Editor’s note: The 1991-96 missions partnership between South Carolina Baptists and the Baptist Convention of New England will be one of several past partnerships that will be celebrated at a luncheon at Riverland Hills Baptist Church on Nov. 14.
“There is a Waterbury in every community.”
That statement, made in 1991 by Tricia Bush of Beaufort to Maner Tyson is on a plaque as you exit the doors of Waterbury Baptist Ministries in downtown Waterbury, Conn.
In the early 1990s, South Carolina Baptists began a partnership with Baptist churches in New England. At the time, I was youth pastor at the Baptist Church of Beaufort and contacted Debbie McDowell at the South Carolina Baptist Convention. We were paired with Maner Tyson, an associational missionary with the Baptist Convention of New England, who had a passion for starting an evangelical church in the city of Waterbury.
Maner had served in Waterbury following college in the early 1980s as a US-2 missionary. I took a group of college students and helped him begin what has become Waterbury Baptist Ministries. I have taken hundreds of South Carolina young people and adults from Beaufort, Florence and Lexington through the years to help lead an inner-city day camp for children there.
Going to Waterbury helped changed my perspective on ministry and life, and I have recently returned from working with Maner for a month in Waterbury. During this transitional time in my own ministry, God has again reminded me of what is really important in ministry – reaching and discipling all people – and it was an honor to work alongside a true servant-hearted pastor who is in touch with his community. The South Carolina/New England partnership began an important friendship in my life, and Maner and I have an eternal partnership to share Christ with all people.
The day camp includes volunteers from his church, as well as groups coming from all over the country. Over the summer I worked alongside groups from First Baptist Church, Wadesboro, N.C., Maner’s home church, and Carrollton Chinese Church from Carrollton, Tex. As I left, a group from Palmer Heights Church in Ohio was arriving to lead his last week of day camp.
Day camp is only a small part of what he does. Tutoring goes on throughout the school year, and every Friday afternoon, more than 100 poor and homeless receive free food in an event he calls the Jubilee Harvest.
Short-term trips to Waterbury have affected several other ministers now serving all over the country, many of whom are serving Christ in South Carolina Baptist churches.
Sally Emory Bull Hiott, minister of children at First Baptist, Charleston, says her experience in Waterbury as a high school student led her to do inner-city ministry in New Orleans and eventually to a career in ministry. “As a minister to children, I not only spend a lot of time searching for neighbors in need, but encourage children to do the same,” she said. “Waterbury left a footprint on my heart of being a place that, if Jesus were here on earth today, he would be there.”
Trey Kelly, church planter and pastor of Wellspring Church in Myrtle Beach, said that going to Waterbury as a high school student changed his life. “Being there taught me that God’s love transcends gender, racial and socioeconomic barriers,” he said. “I am a better husband, father and minister because of my experience in Waterbury. God showed me through Maner that we must be willing to do whatever it takes to share the life-changing message of Jesus with a hurting world.”
Eddie Ramos, from Waterbury, was a teenager when Maner first came to Waterbury as a US-2 missionary in 1982, and he is now a member of Waterbury Baptist. While I was there, he told the group from Texas never to underestimate the seeds they are planting, because the mission teams have made a difference in his life.
Perhaps Travis Bowers, pastor of Georges Creek Baptist Church in Easley, sums things up best: “It was in Waterbury that God truly opened my eyes to see the needs of others, opened my heart to love those who are sometimes unlovable, and changed my direction in life to go into full-time Christian ministry. The summers of 1991 and 1992 are etched in my heart forever because I realized that there truly is a little Waterbury in every community.”
The South Carolina/New England partnership has created eternal partnerships that continue to change lives.
Swindler is minister of music and education at Round Hill Baptist Church, Lexington.