FLORISSANT – In 2022, Cross Keys Baptist Church hosted their first Back to School Bash, an event where kids received backpacks filled with school supplies and heard the truth of the gospel from volunteers at the church. For four years, this event has been a blessing to the local community. This year’s Back to School Bash, hosted on July 25, 2026, was made possible by partnering with other churches and nonprofit organizations, which provided supplies and put together teams of volunteers to help the event run smoothly.
Pastor Raymond Cabello shared how a group of men from the MBC Missions Mobilization team—which included Reggan Jett, Martin Winslow, and Victor Ortiz—helped Cross Keys organize teams for the purpose of evangelism at the Bash. “They helped us get some mission teams out,” Cabello said. “So we had a team from First Baptist Church of Fredericktown, Mo. They brought a team to help, and the Missions Mobilization team actually helped us with bringing on board the Prayer and Evangelism team. We actually had a night of evangelism training for the different missions teams that came into town, as well. We had a team from Crossroads Baptist Church of Memphis, Tenn., with us. They’re one of our biggest mission partners.”
There were enough people on teams specifically for evangelism that could talk to people about the gospel. Nonprofits that were associated with Cross Keys and the Back to School Bash set up booths for people to visit. A total of seven other churches partnered with Cross Keys to organize and set everything up. “It was just amazing to see the entire community come together. Not only our Missouri Baptist friends, but our Southern Baptist friends and churches from different denominations as well,” said Cabello.
Cross Keys is a very small church of only about 60 people, according to Cabello. Putting on a major event like this would be impossible without all the help they had. “We’re so blessed to have partners like the Missouri Baptist Convention and Saint Louis Metro Baptist Association,” Cabello said. “Saint Louis Metro gave us a $1,000 grant towards this event. The Missions Mobilization team not only gave us the evangelism training and partnership with other churches, but they also helped us with volunteer t-shirts. So we’re seeing our Cooperative Program dollars in action, and they’re helping the churches that need the help in order to reach their community.”
Cabello explained that because of different mission opportunities this year, the time spent in preparation for the Bash had to be shortened from the usual three or four weeks to one week. During this time, the volunteers packed backpacks for kids. “We prepped over 760 backpacks. All of them were donated from different churches and other organizations. We packed over 980 hygiene kits, and these hygiene kits included full-size body wash, shampoo, conditioner, toothbrush, toothpaste, and laundry detergent for students to be able to wash their clothes before they go to school. We packed all these in a week. Each backpack was filled with information for some of our sponsors for the event, and also they included a Lifebook, a way to have a gospel conversation with the parents while they have these backpacks.”
Over 1,500 people attended the 2026 Back to School Bash. Volunteers gave out over 1,000 gospel tracts and shared the gospel with around 450 people.
Cabello shared an anecdote about how one family has regularly attended Cross Keys since coming to the Bash. The kids have made a profession of faith and are getting baptized. They also encouraged their mother to come to church. Cabello has other such stories of families being impacted through the Back to School Bash and responding to the gospel. “We actually have another mother who was not able to attend the event because of transportation issues. So, we were able to connect with her and love on her and get her set up, and she’s also been coming to the church, as well. She wants to learn more about what it’s like to give her life to Christ. She grew up Catholic, so she’s been in church for a very long time, and our church family was able to come alongside her even though she didn’t attend the event. She’s been coming, learning, and being involved with what we do at Cross Keys. We were able to help her boys get ready for school. Our church was able to provide all the school supplies for both boys.”
Through this outreach, Cabello hopes that Cross Keys will be a light to their community and provide much-needed resources to the people who need them. “[O]ur goal for events like these…we try to put as many resources in people’s hands as possible so that they are then susceptible to gospel conversations. We believe that missions, for us, is twofold, especially when it comes to evangelism: we should do evangelism through our works and evangelism through our words, and that’s what we try to accomplish during these types of events.”
The Back to School Bash is an opportunity for the people of Cross Keys Baptist Church to “let their light shine before others” (Matt 5:16). They connect with people by providing for their physical needs and then point them to Christ who provides for their spiritual needs.
