By Karen L. Willoughby
WEST MONROE and more – Northeast Baptist Association also ministers locally in many ways in addition to its evangelistic thrust, said Jerry Price, director of missions for NELBA and for Morehouse Baptist Association, which stretches upward to the Arkansas border.
The Northeast Association focus on ministering through the Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home, Baptist Collegiate Ministry at the University of Louisiana–Monroe, Northeast Baptist School in West Monroe, Truckstop Ministries, and the Ray of Hope ministry centers in Monroe and West Monroe. The association’s ethnic work reaches out to Chinese- and Hispanic-speaking people. A seminary extension center “ helps prepare church leaders for Kingdom Ministry,” the DOM added.
“Ray of Hope is a food, clothing and household items distribution ministry,” said Price, director of missions since 2002. “They also have GED and seminary extension classes, counseling and other ways to assist people in need.”
Mission Service Corps missionaries Michael and Karen Sammons are directors.
“Two and a half tons of food are distributed weekly,” Price said. “More than 1,000 families are ministered to on a regular basis by the Ray of Hope centers in Monroe and West Monroe.”
Plans continue for a new associational missions and ministry center across the street from the Children’s Home campus. The associational office at the present time is in a building owned by First Baptist Church of West Monroe.
“This new facility will provide space for training, conferences, seminary extension classes, associational media center, and offices,” Price said. “It will also be used as a meeting place for new churches while the churches are obtaining their own property.”