Metro Baptist Church Partnership 2015
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. In 2015 we partnered with Bryon Lepere of Buena Vista Baptist Church to provide leadership for the final week of Clue Camp Aug. 1-8. For the first time in many years three members of our youth group served as leaders along side several adults. Kekoa Burgess, Waysnah Htoo and Monica Iang joined Judy Fiske, Kristen Koger, Emily Witt, Samuel Lian and Courtney Jackson in providing leadership for that week.
This year two of our members are serving on staff at Metro Baptist. Bridget Fulks is currently their Children/Youth Service Coordinator. In that position she is responsible for an after-school tutoring program known as Page Turners, the Winter Clothes Closet and for a Teen Center program that includes retreats and summer camp experiences. Rev. Joseph Perdue is servicing as an Associate Pastor. He is working in the area of food justice. In that position he coordinates work on the Hell’s Kitchen Farm Project, meals for a veteran’s counseling program and a large food pantry. For the first time in this 25 year partnership Tabernacle is participating in helping to fund his position at Metro through the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
The week of November 23-27 a group from Tabernacle worked with Joe, Bridget and other volunteers from Metro and the Metro community to cook a Thanksgiving meal for over 250 people. We cooked and sliced 20 turkeys, mounds of root vegetables, apple cobbler, pumpkin cobbler, green beans, gravy and dressing. The team consisted of Judy Fiske, Renee Grinnell, Katherine Hall, Nathan Hatfield, Faith John, Jerry Jones, Emily Witt and Terry Witt.
In 2016 we are planning to assist Bridget with the 9th Ave Food Festival May 14 and 15. We will travel to NYC on May 12 so we can cook with the teens before the food festival. We will return on Sunday the 15th. Tabernacle will be joining with Eric Hasha’s congregation in Jefferson City Tenn. to lead the first week of Clue Camp July 2-9. Camp will run July 5-8. This team will need 10-12 people. You need to have a lot of energy, love school age children and be entering 9th grade. This year we hope to help with both the Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. Make plans to join in one of these trips or give a donation to make it possible for others to go and work.
July Fiske
