Volunteers from Tabernacle Church of Carrollton recently traveled to this South Mississippi town to erect a $50,000 playground at a predominately African American Baptist church.

The gift of the playground equipment is the result of a conversation between Anthony Breed, minister to students at Tabernacle, and Ray Derbecker, owner of a Carrollton manufacturing plant which installs playgrounds nationally and internationally.

Breed saw Derbecker at a soccer field in Carrollton while they were watching their sons practice. Breed told the businessman, a member of Christ Fellowship in Carrollton, about Tabernacle’s plans to send a team to work at Harvest Fellowship Church, and asked if Derbecker could help provide playground equipment. “Sure, I can do that,” Derbecker told Breed without hesitation.

Breed said he was absolutely amazed when he saw how large and nice the free equipment was.

Derbecker shipped the equipment to Greenville and sent one of his staff members to supervise the installation. Ten men and youth from Tabernacle did most of the labor.

Aligning the heavy metal support posts plumb and square was a major challenge. “The first day was really frustrating,” said Matt Kilgore, a Tabernacle youth. “All the holes were in the wrong place, and we had to keep digging new ones.”

Kilgore said team members prayed about it Tuesday night, and Wednesday everything seemed to fit together.

While other men were installing the playground, another team from Tabernacle assembled seven bunk beds. Matt Eddleman and Sue McGukin, who have been on eight previous mission trips sponsored by Tabernacle, supervised.

Breed explained that this was the first “family” mission trip Tabernacle has sponsored during spring break. An equal number of men and women, boys and girls, participated.

The mission trip came as a result of another conversation between Marsha Solomon, a Carrollton psychological counselor, and Robert Pitts, pastor of Harvest Church, during a meeting in Atlanta. Pitts shared his church’s needs. Solomon invited Breed to meet with Pitts and discuss the idea of the mission trip to help.

During a joint Wednesday night worship service members of Tabernacle and Harvest Fellowship rejoiced over what had been accomplished, and decided to form a long-term partnership.

“We have learned so much from each other this week,” said Carolyn Bailey, a retired Carrollton schoolteacher who led literacy workshops for Harvest Fellowship leaders. Tabernacle volunteers also led leadership training and youth ministry workshops.

“This has been rich,” observed Breed. “We felt an immediate kinship with the people here.

“We felt something magical in seeing something come up out of the ground and spring up at Harvest Fellowship.”

Pitts said he believes the new playground will be a magnet that attracts children and their parents to the church. “Everyone who passes by and sees the bright orange and hot pink colors of the playground installation wonders what in the world is going on here. I’ve just never seen anything like this at another church.”

 

Jim Newton, former public relations director at the former SBC Home Mission Board in Atlanta, is president of Newton Communications in Clinton, Miss.