Custodians and cafeteria workers will receive a $1,000 incentive for hard-to-fill positions.
By Josh Wucher
During Thursday night’s school board meeting, Waco ISD trustees unanimously approved a multi-year plan to pay classroom teachers $10,000 in retention. The district will use $8.1 million from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief grant to fund the bonuses over the next three school years.
“Considering the shortage of certified teachers throughout the State of Texas, it’s essential that we show our appreciation and encourage our best and brightest to stay in Waco ISD,” Superintendent Dr. Susan Kincannon said. “Getting our teachers in place, providing our students with stability is really important right now and we want our students to succeed.”
The retention bonuses are structured in tiered payments depending on teacher start dates. For teachers beginning this August, a total retention bonus of $10,000 will be divided into three payouts across December 2022, December 2023 and September 2024; for new hires starting August 2022, $5,000 will be divided into two payouts across December 2023 and September 2024; and new hires starting August 2023 will receive a one-time payment of $2,500 in September 2024.
“Our educators placed themselves on the front lines during this pandemic, and we have the funds to show that not only do we value our teachers, we want them to stay with us,” Board President Angela Tekell said. “These retention bonuses reflect the Board’s and district’s ongoing commitment to staying competitive in recruiting and retaining hardworking educators who are passionate about addressing our students’ academic and social emotional needs.”
The Board also approved an additional $500,500 in ESSER funding for retention bonuses for custodians and cafeteria workers. There will be three total payouts based on the employee’s years of service with the district: 0-4 years – $500; 5-9 years – $750; and 10+ years – $1000. The three payout dates are December of 2022 and 2023 and September of 2024.
“We average about 12-15 custodial vacancies and 35-40 cafeteria worker vacancies at any given time during the school year,” Kincannon said. “Though these positions are hard to fill, they are incredibly rewarding jobs for people who care about our kids and want to make a difference.”
Joshua Wucher is Waco ISD’s executive director for communications.
The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email Ferrell Foster at [email protected].
By Ferrell Foster
Fifteen months into my life as a Waco resident, I’ve discovered something new — local restaurant food inspection scores. It’s on the City of Waco website.
I ran across this when I saw a story about the scores on KWTX channel 10’s website. I do not totally understand why the scores in the KWTX report do not match up with scores on the city site for the same restaurant; I suspect it has something to do with the reporting day.
When it comes to restaurant scores, lower is better. On the city site there are many zeros (hooray!) and the vast majority have scores in the single digits (more subdued celebration).
The channel 10 report highlighted two Greater Waco scores of 90. Yikes! And the losers are: Burger King #3714 at 103 East Loop 340 in Lacy Lakeview and Cracker Barrel #166 at 4275 North IH-35 in Lacy Lakeview.
Wouldn’t it be nice if restaurants had to to post, in 12-inch lettering on their doors, their most recent score. You’re walking up to your favorite place, which has always in the past had a big “0” on its door, to find a “75.” Whoa! Better think before you open the door and spend your money. Thoughts: There is a new manager. Last time I was here the mashed potatoes didn’t seem right.
Well, restaurants do not have to post their numbers, but we can look them up online, so that’s pretty cool. (Of course, some people do not have Internet access, so they are at a disadvantage in getting this info. Inequities are real.)
I liked that channel 10, after outing the bad players, presented this week’s Clean Plate Award winner — Mamaka Bowls at 215 South University Parks Dr. in Waco, “which obviously got a perfect food inspection score.”
Mamaka’s has endless combinations, the TV station reports. “There are specialty ingredients such as almond butter, cacao nibs, coconut shreds, and spirulina, which is basically blue-green algae. Of course, if you like it plain and simple, items like The Mac with mango, strawberry, pineapple, orange juice, topped with the fruit and a little homemade granola could treat your taste buds right.”
Publicly posted restaurant inspection scores protect all of us from bad players and helps us find the good ones. There simply is no go way for consumers to know what’s going on in the kitchen without such scores. You can get some clues about the cleanliness of a restaurant from how it cares for it’s dining area and, especially, its restrooms. (I have a desire to visit a restroom before I order. Sometimes I regret I went after eating.)
Food is important. A big tip of the hat to the many, many restaurants who are working hard to keep it clean. We need to honor them with our dollars. There are options; we don’t have to do business with dirty eateries. Of course, I wish they would all earn a zero. That would be better for everyone.
Ferrell Foster is acting executive director of Act Locally Waco and senior content specialist for care and communication with Prosper Waco.
The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email Ferrell Foster at [email protected].
Editor: Act Locally Waco is sharing a series of blog posts — Faith Doing Good — about local religious groups working in the community. These pieces were written by Baylor University students from the Department of Journalism, Public Relations, and New Media.
By Kaylee Cannon
Derek Nease, the family teaching pastor at Crossroads Fellowship in Waco, expressed his love for the Waco community and gave details on how COVID-19 has affected the church congregation.
“The church is more than just a building, it’s more than just a place in the neighborhood. It truly is a group of people that want to see the gospel of Jesus Christ go forth,” Nease said.
Nease said one of his favorite parts about serving the Waco community is the healthy partnership and communication among many of the churches in the area. It’s not just a certain denomination, but all of the churches coming together to serve the community.
“That’s what I love about this community. That there are pastors that are willing to say I have a church I am leading, but the bigger thing is how we as a city can do this together,” Nease said.
Nease said the church had a project in November 2020 called, “All In.” They worked with organizations such as Mission Waco to help the community with various needs.
According to the Crossroads Fellowship website, part of their mission is to form relationships. They believe relationships with God and each other form the foundation of their purpose as a church.
“What I enjoy about the Waco community is that the people have appreciated and welcomed us in and have said thank you for still being a part of bringing change whether we’re able to meet in-person or not,” Nease said.
Nease said that the church had to make quick changes to follow COVID-19 guidelines. They had to get the Sunday teachings available for people to watch and listen to online. In the spring, they began holding in-person services with masks, as well as streaming online for those who wished to stay home.
“What do we value as a church organization? Do we value the meeting? Or do we value life transformation?”COVID-19 helped people “realize how we can still have an impact on people’s lives,” Nease said.
Crossroads Fellowship believes in meeting people where they are with a welcoming environment with accessible worship and preaching, its website says.
“We have and will continue to do the missional things that we always do which brings people, even those not in the church, together,” Nease said.
Communication among churches is new in Waco, Nease said. It has been a very good change in the community as pastors have gathered to pray.
“It’s special for several hundred pastors to be in one room together and pray together,” Nease said. “Not only for their organization and their church specifically, but for the name of Jesus to be raised and praised in the city of Waco.”
Kaylee Cannon is a sophomore at Baylor University majoring in business management with a minor in public relations. She is from Jacksonville, Ore.
The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email Ferrell Foster at [email protected].
Special from
By Linda Crawford
You know those people who seem to know everybody, right? Alfred Solano is one of those people.
You have a fantastic idea and you want to introduce it to key people who can make it happen. Call Alfred Solano.
You need to meet people who can help you finish up a major project. No problem. Call Alfred Solano.
You simply want to meet certain leaders in the community, but you have no idea where to start. You guessed it. Call Alfred Solano.
Even if you need a good restaurant recommendation, just call Alfred Solano.
And think about it. How could he now know everybody? It seems that no organization is too large or too small for him to dedicate his time. His community activities are numerous and exceptionally diverse, like serving as chairman of the boards of Prosper Waco and Waco Family Medicine.
Ferrell Foster, who is acting executive director of Act Locally Waco and senior specialist for care & communication with Prosper Waco, met Solano through his service on the Prosper Waco Board of Directors.
“Later,” explained Foster, “another local Hispanic leader invited me to a monthly luncheon at the Hispanic Chamber. Alfred called later to thank me for coming to the luncheon and said I was always welcome. As a White male in a new place, it meant a lot to me to be welcomed into a relationship with my Hispanic neighbors, who are so important to the life and vitality of Waco. Alfred is that kind of man; he is always drawing people into purposeful relationships with one another.”
Others with Prosper Waco have similar things to say about Solano. Dexter Hall, chief of staff and senior content specialist for financial security with Prosper Waco, comes in contact with a lot of people. He knows those who are “for you,” and he knows those “who are not.” He calls Solano “selfless in his giving.”
Hall’s co-worker agrees. “Alfred is an engaging and caring leader in our community who thinks of others each and every day,” added Hermann Pereira, chief program officer at Prosper Waco.
“He is dedicated to growing and investing the next batch of leaders in our community. Alfred is passionate about equity in our community and is someone who ‘walks the walk’ in every interaction he has.”
If you tried to figure out Solano’s main interests, that would be nearly impossible. He’s like the wind; he is everywhere. Kim Patterson, executive director of McLennan Community College Foundation and Institutional Advancement, used some of the exact words in her description of Solano. He loves pushing education, se he is on the board of the MCC Foundation.
“Alfred is a connector, always focusing on others and how he can help bring our community together. We often say, ‘That guy is everywhere!’ and it’s true; he is very intentional about that. He inspires me to strive to do more and be even more engaged in our hometown.”
Solano was raised in Waco and is a graduate of Texas State Technical College. After 35 years in business, he is now president and CEO of the Cen-Tex Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Waco, a role he has held for three years. In the time under this leadership, the CTHCC has been recognized as the Small Chamber of the Year 2019 by the Texas Association of Mexican American Chambers.
For Solano, serving on the CTHCC board for many years opened doors to many opportunities, shaping his “passion for engaging businesses with the non-profit sector,” says Solano.
He’s a board member of several other organizations, too — Hillcrest Health System, which is totally different from StartUp Waco, where he is also on the board. If you want to keep up with local happenings in Waco, call Solano. He’s a board member with Act Locally Waco, KWBU, and Heart of Texas Economic Development District. I am pretty sure the list goes on.
But if you just need a friend, someone to talk to, you can also call Solano. He’ll serve in that role, as well. We think, however, that Hall says it best.
“In a world where everyone is striving to be Number 1 and on the “A” team, Alfred Solano is a devout communitarian giver that pushes and pulls everyone forward . . . [exemplifying] that to be humane is to be a great human being.”
Alfred and his wife, Rachel, have been married for 13 years and are very proud of Alfred’s daughter, Elena Solano, a psychotherapist in Austin.
Linda Crawford, owner of The Anchor News, is an English professor at McLennan Community College, a motivational speaker, and author of the book, God, Destiny and a Glass of Wine (available on Amazon).
The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email Ferrell Foster at [email protected].
Editor: Act Locally Waco is sharing a series of blog posts — Faith Doing Good — about local religious groups working in the community. These pieces were written by Baylor University students from the Department of Journalism, Public Relations, and New Media.
By Brooke Giacin
Temple Rodef Sholom may be small, but during the pandemic they have come together to find unique ways to grow from within their small congregation.
Monica O’Desky, Temple Rodef Sholom’s cantor, said the synagogue’s community service is completed on an individual basis rather than a congregation-wide basis.
“This is partially because our numbers are relatively small,” O’Desky said. “People are somewhat scattered. In a larger congregation, you would have different activity groups.”
Temple Rodef Sholom’s congregation has nearly 40 members. Many members do their own community outreach. For example, some individuals devote their time to volunteering with Planned Parenthood.
Prior to O’Desky’s arrival, the congregation was very small. Over time the spirit of the congregation began to look better and numbers increased, O’Desky said. The music created an essence that encouraged people to attend services more frequently.
“During the pandemic, having to come up with socially distant but different strategies has been tough,” O’Desky said. “The Zoom services have strangely been successful. We get more people on Zoom than we do in person.”
O’Desky said she tries to make the live and Zoom services inclusive and different.
“We conduct our services a little bit more loosey goosey. I bring a lot of outside influences, some from conservative traditions, some from way out there, some from whatever,” O’Desky said. “We are not quite so rigid. We have done drum services where I bring out drums, tambourines, and rhythm instruments. It is all projected on a PowerPoint.”
O’Desky said she kept the congregation interconnected through interactive discussions, singing songs, and playing music.
“I like to make each service special for the congregation,” O’Desky said. “Where I was ordained, it was not affiliated with one of the movements. It was not reform. It was not conservative. So we learned everything.”
O’Desky said the congregation faced its greatest challenges during the Jewish high holidays: Passover, Yom Kippur, and Rosh Hashanah.
“We just finished Passover,” O’Desky said. “We had a marvelous group put together take-home Passover bags which had all the stuff you need to make and to host your own little Seder.”
O’Desky said high holidays for the Jewish faith are a time of gathering as a family. Temple Rodef Sholom tried to make these services more interactive and special while following COVID-19 guidelines.
“I did an hour-long Passover video that was with members of the congregation doing the readings and doing the parts and then edited it into a video,” O’Desky said. “It was partly the Abilene congregation and partly here. It wasn’t just me standing there.”
The Zoom services on Fridays and Saturdays consist of the Abilene congregation and the Waco congregation. O’Desky said the video allowed both congregations to see people they know who were participating. The congregations are very similar — small, few kids, and with many elders.
“Since they Zoom together so often, when the congregations came together online and watched this video it was like seeing family,” O’Desky said. “I did that also for the other high holidays. I actually videoed myself part from the Abilene congregation and part here so everyone saw their own sanctuary.”
With the wide availability of vaccinations, Temple Rodef Sholom has been holding more live services. O’Desky said their goal is to continue to make their congregation cohesive during these times.
“We hope more people will feel comfortable to come to the live services,” O’Desky said. “I cannot wait to finally see my congregation in person again.”
Brooke Giacin is a sophomore student-athlete majoring in journalism and finance at Baylor University.
The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email Ferrell Foster at [email protected].
By Terry Wright
Baylor University’s Lifelong Learning is excited to join the Mayborn Museum Complex and give our long-standing program a new home. Lifelong Learning is a primarily volunteer-led membership-based organization that offers an array of learning opportunities and experiences.
Each fall and spring semester, member-designed courses and special events entice intellectually curious adults, age 50 and older, to explore a wide range of interests. Join us if you are looking for a comfortable venue for friendship, leadership opportunities, and stimulating learning.
Members of the Lifelong Learning program are invited to join us at the Mayborn 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday, July 30, for a Membership Picnic. This will be our first official event since formally merging with the museum June 1. This lunchtime event (food served 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.) will include a hot dog picnic and a museum trivia contest. Admission for the event is a paid annual membership to Baylor Lifelong Learning at the Mayborn for the 2021-2022 program year.
A special museum trivia contest has been developed for the event for those who want to participate. LLL members will receive a form to fill in the blanks as they move from room to room in the museum. The activity is designed for approximately 60-90 minutes of museum viewing. Forms can be submitted at the end of the activity (before 3:00 pm) with the five LLL members earning the most points receiving prizes.
Current, former, and new Lifelong Learning members are encouraged to sign up for membership prior to the Membership Picnic. Membership status will be verified before admittance. A Lifelong Learning membership includes a membership to the Mayborn Museum and also enables the LLL member to enroll in fall/spring courses for the coming year at $20 per course, as well as to attend coffee speakers and other special events.
Learn more about Lifelong Learning and purchase a membership at baylor.edu/mayborn/lifelonglearning.
Terry Wright has called Waco home since 1981. He initially worked for a local nonprofit. In 1997, he joined Baylor as the system analyst in the Office for Scholarships and Financial Aid, where he worked until his retirement in 2017. Terry was introduced to BU Lifelong Learning by his wife, Linda, where they have both been active in courses and events for many years. He was installed as president of the organization in June.
The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email Ferrell Foster at [email protected].
Editor: Act Locally Waco is sharing a series of blog posts — Faith Doing Good — about local religious groups working in the community. These pieces were written by Baylor University students from the Department of Journalism, Public Relations, and New Media.
By Jenna Fitzgerald
St. Matthew Lutheran Church is a congregation of about 300 parishioners and has many members who are ready to serve.
According to St. Matthew’s website, the church mission statement is “to serve our neighbors as Christ’s family in service.” Rev. Kelsey Fitting-Snyder, pastor of St. Matthew, said this vision means that service extends beyond St. Matthew to the entire Waco community.
“As a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, I’m called to St. Matthew Lutheran Church to serve as pastor, but our vocation is always about serving God’s people wherever we are, in the communities,” Fitting-Snyder said. “For us, there’s not a separation of ‘you love God’ and ‘you love your neighbor.’ No matter what vocation you are in — if you’re a pastor or a student or a scientist — vocation for us is showing our Christian love through the work that we do.”
Fitting-Snyder has been pastor of St. Matthew since September 2019, and during the COVID-19 pandemic she spent the majority of her time finding ways to serve. She took note of how some parishioners donated their stimulus checks to set up a church-wide fund. The fund is used to support parishioners in need, as well as the church’s benevolences, which are the organizations it gives to regularly like Mission Waco, Caritas of Waco, and Lutheran Sunset Ministries.
“During COVID, everyone’s budgets were tight, and while clothing donations and food donations are really important, what a lot of those organizations needed to keep going was money,” Fitting-Snyder said. “We were fortunate enough and people’s hearts here are so big that they wanted to make sure that we didn’t cut back on our giving out to the community, but that it was increased in that time so that people were still able to get the services that they needed.”
In addition to providing monetary aid, St. Matthew put together care packages for people in nursing homes and continued its quilting ministry.
Fitting-Snyder said one of the most important projects it undertook, though, was a drive for sanitization supplies for its teachers and professors.
“We have a bunch of teachers in our congregation, elementary school teachers and Baylor professors and things like that, so when sanitizer and Clorox wipes and stuff were really scarce, we started taking donations from our people,” Fitting-Snyder said. “Even after the shortage, people still kept bringing them, so I still have some here to give to my teachers when they say, ‘Hey, we need some more Clorox wipes.’ When the schools were short on supplies, that was just one thing that we could do to help lighten the burden.”
Fitting-Snyder emphasized that members of the congregation can utilize their gifts to find small ways to do good, which can eventually build into far-reaching, impactful community service.
“I firmly believe that there’s no act of kindness or ministry or anything that is too small,” Fitting-Snyder said. “The analogy I love for that is, if you’re sitting in a kayak on the river, that one little kayak is displacing water, and because that water underneath you is displaced, it’s affecting the whole river. A lot of times, rivers make their way into larger bodies of water, so your one little kayak is impacting and rippling to something much bigger. That’s how I see our ministry happening here.”
Jenna Fitzgerald is a freshman university scholars major at Baylor, concentrating in journalism, Spanish, political science, and poverty studies and social justice.
The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email Ferrell Foster at [email protected].
By Kasey Ashenfelter
The application for the 11th round of the LeadershipPLENTY Institute in Waco is now open. Individuals can apply to be part of a select group to receive leadership training and development in this six-month, cohort-based program.
LeadershipPLENTY is designed to make civic leadership training available to those who are involved in the community and interested in growing as leaders, and to strengthen the skills of those who hold leadership positions. LeadershipPLENTY Institute is underwritten by Waco Foundation and offered at no cost. The deadline to apply is Aug. 13.
“Without leadership representation from all of our community, we’re building a ship that won’t float. Our ideas and plans won’t be fully informed and we won’t reach our full potential,” said Jeremy Everett, executive director of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty. “We need leadership voices and decisions to come from across our community, and the LeadershipPLENTY Institute helps us do that.”
To attend LeadershipPLENTY Institute, individuals must first complete an application. Anyone over age 18 can apply. Once applications are reviewed, selected individuals will be notified, and the courses start in September. Participants go through a 10-module curriculum including topics such as managing conflict, leading meetings, building strategic partnerships, communicating for change, and more. Graduates of the program gain valuable skills, deepen their network of friends and partners, and are positioned to lead the Waco area into the future.
“The Community Visioning Project identified so many great hopes and dreams that this communityhad for itself,” said Kris Kaiser Olson, community leader and member of the Today’s Action Tomorrow’s Leaders steering committee. “One of those hopes was for a much larger and much more diverse pool of people who could serve in a variety of leadership positions in the Waco area — everything from elected offices, to appointed commissions, to nonprofit boards of directors, to heading up neighborhood groups, and so on.
“Waco Foundation volunteered to take responsibility for coordinating this leadership development work and support the LeadershipPLENTY Institute, Olson said. “The graduates are among some of the finest leaders in Waco.”
LeadershipPLENTY Institute offers accessible leadership training and skills to develop and broaden our community’s network of leaders. “As a LeadershipPLENTY graduate, I know firsthand how the skills and relationship I gained from the program can have a direct impact on a person’s leadership skills and roles,” said City Council Member Hector Sabido. “Now, in my role on City Council, I know we need to support and foster leadership voices from all parts of the Waco community — LeadershipPLENTY is the guide to help us do that.”
To apply or to nominate someone today visit TodaysActionTomorrowsLeaders.org.
Kasey Ashenfelter is part of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty and coordinator of The LeadershipPLENTY Institute – Waco.
The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email Ferrell Foster at [email protected].
Editor: Act Locally Waco is sharing a series of blog posts — Faith Doing Good — about local religious entities working in the community. These pieces were written by Baylor University students from the Department of Journalism, Public Relations, and New Media.
By Mahak Rajwani
Waco has many places of worship, and the Islamic Center of Waco holds a special story. The Center was established in 1987 and is still led by Afzal Siddiq.
Siddiq dedicates an immense amount of time and effort serving as president of the center, as well as pursuing other professional endeavors.
“Our community is 100% unique and is very welcoming of diversity,” Siddiq said. “I want to encourage the idea of learning about other cultures and creators.”
As different as varied religions may seem, Siddiq said they often intertwine and are based off of each other. Christianity and Islam are actually very similar at their core, he said, and it adds to a sense of unity within the communities.
The Islamic Center hosts a dinner for church leaders in Waco during Ramadan to promote good relations. This speaks volumes about their character because of the effort they’re willing to dedicate to supporting the local community and what they stand for.
Community involvement is visibly important to them, and they put time and effort into serving people in a multitude of ways.
“We like to work with Habitat for Humanity consistently, and I have become a board member for that, as well. We are also closely associated with the Waco Interfaith Conference,” Siddiq said.
Islamic Center leadership consists of the president and about five or six board members, but it’s an open environment where members can provide input or feedback at any time. There is no general hierarchy within the Islamic Center.
“I’ve seen this place grow over the years. People come and go, but the values remain the same,” Siddiq said.
In the Islamic faith it is integral to pray five times a day, and on Fridays they have special ceremonies for what is known as “Jumma.” The mosque is open throughout the day for any members who choose to use it for daily prayers.
Afzal Siddiq, his wife, and their two sons all like to be involved and as a whole are all very committed to the center.
“My wife generally cooks food for the community on Fridays. She likes to contribute in her own way,” Siddiq said.
The Islamic Center of Waco demonstrates what it means to embody love for one’s faith, community, and the world around them. “I want to express how important it is for me that we are good representatives of the Islamic faith,” Siddiq said.
Mahak Rajwani is a student at Baylor University who is originally from California. She is a second-year business major concentrating in professional sales and marketing, with a minor in public relations journalism.
The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email Ferrell Foster at [email protected].
Editor: Act Locally Waco is sharing a series of blog posts — Faith Doing Good — about local religious groups working in the community. These pieces were written by Baylor University students from the Department of Journalism, Public Relations, and New Media.
By Rachel Hemphill
Cars line up in rows across a church parking lot. A pastor rises on a lift as the sound of honking fills the air. He welcomes the congregation, and the horns intensify as he begins preaching the message.
For Toliver Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, this was what a typical Sunday morning service looked like in the spring. Finding a creative way to continue meeting was just one of the many ways the church provided for its community during the pandemic.
“We’ve not been in our sanctuary for worshiping for over a year,” Dr. Jimmy Hunter, head pastor of Toliver Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, said. “We have drive-in worship so everyone drives in and parks in the same direction, and I go up in the air on a lift.” (Toliver Chapel has recently reopened their sanctuary for worship. This article was written in the spring.)
The church has been a part of the Waco community for 127 years. According to the Texas Historical Markers web page, the congregation grew out of a Sunday school class led by Rev. L. Toliver in July 1895. The East Waco church eventually moved to a Price Street location, then expanded in 1917 with a new sanctuary at its current location on Elm Avenue.
“We try to be visible in the community,” Hunter said. “Wherever we find a need or whatever kind of deal, we’re pretty off into those kinds of things.”
The church has many programs, including working with the Central Texas Food Bank to host food drives, partnering with J.H. Hines Elementary School, and working with senior citizens.
“We’ve tried, like everyone else, to maintain our service until everything goes back to normal,” Hunter said. “I do think, however, that once we are re-engaged, we’ll still have work in the community. But I think the church overall has thrust into new ways of ministry.”
Toliver has been available to the community, even amidst regulations during the pandemic. They have come up with creative ways of being an outreach center, which includes hosting COVID-19 testing and immunizations.
“COVID has been a challenge because it has stagnated us to a certain degree because there is only so much we could do,” Hunter said. “We couldn’t have the types of contacts that we were accustomed to having.”
Despite the difficulties faced with protocols, Toliver has managed to stay connected with the congregation. They have hosted Bible study by way of a conference call and prayer time on Wednesday. COVID-19 moved Toliver to launch new ways of reaching the community.
“Since I’ve had to go that direction it has opened us up,” Hunter said. “I mean, we’ve had people watching us from London. So, it really has pushed the church beyond the walls, and moved our whole mindset up into the times we are in.”
When an opportunity to help the community becomes available, the congregation of Toliver doesn’t miss a chance to serve. Even during the winter storms, the church passed out water and Hunter individually called to check on his members.
“I think historically, persons within the community have kind of looked at our church as one that casts into the forefront of things,” Hunter said. “The church has always been a church that’s community-oriented.”
Rachel Hemphill is from Texarkana, Texas, and Baylor freshman majoring in business marketing and minoring in advertising.
The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email Ferrell Foster at [email protected].