Little paper slips are passed out by the group of missionaries, led by Michael Balka, in the roaring cafeteria early in the morning. By 8:15 they all digress into Mrs. Neal’s classroom in hopes of seeing new faces. Several familiar faces show up, and sometimes if they are lucky a new one will pop in. The handful of students quickly scoot into a misshapen circle within the cramped computer room eager to learn about what the man has to say- oftentimes eating a donut that he had passed out moments before. With sticky hands and open hearts, the students are then sent out before the 8:30 bell to start their week off with what might be their only chance to hear the Christian doctrine.
Mrs. Neal, a teacher at Carter High School, took over Teens for Christ around thirteen years ago and Michael, a Christian Layman, joined the mission around five years ago to give kids at Carter the opportunity to learn about their God.
Michael was a pastor’s son and saw how heavily it impacted people’s lives as his dad preached. He decided to get into missionary work by teaching Sunday school in his twenties. He even went to a, “soul-winning” seminar as a young man and went door to door sharing the gospel with his church. He humbly calls himself, “just a businessman that loves God and greatly values people getting to know the God that created them”.
Mrs. Neal is also a businesswoman, her side job is working in real estate. She teaches multiple business classes here at Carter. She says that, “everybody is welcome” to the bible lessons that Michael teaches every Monday morning.
Both of them have claimed that the mission they have behind the club of Teens for Christ is to share the gospel with the youth of the community; growing in numbers would be a perfect step towards that route, so come on down to room 345.
Carter Corps News 