Across the Nation, February 2017
After worship, the church served the community — raking leaves in a nearby neighborhood, doing cleanup and light carpentry at an assisted-living center, serving lunch at a homeless shelter and assembling gift bags for police officers.
The South Hills church resulted from a merger by three area Churches of Christ.
ALABAMA 
A GULF Youth Experience volunteer, left, helps a storyteller known as “Harris III” perform a floating table illusion. (PHOTO BY NELLIE DONEVA, ABILENE (TEXAS) REPORTER-NEWS — USED BY PERMISSION)
The recent GULF — God’s Unending Love and Favor — event drew 740 young people from 32 Churches of Christ to the Orange Beach Event Center in Alabama.
“God has really blessed this event,” said Jon Hackett, youth minister for the Gulf Shores Church of Christ in Alabama.
Hackett, who directs the GULF Youth Experience, reported 29 responses and one baptism during the two-day event. Keynote speakers were B. Chris Simpson and Joe Brumfield. For more information and photos, see www.facebook.com/gulfyouthexperience.
OREGON MILWAUKIE — The 50-member Milwaukie Church of Christ helps prepare Bible materials for distribution to missionaries around the world.
“We need to get the word to those going to preach the Gospel,” said Mary Mitchell, who is active with the Global Seed Sowers ministry.
For details, see www.facebook.com/GlobalSeedSowers.
TENNESSEE SPRINGVILLE — On the menu at the Sulphur Well Church of Christ recently: venison, duck, turkey, squirrel, gator and raccoon.
The church hosts an annual “Wild Game Supper” that draws about 700 church members and community guests. Members put on a “Hee Haw”-style variety show.
It’s both a fundraiser for a community cause (the Family Resource Center this year) and an opportunity to introduce the congregation to newcomers, minister Bob Palmer said.
“The event very much fits the culture of this part of West Tennessee,” Palmer said. “We have gained some members through the event, but probably the biggest blessing has been the community reputation it has helped build for our congregation.”
WEST VIRGINIA CHESTER — The Virginia Avenue Church of Christ is 99 percent white. The congregation’s preacher is black. Minister Rico Brown, who was hired after his graduation last year from the Florida School of Preaching, believes that’s worthy of note.
The same scenario is true for Hiram Kent, who attended the preaching school with Brown and was hired by the South Florida Avenue Church of Christ in Lakeland, Fla.
“I had the joy and privilege of teaching and leading Hiram to Christ, and we now share the joy of being full-time preachers,” Brown said. Moreover, “we both landed jobs which we could not have foreseen.”
