Sing & Serve 2024

When First Baptist Church Prattville (FBCP) students travel on choir tour every summer, they do more than sing and lead in worship services. Students spend a large amount of the week serving. Thus, choir tour received a new name this year to capture the essence of the week – “Sing & Serve 2024.” This year the junior high and high school group ministered in St. Louis, Missouri.

“What attracted us to St. Louis was the connection we had with a local pastor,” Josiah Pruett, FBCP Worship Associate, said. “St. Louis is also a city people know of but may not have visited before.”

Sing & Serve 2024 worked with two main ministries, Church at Bevo and Urban Reach STL. Church at Bevo is a small church started in the past 10 years with a focus on the large refugee community in St. Louis. The St. Louis refugee and immigrant population reaches over 135,000, which is about 5% of the population according to the U.S. census.  

“The nations are coming to St. Louis,” said Pruett. “We canvassed a large area with Church at Bevo promoting their Bevo Bible Club and community picnic.”

The community picnic is ministry work FBCP senior Anna Messick won’t soon forget.

“Church at Bevo is in a highly populated refugee area, so many of the people we were interacting with were of different religions and spoke different languages,” said Messick. “At the picnic, we met new people, played games and shared the Word through song with St. Louis locals. Many people in the community were not aware that Church at Bevo existed.”

Sing & Serve 2024 also partnered with Urban Reach STL, a ministry working in public housing communities in St. Louis to fight against systemic poverty and crime. Urban Reach engages community kids during the summer with activities, games and the hope of reaching kids with the gospel.

“One of my favorite memories is being the first choir to sing on the chapel steps of the abandoned church that Urban Reach is restoring,” Messick said. “This church building was once one of the largest drug houses in the state, but after being donated to Urban Reach, it is now getting a second chance to be a place of worship.”

Students and leaders are often spiritually stretched on mission weeks like Sing & Serve 2024. Michael Thomas, an FBCP member, joined his daughter on the trip to serve and further God’s kingdom together.

“I learned that no matter what your spiritual gifts are,” said Thomas, “God will put you where he needs you to work his plan. He put us in St. Louis this year and provided everything we needed to reach this community.”  

Thomas also noticed the desire of students to serve and show the love of Christ.

“Students love well and want to make a difference in people’s lives,” said Thomas. “Whether the task was organizing an apartment, playing games and loving children, canvassing a community with door hangers or cooking and feeding 200 people at the Church at Bevo picnic, these students served and loved well.”

Pruett added it’s important to offer this mission trip each year to open the eyes of students.

“These ministries are just regular people who have heard God’s call to go and make disciples,” said Pruett. “My prayer is that these students will be obedient to whatever God calls them to, whether easy or tough.”

Messick and Thomas encourage students and leaders to commit to Sing & Serve 2025 (destination unknown at this time) so they can be part of the deep impact singing and ministering has on a community.

“It is such a rewarding experience to see what God can and will do through you and the students when you allow yourself to be the hands and feet of Jesus,” said Thomas.

Sing & Serve 2024 also offered students fun experiences including visiting the Gateway Arch, St. Louis Zoo, St. Louis Aquarium and St. Louis Cardinals baseball game. Students receive financial assistance for Sing & Serve through the FBCP Send Offering. Student choir will return in August for all junior high and high school students. If you are interested in student choir or Sing & Serve 2025, contact Candyce DeKruyff in the FBCP worship ministry office.