Following an interracial worship service in Lake Village, Arkansas, five pastors donned baptismal garb from the era of slavery and waded into Lake Chicot--four black Pastors, along with a lone white man, an angel of reconciliation, Tom Stringfellow. 

While the choir sang an old Negro Spiritual, Brian Finke, walked into the water. After his baptism, he went back to the shore as Heidi Huebner, walked toward her Pastor. As she came up from the water, her fiance stepped in. 

After baptizing his three, Pastor Tom asked one of the Pastors where he should stand as they baptized their candidates. "No, you don't understand," the Pastor said. "We've talked about it among ourselves, and you're baptizing our people too." With a tear running down his cheek, Pastor Tom raised his right hand and said, "In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I baptize you my brother . . . " And history was made.
 

While attending Jericho Week in Glorieta, New Mexico, in July, 1997, Bekah Sewell heard about the needs of the impoverished people living along the Mississippi Delta. Burdened, she asked her church, The First Baptist Church of Beverly Hills, to purchase the North American Mission Board video that depicts their struggle, "A River Runs Through It," and move the annual home mission's study from Spring '98 to Fall '97. With their approval, she decorated the fellowship hall to look like the banks of the mighty river and prepared a meal, "beans and rice." Unlike the thousand-dollar-a-plate meals politicians have, she wasn't trying to raise money, she was trying to raise awareness.

After eating the modest meal and watching the video, the participants' consensus was, "We need to do something to help, but what?" Ray and Susan McBride, who were visiting the church, suggested they come to their community, Lake Village, Arkansas on a Mission Trip. Though the producers did not feature it in the video, it is along the Mississippi Delta and suffers poverty's blight. The group decided their pastor, Dr. Tom Stringfellow, should study the situation and recommend an appropriate course of action.

With poverty's images etched on his soul, Pastor Tom prayed for direction. One sentence from the video stuck in his mind, "Children who wear nice school clothes out perform those with tattered clothes." After flying to Lake Village, he asked the church to earmark $10,000.00 to purchase one pair of shoes and one set of clothes for every child whose family is beneath the poverty line. 

Lake Village has its share of poverty. The per capita income in Chicot County is 50% of the national average. Upward to 59 percent of the children, according to the United States Census Bureau, live in poverty. Joyce Vaught, the Superintendent of Schools, reports that 85 percent of the children in her school district qualify for the government's free lunch program.

Compared with the glaring need, ten thousand dollars isn't much, but it is exorbitant to The First Baptist Church of Beverly Hills, a church running fifty-five in worship. After all, with only twenty people attending the Mission banquet, it represented about $500.00 a plate--not bad for beans and rice.

The church approved the plan, but God didn't. He had something bigger in mind--much bigger.

In June, Pastor Tom flew to Lake Village again to have a meeting with religious and civic leaders in the community. Ninety minutes later, there were seven committees and a promise of cooperation. 

Pastor Tom wanted to do more than give clothes away, he wanted to adjust the spiritual temperature of the community. Knowing the history of racial animosities in the region, Pastor Tom asked to hold a joint worship service with the community's churches. Mayor JoAnne Bush offered the city's amphitheater that overlooks Lake Chicot, and they scheduled the interracial service for 8:00 a.m., August 23, 1998.

The excitement was building, and so was the size of the project.

Members of the church cheerfully gave, not $10,000.00, but $15,000.00. Fred Wehba, a new member of the church, began to tell his business associates about the Mission project. They wanted to get involved, and gave an additional $60,000.00.

With $75,000.00 in hand, Dr. Stringfellow began calling clothing manufacturers to see if he could purchase the clothing direct from the factories. The extra effort paid off, with the money they raised, he purchased merchandise with a retail value of $250,000.00.

Instead of giving some children one set of clothes and one pair of shoes, they expanded the project to give all 583 elementary children these items:

• Two pairs of shoes, one of them, LA Gear "Light-ups"
• Two pairs of slacks
• One pair of shorts
• Four shirts
• Six pieces of underwear
• Six pairs of socks
• toothbrush and toothpaste
• "Sunday" clothes
• NIVr New Testament, written on a 3^rd grade level

Brian Finke, a member of Los Angeles' Jewish community, and his wife Gayle, were the first to write their checks. Though Gayle was active in the church, Brian was a non Christian and rarely attended. Occasionally he would accompany his wife to work days at the church, but only so she could complete her assignment sooner. This time, something was different. After enlisting, he said, "I'm sixty-one years old and I've never done anything good for anybody. This gives me a chance to change that."

Heidi Huebner wasn't a member either, and isn't the typical person you'd expect to go on a Mission Trip. She is a professional dancer who had danced on stages around the world, including New York and Las Vegas. Before attending "the little church down the hill," as she calls it, she'd only attended church during two other periods of her life. Her first experience was at a legalistic, Bible-thumping church that made her feel unwanted, unnecessary and unclean. Several years later she attended a church in New York with some friends. While there, somebody stole her expensive watch, and later, she caught some church people at a party snorting cocaine. She decided not to go back to that church.

Nevertheless, her spiritual longing continued. During one of the first Sundays she attended the Beverly Hills church, Pastor Tom invited everyone to join the Mission Team. Heidi immediately responded. Because she was unemployed, she had to withdraw $500.00 from her savings account, but she didn't give it a second thought. Her boyfriend signed up too.

In all, twenty-two people, 40% of the church's average attendance, paid $500.00 and made preparations to go. Of those going, three weren't even Christians, but that changed before departure. Pastor Tom made it a point to share the gospel with them and each of them made a profession of faith

"Next to the Jordan River," the pastor said, "I can't think of a better place for a baptism than Lake Chicot. I will baptize you in our church building, or on the Mission Trip." All three candidates chose Lake Chicot. As they boarded flight # 1339 for Little Rock, Arkansas, they knew their baptism would be special, but they didn't know it would be historic.

Lake Village, Arkansas is a long way from Beverly Hills, California. As the crow flies, it is about 1558 miles, but that's not what I mean. The congregation of the First Baptist Church of Beverly Hills looks more like a United Nations delegation than a religious gathering. Jews, Arabs, Nicaraguans, Blacks, Hispanics, Anglos and others attend a church among the high-rise apartment buildings of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, California. Seeing interracial couples, walking hand in hand, is not unusual in their community. Since the church is just a few blocks away from Santa Monica Boulevard, the home of the Gay Pride parade, the interracial couple might be of the same sex.

Things are different in Lake Village. The old Dentist's office has two doors--the front door for the "Whites" and a side door for the "Coloreds." Townspeople refer to New Hope Baptist Church as the "Black Church" and Lake Village Baptist Church as the "White Church." They are completely segregated.

Rev. Arthur Haney knows about segregation. His ancestors were slaves on a plantation across the lake. He graduated with the class of 1970, the final year of segregation, from Central High School in Lake Village, Arkansas. After a stint in the Air Force and earning his college degree, he returned to Lake Village to become the County Administrator for the Department of Human Services and the Pastor of New Hope Baptist Church. When his church entered the Delta Baptist Association, an all white church pulled out in protest.

Rev. Jack Albritton, pastor of the Lake Village Baptist Church, knows about segregation too. While Pastor of the McLaurin Heights Baptist Church in Pearl, Mississippi some of his lay leaders walked out of a worship service when they saw his daughter sitting beside a black friend.

In the Book of Revelation, the Apostle John refers to the pastors of the seven churches as "angels." That designation fits these pastors, they are "angels of reconciliation." Together, they joined hands to host the Mission Team, and began an unprecedented level of cooperation. As Mayor JoAnne Bush put it, "Blacks and Whites, rich and poor worked together." Distributing more than 15,000 items within a couple of hours demanded cooperation from everyone. It extended beyond the racial divide, government and civic agencies joined the religious community in planning and implementing the block party.

The Chamber of Commerce coordinated the meals, the National Guard set up tents for the clothing distribution, funeral homes donated additional tents, school officials distributed tickets for the clothing, and the city police provided an escort for the Mission Team into the city limits. 

The Mission Team impressed Principal Tim Watkins, "They didn't just write a check; they came here themselves and handed the clothes to the children personally. What the Mission Team was really giving away, was love." The school uniforms, according to Superintendent Joyce Vaught, were "their passports into the city." After distributing the clothes and validating their "passports," the real ministry began.

Following the block party, some members of the Mission Team and the community went to Crickett's, a local restaurant, for lunch. With the spiritual adrenaline still pumping, someone began singing a hymn, and everyone else, even the other customers, joined in. 

The joint worship service chipped away at the cultural racism and encouraged Christian unity among the races. Jeraldine Bell, a choir member at New Hope Baptist Church, summed up its impact, "We shop together, we work together, and we eat together, but we don't worship together," she said, "that is, until the Mission Trip."

The worship service was one thing, but the baptism was another. A lifelong resident of Lake Village, ninety-four year old Idell Karal Smith, said "This was the first time I ever seen Blacks and Whites baptized together," she continued, "times have changed, and people have changed too." Though Rev. Haney, doesn't believe this one event reversed all the racism of the past, with a sly smile, he said, "It's a start."

The trip also jump-started growth in the churches. Dr. Stringfellow baptized a total of nineteen during the church year, three of them on the mission trip. Rev. Haney credits the trip with twelve baptisms in his church.

The spirit of brotherhood didn't leave with the Californians. In March of 1999, members of the Lake Village and the New Hope Baptist Church traveled to California for a mission trip of their own. Accompanied by the choir of the New Hope Baptist Church, Rev. Arthur Haney and Rev. Jack Albritton shared the pulpit in a Revival meeting in Dr. Stringfellow's Church. After the revival, the churches worked together to renovate the building of the First Southern Baptist Church of Hollywood, a struggling inner city church.

This was Rev. Haney's second Mission Trip in one year. Shortly after the group from Beverly Hills went home, he got a call from a Pastor in Wilmot, Arkansas whose Church's roof was leaking. Rather than just pray for his church, Rev. Haney gathered a work crew together and repaired the roof. "The least we could do was get them out of the rain."

The Mission Team inspired some remodeling elsewhere. The owner of Crickett's Restaurant, Crickett Burnes fell under the Holy Spirit's conviction when the Mission Team was in her restaurant. She and her daughter, Vicki Suitt, opened their entire inventory of beer and poured a thousand dollars down the drain. She closed the Sport's Bar in the back room and opened the doors to Pastor Larry Coulter to start a church in the Restaurant.

"When the Mission Team was here," Crickett said, "I learned that God can be in the public without hurting your business." The first thing a customer sees when they walk into Crickett's is a 15-foot mural of the Last Supper her daughter Vicki is painting.

Back in Beverly Hills, the church is planning to return to Lake Village to do a follow-up ministry. But some members aren't waiting to board a plane to be on mission.

Brian Finke, the completed Jew, is now the web master of the church's web site (http://www.firstbaptistbevhills.org) and works to proclaim the gospel through the Internet.

Heidi Huebner, the professional dancer, thinks about the Mission Trip every day. It marks "True North" for her and helps her adjust her priorities. Expensive clothes and jewelry no longer impress her and she left show business so she can re channel her energies to help people. Every Friday evening she teaches modern dance to inner city children at the Rampart Youth Center.

"When I grow up," one of her students said, "I want to be a teacher just like you." While recounting the story, Heidi's eyes moistened and her voice trembled. During the silence that followed, I heard the rustling of angels' wings. I wasn't looking into the face of a Las Vegas dancer anymore. She was transformed, by the power of God, into an angel--an angel of reconciliation.
 

Read about the Follow-up Mission Trip the church I was pastoring went on the next year.