Beech Reach
The missions of Beech Street First Baptist Church
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you and you will be my witness in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8 CSB
For the Sake of One
In the Spring of 2014, Samuel and Angela Coston felt God calling them to do something in Texarkana to bring awareness to the foster care crisis. They were both teachers, foster parents and members of Beech Street FBC. As they prayed about it, they felt God guiding them to form a church ministry, so they followed the 8 steps in “Launching an Orphans Ministry in Your Church” by Paul Pennington and Jason Weber and launched For the Sake of One with a school supply drive for 25 foster children in Texarkana, TX. Beech Street embraced the ministry and it grew over the next 3 years.
During this time, Angela and Samuel stayed busy with teaching and fostering. Many other ministry leaders (David and Laura Orr, Josh and Jaclyn Thane, Sara Carper, and Sarah White) also had small children in their homes and stayed busy. Because of this, many of the things that they had wanted to do through the ministry didn’t get done. One of the things that For the Sake of One did was host a quarterly parents’ night out for foster parents.
On February 24, 2017, Angela was walking around Beech Street FBC getting things ready before anyone else arrived and she clearly heard God tell her, “Angela, THIS is what I created you to do.” This began a journey which led to Angela quitting her teaching job and stepping out in faith to launch For the Sake of One as a non-profit in Texarkana.
God has truly grown For the Sake of One more than ever imagined. In the 2018-2019 fiscal year, we served 1098 clients and had more than 15 churches partner with us. They continue to serve foster families, adoptive families, kinship families, struggling families, case workers, and foster children in Miller, Little River, Bowie and Cass counties.
Mission Texarkana
Mission Texarkana Inc. was founded under the leadership of Rev. Jim Adams in the basement of the Beech Street Baptist Church in 1968. The Women’s Missionary Union recognized the need for hunger relief among the food insecure of the local Texarkana community. They began providing soup and clothes to those who were in need.
As the ministry grew, they relocated to a vacant dwelling on East Eighth Street in Texarkana, Arkansas. The work attracted the attention of two Southern Baptist Associations: The Bowie Baptist Association (BBA) and the Southwest Arkansas Baptist Association (SWABA). At a joint meeting of the associations in 1998, BBA and SWABA agreed to sponsor the ministry under the name of The Texarkana Friendship Center.
The Texarkana Friendship Center relocated to donated property at 620 W 4th street, Texarkana Texas in 1987. By 1997, the Texarkana Friendship Center outreach our grown, and the Board of Directors decided to incorporate the center. The center continued to provide meals and clothing and began to focus on job training programs. Partnering with United Way in 2001 the CNA training program began. The Texarkana Friendship Center underwent a rebranding in 2018 to better reflect the history and mission of the work done over the last fifty years. The rebranding included a name change to Mission Texarkana Inc. and an added emphasis to community development.
Designed to Live
Designed to Live seeks to empower those influenced by disability to live a life of meaning and significance, to live beyond their disability. We seek to share Hope and the message of Jesus Christ to those who face the daily challenges of life with a disability.
15% of the world’s population is influenced by disability. Only 5-10% of these people are reached for Christ, resulting in one of the largest unreached people groups in the world. Designed to Live is driven by the conviction that everyone, regardless of ability or disability, is entitled to be introduced to Christ and the love He has for them.
Operation Christmas Child
A ministry of Samaritan’s Purse, Operation Christmas Child helps churches demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way to children in need around the world.
Samaritan’s Purse has collected shoebox gifts filled with toys, school supplies, and hygiene items for children around the world. Since 1993, more than 209 million children in more than 170 countries and territories have received an Operation Christmas Child shoebox. The project delivers not only the joy of what, for many kids, is their first gift ever, but also gives them a tangible expression of God’s love. Tens of thousands of volunteers from local churches around the world partner with us to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ at festive outreach events where children are surprised with these shoebox gifts.
Care Portal
Every child belongs in a healthy, loving family. No other environment has proven to be better suited for or more effective at delivering the safety, stability, and care that is so vitally important to a child’s wellbeing. “It costs more – not just financially, but also emotionally – to remove a child than it does to try and keep them safely at home.” CarePortal helps connect local children and families in crisis to the local church.
Through CarePortal, Beech Street First Baptist Church is able to able to meet the physical needs of families in our community while sharing the love of Jesus with them.