Ellis Beddingfield has been named the 2009 South Carolina Missions Service Corps Missionary of the Year.
Jonnie and Ellis Beddingfield listen as Tim Rice, Acts 1:8 strategist with the South Carolina Baptist Convention, reads from a plaque honoring Ellis Beddingfield as South Carolina Missions Service Corps Missionary of the Year.Beddingfield founded Central Community Ministries (CCM), which works to meet the needs of low-income families living in urban areas of the Upstate. The award recognizes his personal service and his work mobilizing volunteers in ministry.
Beddingfield serves through Missions Service Corps (MSC) a North American Mission Board program that strategically places missionaries to help with volunteer mobilization, church planting and evangelism. He is one of 35 MSC missionaries in South Carolina who raises his own support and commits to serving at least 20 hours a week in hands-on ministry.
Glenn and Priscilla Hayes nominated Beddingfield for the award while serving as MSC coordinators for the South Carolina Baptist Convention last year. “Many in this community were depressed and lost without hope. Ellis has now built lasting relationships with these families,” they said.
Beddingfield, who serves alongside his wife, Johnnie, said he appreciates the honor. “Our work is sometimes a thankless task, but because we do it for the Lord, that is satisfaction enough,” he said. “It is easy to get discouraged and worn out in any field of service, but being obedient to God’s call is why we do it,” he said.
Central Community Ministries was created as a result of the needs Beddingfield, a member of Springwell Church in Taylors, saw in the community. Approximately 100 local churches are now actively involved in ministering through CCM to senior citizens, staffing a soup kitchen, helping with minor home repairs, after-school tutoring and a nursing home ministry.
“Ellis works closely with the community, city, churches, and other social service agencies to relieve homelessness and improve the livelihood of many inner-city residents,” said Tim Rice, Acts 1:8 strategist with the South Carolina Baptist Convention. “Every part of his ministry is done to show love and to share Christ. He invites volunteer teams from all over the United States to serve the needs of inner-city Greenville.”
For more online information about CCM, go to www.ccmsc.org. For online MSC Missionary information and requests, go to www.answerthecall.net. The South Carolina Baptist Convention offers an online missionary prayer guide that churches can use to pray for state missionaries at www.scbaptist.org/missions. For information on MSC needs in South Carolina, contact Tim Rice at 800-723-7242 or timrice@scbaptist.org. – SCBC