Back Bay Mission	Back Bay Mission	Food & Fellowship	Relaxing	Working
Chaperones work too	Almost done	The group	Shrimp Boat Trip	Shrimp
Wow! This is interesting!	New Orleans	What a group!	With Back Bay staff	The Work Trip Group with Miss Mason and her Finished House

In July and August, several of our youth and some adult chaperones made the trek to Biloxi Mississippi to work in the community with the Back Bay Mission. Back Bay Mission was founded in 1922 as an outreach effort of the First Evangelical Church of Biloxi (later United Church of Christ), whose members responded with compassion and service to the needs of poor "fisher folk" living in deplorable conditions along the Back Bay of Biloxi, Mississippi.

Since then, Back Bay Mission has continually grown its services and ministries, always keeping the impoverished and marginalized at the center of its concern. Although there were no longer any UCC congregations in Biloxi or in the state of Mississippi by the early 1970s, Back Bay Mission remained to offer a witness of the United Church of Christ. Its commitment is to be faithfully responsive to the emerging and critical needs of God's people, ever seeking a day of greater justice and peace.

Work-camps are one of the Mission’s trademarks within the United Church of Christ. Back Bay Mission has developed a style of work-camping based on experiential learning which is very much in demand. This program seeks to equally emphasize productivity (home rehabilitation) and learning, using an action-reflection model. This is a powerful method for helping persons internalize their learning and build cohesive caring groups.

The current program serves approximately 20 groups a year, most of them senior high youth from U.C.C. congregations in the upper Midwest and New England. The groups primarily scrape and paint homes for the elderly and handicapped.

Our group of 10 youth and 6 adults made a mission trip to Back Bay Mission July 30 thru August 7.  The group stayed at the First Congregational Church of Memphis on the way down and back to break up the driving excursion into manageable distances. While at Back Bay Mission, the work trippers painted two houses and helped in the Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen.  They learned alot about the Mission from the friendly and knowledgable staff.  They learned and performed two songs at a worship service in a local Missionary Baptist church.  There was time for fun as well: a trip to New Orleans and a Shrimp Boat trip.

See us in action on our work trip: