ATLANTA – Several years ago, Helena-West Helena, Ark., resident Tracy Davis needed something for her children to do in the summer. She took them to a summer camp in the community sponsored by Together for Hope, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s rural poverty initiative. There she met Ben and Leonora Newell, two of CBF’s Global Missions field personnel serving in Helena-West Helena.

Davis said to herself, "I can … help with this summer camp. Then I started talking with Leonora and a relationship started. I started volunteering my time, and then said, ‘This is what I am to do.’"

Now Davis works at the city’s community center, where much of the Newell’s ministry is based. She helps with the center’s after-school tutoring program, art project called Imagination Station, and the Stories on Wheels literacy bus that travels around Phillips County promoting reading among children and families. After years of consistent volunteering, she will become the center’s recreation director, a position offered to her because of her volunteer commitment.

"She’s the mother of the community center," Leonora said. "She knows those kids inside and out."

Davis also goes with the Stories on Wheels bus to Kids for the Future, a disability center where children come aboard to hear a story, check out a book and interact with volunteers like Davis.

As important as education is, Davis considers her priority to cultivate spirituality among children.

"A lot of our kids do not hear the gospel," she said. "The best thing we do with them is share the gospel ... in a way they can receive."

Through the ministry, the children have also received winter coats and each summer have the option to take swimming lessons taught by Fellowship Baptists.

"The Newells have given so much to this community," she said. "They are always giving. Their life, their ministry is always giving. They don’t have a big ministry, but we love them here. We really love them."

After many years in Atlanta, where she worked as a nurse, Davis returned to her hometown to take care of her ailing parents. Hesitant at first to move from a large city back to Helena-West Helena, Davis thinks differently after four years in Arkansas.

"There’s no better place to be at no better time than right now when things are really moving," she said. "I’ve seen such a turnaround. It’s awesome. You have to see it. Sometimes I have to say, ‘Well, look out!’"

Through Together for Hope, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship addresses domestic rural poverty by coming alongside rural communities in 20 counties across the nation. For more information on Together for Hope, visit www.ruralpoverty.net. To learn how your church can partner with rural communities through CBF, call (800) 352-8741.

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.