October 2, 2026
CLEVELAND, Ga. — More than 200 volunteers from 33 churches fanned out across northeast Georgia on Saturday for Mission Georgia’s Love Your Neighbor event, serving communities through practical acts of compassion and sharing the gospel despite a strong morning thunderstorm.
The two-day ministry and missions event included projects in White, Habersham and Stephens counties, with service locations in Clarkesville, Cleveland, Demorest, Helen, Mt. Airy and Toccoa. Volunteers served through block parties, mobile dental clinics, food and clothing distribution, nursing home ministry, community cookouts, a playground rebuild, city cleanup, foster child backpack packing, Vacation Bible School invitations, and other outreach efforts.
Love Your Neighbor is a Mission Georgia event designed to help churches meet practical needs and share Jesus. Volunteers gathered Friday night for training and breakouts, including a presentation by Steve Foster, evangelism catalyst for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, on No Sweat Evangelism. On Saturday, volunteers moved into neighborhoods, ministry sites, recreation areas, and churches across the region.
At least four salvation decisions were reported during the weekend, including two at a Demorest block party, one at a mobile dental clinic, and one through a gospel conversation a pastor had after Friday night’s evangelism training.
Beth Ann Williams, lead strategist for Mission Georgia, said Love Your Neighbor was designed to help churches put gospel compassion into action.
“This is what Mission Georgia is about,” Williams said. “We want to help churches see the needs around them, step into those needs with the love of Christ, and be ready to share the hope of the gospel.”
Joey Pritchett, pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Cleveland, served as program director for the event. He said the goal was to help churches move intentionally into their communities.
“If we don’t get into the community, then the community doesn’t receive the gospel, doesn’t know who we are, and doesn’t know what our message is,” Pritchett said.
Pritchett helped coordinate 15 projects across the three counties, making sure project leaders had supplies, answers to questions, and plans in place. He said the local churches did much of the work by identifying needs, preparing their sites, and organizing volunteers.
For Pritchett, the projects were not an end in themselves, but a starting point for sharing the gospel.
“As we meet needs, it opens up the door to talk about God, God’s plan of salvation, the love of God, the forgiveness of God, who Jesus is, why Jesus came,” he said.
Pritchett’s church had about 15 volunteers serving, roughly half adults and half youth. He said events such as Love Your Neighbor help teenagers and younger believers gain experience in fulfilling the Great Commission.
Some helped with a family day at Friendship Health and Rehab, serving residents, families, and staff. Others served at Yonah Preserve Lake and Trails, offering food, prayer, and gospel materials to hikers, bikers, and families.
The weather shifted quickly on Saturday morning. What began as a sunny day turned stormy as heavy rain moved through from about 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., affecting turnout at several sites and forcing some projects to move indoors.
At Friendship Health and Rehab, volunteers adjusted and continued serving residents and families.
Felicia Sutton, activity director at the facility, which is located across the street from Pritchett’s church, said the nursing home already had a strong relationship with the church.
“They’ve been a blessing for many, many, many years,” Sutton said. “They’ve always been great neighbors.”
The Love Your Neighbor event extended that spirit of neighborliness across the region.
Williams said the event showed what can happen when churches work together across communities and associations.
“No single church has to do everything, but every church can do something,” she said. “When Georgia Baptists serve together, communities get to see a visible picture of the body of Christ at work.”
Jon Huebner, senior pastor of Mt. Airy Baptist Church, helped plan the event through his role as a missions leader in the Habersham Baptist Association. He said at least 15 area churches were involved, including some that did not sponsor projects but helped by providing water, housing volunteers, or sending people to serve.
Huebner said Mt. Airy Baptist hosted a mobile dental clinic where patients received care, were prayed for, and heard the gospel.
“The message is shared with each person that comes through the dental clinic,” he said.
Sonya Ann Thomas, one of the dental clinic patients, said the care made a difference because dental work is often expensive and difficult to afford.
“It means a lot to me,” Thomas said. “It’s a great organization.”
She said volunteers gave her a Bible, prayed with her, and treated her with kindness.
“They’ve been really, really, really sweet,” she said. “It’s been impressive.”
Samuel Ayala, Georgia Baptist Mission Board missions consultant for the Southwest Region, said the two salvation decisions at the Demorest block party came after Amy Ivey asked him to help communicate with two Spanish-speaking women, Carmen and Maria, who were looking at a FIFA World Cup gospel tract.
Ayala translated the tract into Spanish, explained it, and asked whether anything was holding them back from receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. “They both said, no, nothing is holding us back from receiving Jesus right now,” Ayala said.
Ayala explained that the prayer itself does not save, but that salvation comes through confessing Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Ayala said the work of evangelism was not over after the women prayed. He later began working to connect them with a Spanish-speaking Baptist church near Cornelia so they could receive follow-up and continue growing in their walk with the Lord.
“When we work collaboratively, in unity, and have a heart to reach folks with the gospel, it is awesome to see people come to faith in Jesus,” he said.
At Hill’s Crossing Baptist Church in Clarkesville, volunteers hosted free coffee and prayer, a youth car wash, a hot dog cookout with Christian music, and a free yard sale. David Stancil, senior pastor of Hill’s Crossing, said his church also served alongside a group from Valdosta.
“This is about Kingdom work, not about any individual church,” Stancil said.
He said practical ministry gives churches an opportunity to listen to people, pray with them, and point them to Christ. If someone shares that he has lost a job, Stancil said, that opens the door to ask where his hope is and to talk about the hope found in Christ.
Stancil said cooperation among churches also helps with follow-up. If he meets someone who lives closer to another participating church, he said, his goal is to help that person find a local church to plug into. “This is the church mission as a whole, together,” he said.
At Glade Creek Baptist Church in Mt. Airy, volunteers distributed food and clothing and served a hot dog lunch. Michael Justus, pastor of Glade Creek Baptist Church and professor of history at Truett McConnell University, said storms affected turnout, but about 20 families came through.
Glade Creek already hosts a monthly food distribution on the third Tuesday of each month, and the Saturday event gave the church an opportunity to reach people who might not come during the week.
“We had some new faces that came through and people to have good gospel conversations with,” Justus said.
He said volunteers prayed with everyone who came through and shared the gospel when appropriate. Glade Creek is a small church of about 25 people when everyone is present, and Justus estimated that about 18 people helped on Saturday.
For Justus, the event served as both outreach and encouragement. “We’re not alone,” he said. “There are people from all across the state who want to share Jesus with our neighbors.”
Some volunteers traveled from outside the region to serve. Becky Mercier of Faith Baptist Church in Monroe said about 15 people came from her church. The team drove about two hours and 20 minutes to participate.
Mercier, who started the day serving at Friendship Health and Rehab, said her hope was simple: “To show Jesus’ love to these residents” and to see someone who does not know Christ come to know Him.
Wes Blaylock, also from Faith Baptist, worked on the playground rebuild at Mt. Airy Baptist Church. He said the project would give children a safe place to play and help the church reach families.
“We heard that the Lord had some work for us to do up here, so we jumped at it,” Blaylock said.
Williams said the reported salvation decisions and follow-up opportunities are reminders that practical ministry opens doors for gospel witness.
“We never want service to end when the project ends,” she said. “Our prayer is that every act of compassion becomes a doorway for relationships, gospel conversations, and ongoing connection with a local church.”
Pritchett said that kind of service can continue long after the weekend is over. Churches will have relationships to follow up on, people to invite, and gospel conversations that may continue in the days ahead.
“The more we get out into the community and do it, the more it can spread,” he said. “It’s contagious.”
Reaching one person matters, Pritchett said, because one person knows other people who need Jesus. One reached family has other family members who need the gospel.
“You know that God is at work, though you don’t really know what’s going to come of it,” he said. “You just know He’s good at what He does, and He will bring good things out of it."
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For information on the Love Your Neighbor event planned for September, click here.
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