KEYSER – The group behind the successful Kingdom 3 on 3 Basketball Tournament held Aug. 14 at Brooks Park has more events planned for Keyser.
Autumn Miller, a former Keyser area resident, and Pastor Mark Miller of Hagerstown spoke to the Keyser City Council recently about their plans, and received permission for a walk-a-thon on Saturday, Oct. 30.
The two operate under the Cross Talk Outreach Ministries umbrella, and seek to provide wholesome activities for area youths while sharing the word of God.
The August basketball tournament brought participants and spectators from all over the area. Miller calls basketball one of their “ministry tools,” and used the opportunity that day to offer hope in a time of darkness.
“We want to bring hope and help people, especially the time that we’re in,” he told the News Tribune in August. “If people are feeling hopeless and depressed, we want to let them know that there are some people out there to care about them. We will try our best to help them; it is what we do.”
Now, with the Walking with Jesus Walk-a-thon, the two missionaries hope to offer prayers, testimony, music and refreshments for those participating.
The walk will start at 4 p.m. at Brooks Park, and participants will move north on Main Street to Cross Street, over to Water Street and back up to the park.
They hope to have at least 30 participants.
“It will be like a prayer walk; we want to pull the community together and have prayer and fellowship … we’d be praying for Keyser and praying for the tri-state area,” Autumn Miller explained.
With the event being planned close to dusk, participants are being encouraged to bring a flashlight … but safety is not the only reason.
“People should bring flashlights or solar lights symbolizing Jesus as the light of the World,” Autumn said.
The walk won’t be the end of Cross Talk’s events planned for Keyser. They are also working on a 7 on 7 flag football tournament in April 2022 and an event called “The Taste,” which will feature various vendors – individuals or businesses – offering a taste of the best of what they have to offer. That event is currently scheduled for May 21, 2022 at Brooks Park and is designed to have a multicultural atmosphere.
Pastor Miller said they are excited to be sponsoring these activities in Keyser.
“We feel like God is pulling is here to do a little bit more ministry work,” Autumn said. “I believe God has a plan and a purpose for the young people here.”
She explained that they especially try to reach out to those young people who have fallen into drug abuse and gang activity.
“Most of our young people, they’re ex-drug dealers, in that lifestyle, they’re gang bangers, from the streets. So this is who we deal with. We know even though this is a small community there are still young people who seek that lifestyle. And we offer to help them find a way out,” she explained.
For more information on the walk-a-thon or any of the activities, you can visit www.facebook.com/CrossTalkOutReach or call 301-800-4639.
Liz Beavers is a veteran writer and managing editor of the Mineral Daily News Tribune. You can check out her bio and more of her work at https://www.newstribune.info/staff/6477370002/liz-beavers/. To reach out to her with a story idea, email lbeavers@newstribune.info.
Travis Burnett
A pioneer in the flag football community, Travis helped co-found the Flag Football World Championship Tour, FlagSpin and USA Flag. Featuring 15+ years of content creation for the sport of flag football, creating and managing the largest flag football tournaments on the planet, coaching experience at the youth and adult level as well as an active player with National and World Championship level experience.
