Newton County Baptist Church is a rural church located in Piercetown, Arkansas. It averages about 75 people at its morning worship service.
Despite its smaller size, the congregation has discovered that when the church is willing, the Lord is more than able.
Over the weekend, the church hosted its eighth Egg Drop Eggstravaganza on the Mount Judea Schools’ campus. The event begins with carnival-style games, bounce houses, face-painting, and plenty of food and drinks, all at no cost to those attending. After the games close, the crowds move to the gym to hear a Gospel message from a guest preacher. This year the message was given by Heath Kirkpatrick of Woodland Church in Harrison.
Then comes the much-anticipated highlight of the day, the egg drop. A helicopter flies in, hovers over the back field behind the school and drops thousands of colorful candy-filled eggs for the children to collect. This happens twice, once for the younger children, then again for the older group. The first year, 3,000 eggs were dropped. This year, they dropped 12,000.
Mark Head, chairman of the deacon board, said the helicopter egg drop is a unique way to reach out to the local community and demonstrate the love Jesus has for everyone.
“It is a time of fun and games as well as an opportunity to touch lives for Christ. The sight of thousands of candy-filled eggs falling to the ground is such an amazing event but more amazing is how God can use this as an opportunity to share the Gospel with so many at one time. We are so blessed to live in a community where God can use us and seeing the smiles on everyone’s faces makes it all worth it,” Head said.
The event came about as a result of a church outreach emphasis called “I Heart Newton County” which began in 2013. The outreach was a catalyst for getting out into the community to serve and minister to others.
Andrew Campbell, former Newton County Baptist Church pastor, said the reason why Mt. Judea was chosen rather than another area in Newton County was that there was nothing going on there at Easter.
“Other communities, such as Jasper and Western Grove, already had events. This was the rationale for focusing on Mt. Judea, to give them an event close to home,” he said.
In a town with a population of less than 500, the event this year was attended by approximately 400 people. The number of children participating has grown from about 150 the first year to close to 300 this year. With a district’s total student enrollment (K-12) only about 187 students, Campbell said it is plain to see that word has spread about this special event and people are coming from outside the community.
Church member and Mt. Judea resident, Cindy Keenom, said the “carnival and egg drop event helps gather people from our community and county to one place where we can present the Gospel outside of the normal setting.”
“By offering a free event for the whole family, our church family has the opportunity to fellowship with people they normally don’t see, in a setting where they are most receptive to Christ. It truly gives our church a beautiful way to spread the Word of God outside of the walls of our church building. For the community, the carnival and egg drop give the town a fun, family friendly event that brings people in from all around and gives locals an inexpensive option for their family to celebrate Easter,” Keenom said.
Campbell hopes that other small churches will be encouraged and inspired by the egg drop’s outreach.
“If a church makes themselves available, the Lord makes a way,” he said. “For us, it is an egg drop. What is it for you? What are you waiting to do in your community?”
Newton County Baptist Church’s Egg Drop Eggstravaganza was just one of the several Easter outreach events Arkansas Baptists held throughout the state.
First Baptist Church in White Hall reached out to foster families in Jefferson County through the Harmony Baptist Association and Connected Foster Care & Adoptions which is a ministry of Arkansas Baptist Children and Family Ministries. They packed more than 40 Easter baskets for foster and adoptive families with donations from the area churches. According to Children’s Minister Jennifer Weaver, they included discipleship materials, candy, journals, goodies for spring, and other materials to help celebrate the special holiday.
“We want to make sure every kiddo feels loved and their foster family feels supported as they stand in the gap,” Weaver said.
In central Arkansas, Little Rock Immanuel Chinese Baptist Church hosted a block party.
Emeritus SBC Missionary Ron West, who serves with the church, said they had their regular service Sunday morning at 9 a.m. They had 98 in attendance, which he said is a record for the church.
Following the morning service, they set up a block party, courtesy of Pulaski County Associational Missionary Don Chancellor who brought over the block party trailer. West said they invited Antioch Church, who also holds services in the former Markham Street Baptist Church building, to participate in the festivities. Bobby Eller, pastor at Antioch Church, provided the message. There was worship, an easter egg hunt and more. One lady made gift bags to hand out to children at the event.
“It was a long day, but it was a great day,” West said.
Little Rock Immanuel Chinese Baptist Pastor Chunhai Li said they were thankful to be able to have the Resurrection Sunday celebrations. He said they had about 200 attend the block party.
In January, the church began early prayer meetings every day from Monday through Friday at 5 a.m. and Saturday at 6 a.m. Li said he has seen the impact of that prayer. On Palm Sunday, the church baptized 10 people, seven children and three adults.
“I see how God blesses us since we started having the early morning prayer. I feel the more prayers we see the more breakthroughs we see, and people’s hearts will be more ready,” Li said. “The whole celebration I saw how God just moved people’s hearts.”