Tabernacle has worked in partnership with Metro Baptist Church, 410 West 40th St. New York New York for more than 25 years. We have provided leadership for their summer camps, sent them interns and staff members, cooked Thanksgiving and Christmas meals with them, hosted their youth retreat and assisted in the 9th Ave Food Festival to help their youth raise funds for Passport Camp. In 2016 we partnered with Eric Hasha of First Baptist Church of Jefferson City, Tennessee to provide leadership for the first week of Clue Camp July 5-9, 2016. This year our youth Intern, Lindsey Fulcher joined youth Monica Iang, Wayshanh Htoo and Kanoa Burgess to help the adults, Sarah Anne Burgess, Emily Witt, Jerry Jones and Nathan Hatfield lead camp.
Again this year two of our members served on staff at Metro Baptist. Bridget Fulks is currently their Children/Youth Service Coordinator. In that position she is responsible for an after-school tutoring program known as Page Turners, the Winter Clothes Closet and for a Teen Center program that includes retreats and summer camp experiences. Rev. Joseph Perdue finished his term as an Associate Pastor Intern in December of 2016. He worked in the area of food justice. In that position he coordinated work on the Hell’s Kitchen Farm Project, meals for a veteran’s counseling program and a large food pantry. For the first time in this 25 year partnership Tabernacle participated in helping to fund his position at Metro through the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
The week of November 21-25 a group from Tabernacle worked with Joe, Bridget and other volunteers from Metro, the Metro community and the First Baptist Church of Elkin, NC to cook a Thanksgiving meal for over 250 people. We cooked mounds of root vegetables, apple cobbler, pumpkin cobbler, green beans, gravy and dressing. The team consisted of Judy Fiske, Nathan Hatfield, Emily Witt, Terry Witt, Kristen Koger, Bonnie Bailey, Teresa Bailey and Betty Robertson. A team returned December 19-21 to help cook the turkeys for the Christmas Day meal. Judy and Nathan were joined this time by Hope Nycum, Kathryn Hall, Courtney Jackson and Ben Brown.
Judy Fiske and Sarah Ann Burgess assisted Bridget with the 9th Ave Food Festival May 14 and 15. We traveled to NYC on May 12 to cook with the teens before the food festival. The Teen Center attends Passport Camp in the summer and makes a large amount of their camp money at this event.
This year we will again travel in May to assist with Food Festival, lead the first week of Clue Camp and perhaps cook at Thanksgiving and Christmas again. Plan to join in on one of these trips or make a donation to help someone else attend.
Judy
9th Ave Food Festival: May 20-21—-leave on May 18, return on May 20 or 21.
Clue Camp: July 1-9
Thanksgiving: November 20-24
Christmas: December 19-21
