Members of the Pike County community have the chance to interact with missionaries from around the corner and across the globe this week at First Baptist Church’s fourth annual “Global Impact Celebration.”

Morgan Drinkard, a media contact for the event, said it was not originally intended to be an outreach ministry, but grew into one as the community responded with great interest.

“Its been neat for us because it wasn’t necessarily an outreach thing, and we’ve been really surprised by the interest in the community,” Drinkard said. “This has really become a community event. This is not just for people that go to our church; we’re connecting people with causes that are meeting physical and spiritual needs.”

Drinkard said the missions conference is a great chance for people in the local community to hear from people all over the world– and for people from all over the world to experience the local community.

“We’re bringing people in from literally all over the world to Troy, Alabama, for an extended weekend and they are getting to know people in our community,” Drinkard said. “There’s a great effort on behalf of the city to welcome them here and there’s really an opportunity for people in our community to connect with people from all over the world. There’s a mutual relationship there that’s really neat.”

This year the church is bringing in 25 missionary partners from around the world based on Acts 1:8, which says to spread the gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to every corner of the Earth.

The verse shows an outward spread of the gospel, focusing first on the city of the disciples, then on the local area, onto neighboring areas and, finally, to the ends of the Earth.

The missions conference uses the verse as a guide for bringing missionaries in for the conference. Missionaries include speakers from Pike County (Jerusalem), Alabama (Judaea), the United States (Samaria), and foreign countries (every corner of the Earth).

“Our missionaries who come are partners with FBC. We have partnered with these organizations and supported them as a resource for support,” Drinkard said. “It’s been a really fun time over the years to get to know these people personally, not just as names on a list.

Drinkard said that the main event of the celebration is the “Taste of Missions,” event, which allows missionaries and local residents to mingle while enjoying food from represented countries. The event will be held this Friday at 6 p.m. in the gym. Admission is $5 per person.

The events get kicked off tonight in the sanctuary at 6:15 p.m. More information about the Global Impact Celebration can be found at the FBC website at www.troyfbc.com and on the event Facebook page titled “FBC GIC 2017.”

Note: The paper edition incorrectly refers to Drinkard and Stephanie Baker as co-chairs of the event. The actual chair of the event this year is Darlla Thompson and Jordan Fleming is the co-chair.