METRO BAPTIST CHURCH PARTNERSHIP REPORT: Dr. Judy Fiske
Tabernacle has worked in partnership with Metro Baptist Church, 410 West 40th St. New York New York for more than 25 years. We have provided leadership for their summer camps, sent them interns and staff members, cooked Thanksgiving and Christmas meals with them, hosted their youth retreat and assisted in the 9th Ave Food Festival to help their youth raise funds for Passport Camp.
For our first Metro trip in 2018 Nathan Hatfield, Terry Witt, Emily Witt and Kathryn Hall assisted with cooking for the 9th Ave Food Festival. They traveled to NYC on May 4-6 to cook with the teens before the food festival. The Teen Center youth attend Passport Camp in the summer and make a large amount of their camp money at this event.
In 2018 we partnered with Jenny Hodge of Churchland Baptist in Chesapeake, Va. to provide leadership for the fifth week of Clue Camp July 28-August 4. This year our team consisted of teens Monica Iang, Raquel Turner, Kekoa Burgess, Kanoa Burgess, Emily Painter, Preston Lowery, K’paw Mu Htoo and Brynne Severns, to help the adults, Sarah Anne Burgess, Emily Witt, Terry Witt, Bridget Fulks, Bonnie Dance and Tony Williams lead camp. Dylan Burgess, Meg Lacy and Nathan Hatfield joined us for our last two days in New York City. This was the first time in many years that this many teens have helped lead Clue Camp. They were awesome.
The week of November 19-23 a group from Tabernacle worked with volunteers from Metro, the Metro community and the First Baptist Church of Elkin, NC to cook a Thanksgiving meal for over 250 people. We cooked 18 20 LB turkeys, green beans, sweet potato casserole, cheese muffins, gravy, so much gravy, and dressing. The team consisted of Judy Fiske, Nathan Hatfield, Terry Witt, Bonnie Bailey and Zoe Jamerson. They worked hard as I ended up in bed all day on Thanksgiving with a fever and sore throat! A team returned December 20-22 to help cook the turkeys for the Christmas Day meal. This team was led by Jessica Corbitt and consisted of Hope, Chris, Emma and CJ Nycum, Jessica and Millie Corbitt, Maria and David McGraw, Mark and Parker Snipes and Ashley and Jay Fullerton. This team cooked about 300 lbs. of turkey and 4 apple cobblers to help prepare for the December 25th meal.
Tabernacle continued in 2018 to participate in helping to fund a position for a missionary at Metro through the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Lesley-Ann Hix Tommey currently fills this position. In 2018 we also paid for the turkeys for their Thanksgiving meal as well as cooking them!
This year we will again travel in May to assist with Food Festival, lead the sixth week of Clue Camp and cook at Thanksgiving and Christmas again. Plan to join in on one of these trips or make a donation to help someone else attend. None of these mission trips are included in the church budget. These activities are funded by the participants, fund raisers and donations. If you want to make donations to help with the expenses of these mission trips—gas, tolls, materials for camps and meals for Metro programs you may make a donation to the Metro Mission Trip Savings Account, 100-320.550 These funds are used only for these expenses. People who participate in these trips pay for all of their food, make a donation to Metro for housing and cover all of their entertainment costs, no donated funds are used for personal expenses in NYC.
Dates for 2019:
9th Ave Food Festival: May 18-19—-leave on May 16, return on May 19 or 20. (tentative)
Clue Camp: August 3- August 10
Thanksgiving: November 24-29
Christmas: December 19-21
