Shelby County church plays ‘Santa’ to Harlan school kids

HARLAN, Ky. (Kentucky Today) – A Kentucky Baptist church in Shelby County provided backpacks to the students at a school several hours away this December.

Bagdad Baptist Church (BBC) in Shelbyville, Ky. distributed 354 backpacks filled with toys, clothes, hygiene items, and food to the students at James A. Cawood school in Harlan County the week before Christmas.

“We had a big packing party the first week of December,” said Kyle Wiley, senior pastor of BBC.

COVID safety measures required volunteers to spread out while packing the backpacks and wear masks and also changed how BBC distributed the gifts to Cawood students.

Last year, volunteers drove three hours to share the gospel with students and hand out backpacks during a school assembly. This year, the backpacks were placed in the hallways next to lockers so students could pick theirs up on the way out of class.

“A lot of the workers who helped were disappointed not to see the students,” Wiley said.

Because COVID limited contact with students, BBC had to get creative with how they shared the gospel. The children received gospel tracts, provided by the Kentucky Baptist Convention, and the church’s contact information in their backpacks.

“We put a little thing in there this year [so they could] contact us directly if they have any questions,” he said.

Volunteers also prayed over each backpack and both the children and families that would receive them, asking that God would plant a gospel seed in the heart of each child and that others would come along to water those seeds.

While the backpack ministry aims to serve school children, it has also opened the doors for BBC volunteers to share the gospel with school workers, donors, and teachers.

“This year when we took stuff down, there were some workers at the school who asked us why we were doing it,” said Wiley. “We got to witness to them.”

With an average attendance of 125 people, BBC could be considered a smaller church. But Wiley insisted that church size does not hinder what God can accomplish through obedience.

“We are not a big church, just a normal size church trying to be the hands and feet of God,” said Wiley. “Whether your church is big or small, all of us working together can make a big impact for God’s kingdom.”

To get involved with the backpack ministry at BBC, email the church at bagdadbaptistky@gmail.com or contact Kyle Wiley at (502)220-9943.