Her knitting needles clicking away, Dorothy Hall of Jarrett, worked diligently on little baby caps and blankets as part of her participation in Missions Connection 2006.

For 48 years, Hall and various members of her family have been making the journey from High Hills Baptist Church to the family missions experience at Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center near Lynchburg. This year found four generations of the Hall family, including Dorothy; daughters Cathy Lewis and Connie Grissom; grandchildren Jaime Poole, Adam and Trevor Kindred and Amanda Lewis; and great-grandchildren Cara Beth and Kamryn Poole and Rachel Lewis, all “doing missions” at Missions Connection Week held July 10-14.

Hall, a direct descendant of preacher Josiah C. Bailey, who was instrumental in the founding of churches in the Petersburg Baptist Association and throughout Virginia, recalled beginning her annual trips to Eagle Eyrie in 1959. James N. Birkett, who was pastor of High Hills at the time, led members of his congregation to attend Training Union Week in 1959, 1960 and 1961. Then in 1962, the church began attending the Family Missions Week, which, according to Hall, “allowed the whole family to come and the children to get the experience of the missionaries, missions study and Bible study.” Dorothy and her husband, George A. Hall, joined fellow church members and began bringing their family every year, which meant a 6-week-old baby daughter one summer. Now, said Hall, “the children bring their children and their grandchildren.”

The story of the Hall family's love for missions week is also a story of the devotion of High Hills Baptist Church. “The church puts it in the budget and they donate the food. Even if they can't come to do missions, they make it possible for those who can come,” said Hall.

High Hills has 99 members; 25 of them attended Missions Connection Week this summer. Hall attributed the church's involvement over the years to the encouragement and support of their pastors. “We have come all these years because our pastors were so devoted to all of this—that's the key,” she said.

Dorothy's daughter, Cathy Lewis, wanted her own children and grandchildren to have the experience and memories that she had from her participation in the missions week. “When I was a teenager, we'd go on top of the hotel and Dave Sandridge would lead us all in acapella choruses,” she said. Lewis taught one of those choruses, Psalm 23, to the 7th graders this summer.

Hall's favorite memories from these trips to Eagle Eyrie include the international missionaries they met over the years. But the most special memory occurred more recently. “Two grandsons made professions of faith during this week last year and then were baptized at home later,” she smiled, and then Hall turned her attention to another knitter needing help with her stitches. The pile of baby caps was growing.

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