BARBARA GREEN
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Summer fun for teenagers is usually associated with lake activities or family vacations, but for a large group of nearly 300 youth, they spent a week doing community projects in Forestburg and Saint Jo.
MPACT Missions’ goal is to make people aware of “Christ’s truth” by partnering with local churches to provide a safe, but challenging week for students to serve others in community projects and share the gospel. MPACT was founded by Pastor Mark McBride, who came to lead the First Baptist Church of Saint Jo last November. He grew up in Paradise, so he is familiar with the rural communities of North Texas.
McBride and another youth leader brought their teens together in the summer of 1997 to bring the mission team to help in Georgetown. At the time McBride was a youth pastor at First Baptist in Highland Village.
“We wanted to make people aware of Christ’s truth and do a mission project in the summer. First we did it in the other minister’s town one year and my town the next. We started with about 80 kids, but then pushed it to a high of 400 during some years. Since COVID it has been 250-260,” explained McBride.
Youth come from all over the state from as far south as Corpus Christi, west to El Dorado, to Austin and Huntsville. The director says there are people who have attended previously and newcomers creating a unique variety of participants. Contact may come through the website, churches, past guests and other media. The program takes place the second full week of June, and organizers are always looking for towns to host events.

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