Mid-Missouri Mission Team hard at work this week

Hosted by Main Street Baptist Church, Crew Nine has 17 projects they're scheduled to complete this week for the Mid-Missouri Mission Team program.
Hosted by Main Street Baptist Church, Crew Nine has 17 projects they're scheduled to complete this week for the Mid-Missouri Mission Team program.

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AP

Minnesota Vikings' Chester Taylor (29) scores on a 4-yard run against the Washington Redskins in the first quarter of a football game Monday, Sept. 11, 2006, in Landover, Md. The Vikings won 19-16.

CALIFORNIA - In its 11th year, The Mid-Missouri Mission Team have been working since Monday on various community projects in the area. From yard work to house painting, 3MT's main goal is to help people in the community who can't complete house projects themselves while spreading the purpose of the program.

"The purpose of 3MT is to obey the word of God," Pastor Eddie Schoeneberg of Main Street Baptist Church said. "Christ has told us to love others, to be a servant to others, and 3MT is being a servant to others. That's really the main purpose. We go paint, we go do work, but it's not about the paint. It's about showing people we care."

Main Street Baptist Church is hosting four crews of 10 people, the most by any host church in the program. Missionaries at Main Street are from out of town and local areas, and each crew is assigned projects to complete throughout the week. For example, Crew Nine's host church is Main Street and it has 17 jobs to complete this week.

"These kids come and they pay to work, which is amazing," the Main Street Baptist Church Youth Group leader, Brandon Less said. "Kids come from all over and they're pumped up and excited about the opportunity they have here. It's hard work, but these kids work. They like to see their projects completed and they just know they're making a difference in somebody's life."

On Monday, crew nine was painting a porch on High Street, a project that would take all day. Other crews hosted by Main Street were doing yard work outside of California, painting fences for Flag Spring Baptist Church and one crew will spend the week at senior housing helping residents with everyday house work.

"They'll be on the sites till Friday and they leave Saturday afternoon," Schoeneberg said. "Wednesday they always have a half day and they'll go swimming to give them a little break. A lot of them aren't used to the heat. We always try to be careful with that too."

While preparing for 3MT is a year-long process, Schoeneberg says the church starts fundraising and planning six months from the start of the week-long mission. The host churches are responsible of feeding and taking care of the missionaries through out the day, and they're primarily responsible for creating and organizing their projects, which have been scheduled for several months.

"It's a lot of work," Schoeneberg said. "We've done it several years so we've kind of have a system down. We're working on trying to find homes. We do that through the church level, and we have some homes we go to every year."

While the missionaries are separated into their crews during the day, in the evenings, the 150 resident missionaries are staying in the California Middle School cafeteria and they worship at United Church of Christ of California.

Less and Schoeneberg stressed the importance of getting the jobs completed, but there's still another aspect that's more important.

"We get to do work and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that's one of the most important things that we're doing," Less said. "It's a way to get these kids to serve around the community and kind of give back.

"We're very blessed for the opportunity to get to do this. This is our 11th year. They meet the home owners and fellowship with the home owners. It's just a growing experience for the adults and for the kids."