In the shadow of the high bank of turns 1 and 2 at the Talladega Superspeedway on race weekend sat 156 RVs that made Richard Alford smile.
TALLADEGA, Ala.
– In the shadow of the high bank of turns 1 and 2 at the Talladega
Superspeedway on race weekend sat 156 RVs that made Richard Alford
smile.
The RVs –
parked neatly in the new Champion’s Corner Overnight Park for the April
29 Aaron’s 499 NASCAR race – constituted the first campsite designated
by the speedway as alcohol-free. It was also the first at which a
member of Alabama Raceway Ministries (ARM) was asked to serve as a camp
host.
“Champion’s
Corner was a great first-time experience for Alabama Raceway
Ministries,” said Alford, director of ARM for the Alabama Baptist State
Board of Missions. “The people were very receptive to our team being
there and continually expressed appreciation for what our team did for
and with them there.”
Champion’s
Corner, one of seven campgrounds with an ARM ministry site on hand
during race week, was the only one at which a minister stayed
overnight.
“This is a
relaxed setting. People open up,” said Camp Host Fred Cook, noting that
at night when events wind down, some of the best relationship-building
time begins. “When the daily activities are over, I get to interact
more with people.”
In the
family-friendly environment, Fred and Melba Cook spent their evenings
handing out free water, snacks and tracts and showing movies on a big
screen behind their RV.
“This is the
best thing Talladega’s done, doing a camp like this,” said Robert Van
Dyke, a race fan from Trumann, Ark., as he, his nephew and a friend
watched Christian comedian Mark Lowry on the big screen one night. “We
really enjoy this. … We need [raceway ministries] at every track.”
Patrick
Barfield, director of administration for the speedway, said the
campsite was “something our fans have been asking for, and we decided
to give it a try.”Alford and ARM “stepped on board and did a great job
with making it a good family atmosphere.”
ARM set up a
ministry site at another new campsite at the request of the speedway,
but this one was in vastly different territory. A free campsite with no
restrictions, the West C campground hosted people staying in RVs,
tents, vans, remodeled school buses and sleeping bags under the open
sky in any open space they could find.
Volunteers from
St. Clair Baptist Association set up shop on a corner lot right in the
middle of all the chaos. As people drove and walked by, volunteers
flagged them down with free sausage biscuits, coffee and printed
materials – then invited them to Sunday worship there, just behind
their food tables. They had been doing similar ministry all week long.
“A young man
put his arm around me and said, ‘Thank you for being here,’” said
Marjorie Weeks, a member of Happy Home Baptist Church, Leeds, in St.
Clair Association. “I said, ‘We’re just here to let you know we love
you and the good Lord loves you.’”
Ben Chandler,
director of missions for St. Clair Association, said volunteers got
several opportunities to talk and pray with race fans.
“It’s a new
site but it’s been great. It’s a beautiful spot the raceway offered
us,” he said, gesturing to the prime location at a fork in one of the
campsite’s main roads.
The association
will be back to continue building its presence at the next race in
October. After a ministry site has been there for a while, race fans
start looking for it and expecting it to be there, said Joycelyn
Carrell, director of church and community ministries for Russell
Baptist Association.
Carrell and
other volunteers manned a ministry site in the speedway’s infield
that’s well-known to the fans predominantly due to the Timothy Cup race
run on the Saturday prior to the Aaron’s 499. Timothy Cup – a pinewood
derby race put on each year by Dwight Sisk of Hazel Green – allows
families to paint cars together, hear a short devotion and enjoy the
competition. At other sites, volunteers from Alabama Baptist churches
also ran mock races, gave out water and food and prayed with race fans.
About 50,000 evangelistic tracts were handed out over the course of
race week.
And worship
services held simultaneously at each of the seven sites Sunday morning
– plus one service for emergency crews – were well attended, said Mike
Jackson, director of the SBOM office of discipleship and family
ministries.
Throughout the
week, Jackson and Alford, official speedway chaplains, floated from
site to site – sharing devotionals, talking with fans and facilitating
ministry. Alford even performed a wedding during race weekend.
“I felt like
our people were very engaged with race fans and with track personnel,
which is what we wanted to see happen,” Alford said.