New Vision Ministries, a small baptist church located at 1506 S. Glenburine Rd. in New Bern, is committed to living out our faith in the community we worship. Three years ago, we chose to support those who have given their time and resources to educate our children. We thought we could best assist the educators of Craven County by supporting the vital work they do in the classroom. We began our Adopt-A-Teacher ministry.
Our Pastor, Gerald Baldwin, is a bi-vocational pastor who works for East Carolina University. He is the Coordinator for ECU’s Online Education program called Partnership Teach in Coastal Carolina. Teachers can obtain their B.S. Degree in Elementary Education, Middle Grades, and Special Education right here in Craven County.
Pastor Gerald saw his students using their resources to support and educate our children, so we decided as a church to help one teacher in Craven County for one full academic year, from classroom setup, school supplies, snacks, proctors for test day, flowers for encouragement, whatever it takes within our power to support our chosen educator of the year. Our prayer is that as our small congregation grows, we will be able to adopt more teachers. Our current teacher is Tori Whitley, a Special Education Teacher at New Bern High School.
We have also begun a food ministry. Members donate food throughout the month-hot dogs, hamburgers, bread, condiments, chips, and drinks, and we set up downtown and grill out. We are simply feeding people at no cost to them. Everything is free. We enjoy listening to stories and accepting prayer requests. In October, at our last cookout, we provided over 80 people with a nice grilled meal and received two total pages of prayer requests. People enjoy seeing someone who does not want to take anything from you but desires to give something. People are hesitant when we tell them everything is free, and they almost always repeat in the form of a question, “Free?” It truly brings joy to our hearts to serve our community.
This small church is praying for others who have the heart to serve to join us in living out the gospel message. It’s not only what we are called to do but compelled to do.
By Morgan Wells, New Vision Ministries