Christmas came early for many children in Rockcastle County, Kentucky communities with an event from the Rockcastle Association of Kentucky Baptists called Give Hope.
Not only were there backpacks jammed with toys and Christmas goodies, but this year a worship service preceded the big giveaway. The result: 38 professions of faith and many other recommitments.
“Our goal is to be a blessing at Christmas, especially to the children,” said associational mission strategist Randy McPheron, who is also the president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention. “We were able to present the gospel and it was a good day.”
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McPheron said Katheryn Pope, who serves in the area as a KBC missionary service corps missionary, spearheads the program. McPheron said they received about 500 backpacks from the KBC and several churches contributed another couple hundred.
There were nearly 750 in attendance at the Rockcastle County Middle School.
Connecting community to church
“It has become a Christmas celebration and everybody seems to appreciate it,” he said. “We have folks who come back every year and we do try to connect them to a church. I think it’s just a huge blessing to them.”
McPheron said many have told him that this is the only Christmas that many of the children will receive this year. Businesses were involved in donating toys and the CSX Railroad gave $1,000 worth of toys following a derailment around Thanksgiving in nearby Livingston County.
The employees at the Dollar Store had been helpful to the railroad during that time and they wanted to do something to pay them back. Since the employees could not accept anything personally, they asked for them to donate to the Give Hope event, McPheron said.
“Seeing the smiling faces on these children makes it all worth it,” he said. “We had a lot of volunteers helping out. It’s such a good day and everybody walks away happy and having heard the gospel.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Mark Maynard and originally published by Kentucky Today, news service of the Kentucky Baptist Convention.
