobley, sophomore, said. “After going to [Midtown] for several weeks I realized that not only does [Midtown] meet my previous standards for a church group, but it might as well exceed them also.”
