A fellow church is helping First Baptist Church of LaHarpe get itself ready to open its doors in a newly refurbished building.
Iola First Baptist has been hosting a group of mission workers from Forrest City, Ark., since last week. The group came to lend support in the establishment of a new house of worship for the congregation. They also have been spending time working with area children in this summer’s vacation bible school.
“We’re here to help reach out to people who need our support,” Virginia Taylor, mission member, said. “When we heard about this project we knew we needed to be up here.”
Taylor, a self-professed gardening enthusiast, has made it her mission this week to get the front lawn of the church grounds cleared off and set up with several box planters. Several of the mission group are contractors with putting up siding and other minor repairs to the outside of the building.
“We knew we wanted to take on something we could do in a short amount of time,” Robert Hatcher, mission member and contractor, said. “Something like siding doesn’t take that long so we decided to tackle it first.”
Several members of the group have also teamed up with LaHarpe church members to give area children a wide variety of activities to participate in both indoors and outside.
“This is a lot of fun,” Michael Wagner, 12, said. “All the different games and stuff is awesome. It’s like a carnival a little bit.”
The group from Arkansas is staying until Thursday. There will be a block party from noon to 2 p.m. Thursday to thank the group for their efforts before they depart.
