| In this issue: Let’s Celebrate Coats for the City Mission Trip Toy Store Prayer Walk and Training Upcoming Opportunities End of Year Giving No Sew Blankets Spruce Pine Mission Trip Resource of the Week Church News Partner News |
| Let’s Celebrate Coats for the City Mission Trip  What a joy to represent our Association in our partnership with MNYBA, NC Baptists and SC Baptists in the 2025 Coats for the City Project. Missionary Ridge members Jolann Buff and Gatlin Ford, joined Burkemont Members Rev. Dr. Eddy Bunton, Jessica Anthony, Ivy Steele, Ethany Payne and Kenny Blanton Dec. 4-7 to serve Church planters in Queens and Brooklyn. Days started long before daylight and stretched late into the night, but there was a lot of joy and a lot of love in the offering. The team was a multi-church CRBA mission opportunity that the group hopes to see grow in the coming years. The partnership with NC and NY baptists for this unique mission allows church planters throughout the Big Apple to use coats as a means to have gospel conversations and impact their community with tangible and practical gifts of warm winter coats for the brutal NY winters. This year’s project included evangelism opportunities on Friday. Our team worked with Hope Community Church in Brooklyn and pastor Greg Gober. We passed out coffee and hot chocolate during the morning rush hour. We were stationed outside two separate subway entrances which gave us a wonderful advantage of catching children and parents on the way to school and work. On one of our stops the subway was stalled leaving lots of folks in a panic and looking for a kind word and as God would have it a cup of coffee , hot chocolate and a kind word. 2 SALVATIONS AND 9 prayers later!! New Yorkers are often preoccupied just like us with their list of busy, but we were able to have conversations and prayed with many about needs, just by offering a cup of coffee and a smile. Following our coffee give away we prayer walked the community of Park Slope and handed out flyers for an upcoming family event in Prospect Park. We were able to engage dog owners with Dog treats and some even let us pray! Friday night ended with a combined worship service and prayer time over all the Metro NY pastors and Church planters and the mission teams from NC and SC. Over 300 lifted their voices in praise through Christmas carols and a strong word from MNYBA director Larry Mayberry. There were teams from churches large and small, rural and city, and students from Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest and Fruitland Bible College in Hendersonville. Saturday our team was paired with First Baptist Church Wrightsville Beach Baptist Church and Three Local NY churches that are combining efforts to reach their neighbors. We encountered Muslim, Indian, Egyptian, South African, Ecuadorian, Seventh Day adventist, Jewish, Hindu. Truly every tribe and nation are connected in the area we served. Pastor Josh Montalvo, his sisters Naomi and Blanca reach deep into the needs of the community and they are shining the Gospel light. We had 1 Salvation! 40 prayer opportunities and we got a report on Sunday as we were flying out of LaGuardia airport that two of the ladies from the homeless shelter made it to church. Please continue to pray for Maureen, Christian and Desirae as God bears fruit in their lives. What about you? Could this opportunity be your “BEST YES” next year? Until then may I strongly encourage you to be On Mission here in Morganton. Slow your pace, look for opportunities to connect. Offer to pray, find out your neighbors needs, your classmates names, your boss or co-workers prayer concerns. We all learned that trusting God outside of your comfort zone whether away or in your own hometown is possible and wonderful if you ask. Thank you CRBA mission team for your financial support, your prayers and our continued efforts to share the love of Jesus with our neighbors . If you would like to see our pictures and hear our stories in person, we will be hosting a NY mission share night Jan 4th, 6 pm at Burkemont Baptist church. Our missionary team from Missionary Ridge and Burkemont would love to celebrate all the good things God has Done. Merry Christmas, Pastor Eddy Bunton and your Coats for The City 2025 TEAM! Toy Store Prayer Walk and Training What an incredible turnout for this year’s Toy Store Prayer-Walk and Training, the best attendance we have ever had! It was a wonderful time of prayer, preparation, and celebration as we get ready to love and serve families in our community. We also debuted our newest training video, which was very well received and will be a great resource moving forward. Thank you to all of our churches who continue to partner together to reach our community (and beyond) for Jesus. We are excited to see how God will use this ministry to bless families and share the hope of Christ this Christmas season! Upcoming Opportunities Ministry Opportunity Tomorrow Toy Store pack up is tomorrow and we could use your help at 1:00pm getting the boxes packed up for the Children’s home.  Thank you to These Churches who Financially Supported the CRBA This Year. Abees Grove Amherst Antioch Asheville Street Bended Knee Cowboy Church Bridge 42 Brookwood Brown Mountain Burkemont Catawba Valley Community of Drexel Congregation Beth Shiloh Cornerstone Cross Memorial Drexel Memorial East Valdese El Bethel Enon Faith Missionary First Baptist Connelly Springs First Baptist Drexel First Baptist Glen Alpine First Baptist Icard First Baptist Morganton First Baptist Rutherford College First Baptist Valdese First Hmong Friendship Grace High Peak Hopewell Icard’s Grove Riverside Lake James Community Lakeview Mission Church Missionary Ridge Mount Calvary Mount Home Mountain View #2 Mull’s Grove North Morganton Oak Grove Oak Ridge Pleasant Hill Pleasant Ridge Pleasant View River of Life Set Free Christian Fellowship Silver Creek Solid Rock Summit Trinity United Walker Road Wilkies Grove Zion **If you do not see your church listed, please consider giving a financial gift by December 18th to be counted on 2025 giving statement. Your financial gift will help us to reach our community for Christ together. No Sew Blankets  Spruce Pine Mission Trip  We hope you will make plans to help with Hurricane Helene Rebuild during March 12-14 2026. This will be a 2 night trip to the Spruce Pine Rebuild Center where we can minister as an Associaiton to those effected by Hurricane Helene. Resources of the Week  Your CRBA has a generator available for your ministry needs. If you would like to reserve any CRBA resource just call (828) 437-0137. Church News High Peak- High Peak has approximately 50 weeks worth of Cathedral Art Folders bulletins (about 100 per week) that we would love to give away. These bulletins feature beautiful artwork on the front, and some are designed specifically for weddings or other special occasions. If your church can make use of them, please let us know! Hopewell-  Mull’s Grove- Has 4 extra tickets for the VBS Lifeway Preview Event. If you are interested in purchasing those please call Yulita at 828-437-3379 Tues – Thurs. Ridgecrest VBS PreviewTwo-day event: January 30–31, 2026Ridgecrest Conference Center1 Ridgecrest Dr, Black Mountain, NC 28711Ticket price includes event only.$80 – GROUP (4+) + tax Total for Set of 4 tickets $342 Pleasant Ridge–  Partner News Concert to Benefit Vessels of Mercy  Collection for DSS One member of our Association is organizing a collection of items for DSS children entering into care. If you would like to participate you may bring any of the items to the CRBA by Jan. 31, 2026 • Socks in multiple different sizes (both male and female) • Underwear in multiple different sizes (both male and female) • Hairbrushes • Pajamas in multiple different sizes (both male and female) • Baby bottles with different flow nipples • Pack and Play crib sheets • Queen size sheets for the office bed |
You must log in to post a comment.