Baptist Men to establish 'mission work camps'

By Steve DeVane

BR Managing Editor

North Carolina Baptist Men

North Carolina Baptist Men leaders hope to establish three new staging grounds for disaster relief and other missions work.

North Carolina Baptist Men officials announced plans at the Baptist State Convention (BSC) Executive Committee to establish four "mission work camps" across the state. In addition to an existing site in Grifton, the group wants another facility in the east and camps in central and western North Carolina.

The camps would be modeled after the site in Grifton and a similar facility in Gulfport, Miss. Grifton has been used as a staging ground for disaster relief efforts on the North Carolina coast and other areas since Hurricane Floyd hit the region in 1999. N.C. Baptist Men are currently working to build 700 new homes in the Gulfport area, which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

"They're kind of models of what we want to do in several places," said N.C. Baptist Men Director Richard Brunson.

The work camps need to be in facilities that can house and feed more than 200 volunteers at a time, according to Baptist Men officials. The sites need space to accommodate building materials, a worship facility, a kitchen and dining area, space for recreation and showers and toilets that can handle the volunteers and coordinators.

The camps will operate year round. For several weeks each summer they would offer opportunities for youth groups and their leaders to work on sub-standard homes.

The facilities would also host church-wide projects to make missions efforts more affordable for churches, N.C. Baptist Men officials said.

N.C. Baptist Men leaders said that ideally they would like the camps to have a warehouse with at least 35,000 square feet, on more that six acres of fenced land. Some former textile or furniture manufacturing plants or warehouses could serve the purposes well, they said.

Baptist Men officials said they would like to locate the facilities in counties interested in serving as partners to provide funding for building materials for people who are in sub-standard housing. Pitt County has received grant money from the state to provide the funds for building materials for the houses that Baptist Men volunteers are working on in the Grifton area.

A full time coordinator would manage each facility with additional long-term volunteers also on site. Potential workers include those who are retired or people who could get their own support from sponsoring churches.

Brunson said he has already heard of a few potential sites for the work camps.

"We're looking at a couple of places in the east and the central (part of the state)," he said. "We're excited and open to where the Lord wants us to go."