Teenagers in the youth missions group at Faith Baptist Church in Georgetown, Ky., have raised $2,050 for missions work in Africa by making and selling bead bracelets.

GEORGETOWN, Ky. – A group of teenage girls in Kentucky found a big pile of beads could make a big difference in the lives of people a world away.

The 15 girls, all part of a youth missions group at Faith Baptist Church in Georgetown, have spent the last year raising $2,050 for missions work in Africa.

The teens call their group SPAM, which stands for Supporting People and Missions.

The group first became interested in doing a missions project when Lynn Smith, a registered nurse and moderator for Kentucky Baptist Fellowship, visited and told them about the work she and other volunteers did with Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global Missions field personnel Fran and Lonnie Turner in Angola, said Heather Barron, who leads the youth with Gayla Thompson.

The youth wanted to do something to raise money, but couldn’t come up with a fundraiser idea, Barron said.

"Then a woman I work with told me she had a lot of loose beads, and offered to show the girls how to make bracelets with them," Barron said. The woman then donated a large number of beads for the girls’ use. More beads were donated from two other sources as well.

"With all the donated beads, we were able to give 100 percent of the profits we made from the bracelets back to missions," Barron explained. SPAM sold enough bracelets to raise $1,250 for the first missions project to help purchase an ambulance for the Angolan village, Barron said.

A few months later, missions volunteer Brandy Albritton visited Faith Baptist. Albritton, a CBF Leadership Scholar attending Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, told the girls about missions work among children infected with or orphaned by HIV/AIDS in Kenya.

The teens then created bracelets with black beads and a red heart in the center with the slogan "Have a Heart for AIDS Orphans," and sold enough to raise $800 for the New Life Home orphanage in Nairobi.

In total, the girls sold close to 3,000 bracelets to family and friends throughout their community. "We’ve pretty much saturated the market," Barron laughed. "The girls were even calling relatives across the country to buy their bracelets."

The youth group still has beads left, and is looking for a way to use them in another project to benefit missions work, Barron added. "We’re looking for ideas, because we are still passionate about missions."

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.