God has been doing some exciting things in our community!  I wrote the following article and submitted it to our state Baptist paper.  I don't know if they'll do anything with it or not, but it's too exciting not to share.

The recent Killen trial along with the controversial “Lynching” resolution proposed by the U.S. senate are painful reminders of Mississippi’s troubled past. Though the Magnolia State has come a long way in the area of race relations, old scars still run deep and prejudice continues to rear its ugly head on occasion. That’s why recent happenings in the Clear Branch Community (Florence, MS) are all the more unusual and poignant.  Picture this… 

…blacks and whites, young and old, holding hands, praying, fellowshipping, and worshipping together as they stand on common ground – their love for Jesus Christ.

…a cross racial mission team from Maryland passing out cold bottles of water and tracts as well as helping an inner city congregation with day clubs.

… families housing families sight unseen and becoming fast friends regardless of color.

…a three foot tall crippled preacher proclaiming the Gospel under a large red and white tent in 90 degree temperatures.

…souls meeting Jesus for the first time.

…believers deepening their devotion and commitment to Christ.

…former alcoholics humbly bowed before God interceding for others.

…sacrificial giving of time, energy, and money to reach a lost and troubled community with the love of God.

What has been going on here?!?!?

The answer:  Operation Love Thy Neighbor (OLTN).

Two years ago 71 year old Mary Louise Franklin, of the Clear Branch Community, had a vision.  Surrounded by drug and alcohol abuse, broken families, and racial tension, this African American woman wanted to see God move in her community in a big way.  “I wanted to see an area crusade,” Franklin says, “but I knew I just couldn’t put it together.  I told God, ‘You’ll have to do it.’”

Raymond Jeffcoat, pastor of the white congregation at Clear Branch Baptist Church, knew Franklin, but had no idea God had given them both the same vision - a joining together of area churches to reach the community for Christ.  Quickly it spread to the hearts of James Washington, Franklin’s pastor at Brown Hill Missionary Baptist Church, Don Kleeb, pastor of the white congregation at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, and then through all three congregations. June 19 – 22, 2005 saw that vision come to life in the form of Operation Love Thy Neighbor 2005. 

The tent is now down, the Marylanders have gone home, and each congregation will meet in its own building come Sunday, but OLTN is just beginning, for it is much more than an event. It’s a matter of the heart.

I'ts a desire- a desire of those in the Clear Branch Community to see lives changed, homes restored, and people sell out to God.

It's a realization - a realization that the "church" is much bigger than the four walls each congregation sees on Sunday mornings - a realization that Jesus longs to be taken outside of those walls into the surrounding areas.

It’s leaving comfort zones – trying new things, going to new places, and meeting new people for the sake of the Gospel.

And finally, it is an attitude – an attitude that says, “We know Mississippi has a racially troubled past, we know our community is riddled with broken homes and broken lives, we know that alcohol and drugs are lying in wait to devour our youth, and we’re tired of it. We will do what it takes to reclaim what Satan has stolen. United in Christ we stand – black, white, rich, poor, young, old – we stand upon God’s promise to heal our land if we will but humble ourselves and pray and seek His face.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

May the fire never go out and may Clear Branch Community never be the same.