From North Pole to North Georgia

Chelsea Brown

A youth member from East Highland Church in Hartselle, Ala., helps a child with sidewalk drawing during a day camp in Helen. Volunteer groups work every week in Helen and the surrounding areas doing resort ministry.

Summer missionary Rosie Garn thinks it’s really, really hot in Georgia. She thought it wouldn’t be too much of an adjustment since it does get hot in her hometown of North Pole, Alaska. Sometimes it gets all the way up to 85 degrees at home.

Garn, a student at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, spent the summer working in Helen with the Georgia Mountain Resort Missions. She requested that ministry because it was the only one she knew.

Garn heard GMRM resort missionary Michael Flake speak at her church – First Church, North Pole – during an associational mission celebration. When she filled out her on-line application, she had to list her preferences.

“I wrote down Helen as my first choice because it was the only thing I knew,” she said.

Garn arrived in June and worked side by side with Stephanie Strong, a Truett-McConnell College student who served as the summer director of GMRM.

“We recruit and organize volunteer groups that come here to work at campgrounds and other places in the area,” Strong said. “We supervise them when they get here and make sure they have all they need.”

Most of the groups work in one of the surrounding campgrounds doing day camps for children in the mornings and then evening programs for families. Often they also perform at the downtown Helen band shell for groups of tourists.

Larry Long, youth pastor from East Highland Church in Hartselle, Ala., brought a group of 43 youth and adult leaders for the second time to Helen.

Sherri Brown

Rosie Garn, a summer missionary from North Pole, Alaska, works on a balloon animal at a campground where volunteers hold day camps.

“We wanted to give our youth the opportunity to not only do backyard Bible clubs, but other innovative ministries,” Long said.

He worked with GMRM to create those opportunities, including prayer walking, visiting nursing homes and light construction work. It took about four months of weekly preparation to organize and plan the week of ministry in Helen.

“But it’s worth it. This is a very organized ministry. Stephanie and Rosie have gotten anything we need. They’re quick to respond. We kid Rosie about being from Alaska, but she’s really helped our kids.”

The work has helped Garn as well.

“I didn’t think about this when I applied, but this is a tourist area and so is North Pole. After spending the summer here I now know what I have to do to get local missions started in my resort community,” Garn said.

But she won’t be serving Southern food. As much as she enjoyed her time in Georgia, Garn never did learn to enjoy sweet tea, grits or biscuits and gravy.

“Everyone kept saying, but you need to try my sweet tea. But I didn’t like any of it. I just don’t like sugar in my tea.

“But the barbecue is fantastic.”

Did you know ...

Georgia Mountain Resort Ministries uses volunteers year-round. Volunteers are needed for the Oktoberfest, touted as the “nation’s longest running Oktoberfest.” The celebration is held in downtown Helen from Sept. 15 through Nov. 5. Weekend teams are needed to perform at the downtown band shell with puppets, drama or music. Southern gospel groups are especially popular during this time.

For more information, contact Michael Flake at gmrm7@hotmail.com or call (706) 219-0272.

Sherri Brown

A child blows bubbles during camp. Volunteers provide supplies and resources for the camps they lead.

Looking at the numbers ...

More than 1,100 college students served as summer missionaries this summer in the United States. There were 22 summer missionaries serving in Georgia through the Georgia Baptist Convention. They worked in a variety of places, including the Helen resort work, children’s ministry at the Baptist Center in Savannah, beach ministry with Golden Isles in Brunswick, camp programs at Flint River Baptist Camp, and other ministries across the state.

For more information about the summer missions program, contact Ricky Thrasher at rthrasher@gabaptist.org or (770) 936-5223 or 1 (800) RING-GBC. Students may apply at www.answerthecall.net.

Summer missionaries receive travel expenses as well as their housing and living expenses, along with a small stipend, while on the field. The program is made possible through your gifts to the Cooperative Program.

You and your church may send Cooperative Program gifts to:

Dr. J. Robert White
Executive Director, GBC
2930 Flowers Road South
Atlanta, GA 30341-5562