Henderson church blesses backpacks for back to school students

HENDERSON, Tenn.— Sanford Hill Baptist Church wanted to start this school year off right for their students.

“Well this morning we’re gonna invite the young kids all the way up to our college students up for blessing of the backpacks,” Shane Connor, the Pastor at Sanford Hill Baptist Church, said.  “As we get started with the school year it just let’s them know that we’re praying for them.”

This is the first year the church has held this event.  They got the idea from other area churches.  Families at the church see it as a way to let the kids know they are loved.

“You know sometimes at church we talk about grownup things but what they’re doing at school is just as important to god as anything we do at work and we want them to know that we’re caring about them and want them to have a good year,” Ginger Rowsey, mother and church member, said.

The students were called up on stage and held their backpacks.  Then the Deacons of the church got up, faced the children and prayed over them and their backpacks.

As the students left the stage Sunday morning they each got a tag to put on their backpacks. It tells people it’s been prayed for and it has a Bible Verse on the back. They hope that these tags will lead to conversations opening up between students.

“Somebody might come up to them and say, what’s that backpack about, what’s that tag about?,” Connor said. “That might open up a conversation to someone who may not know Christ and they will be able to share that with them in an opportunity they might not have otherwise gotten.”

They hope next year that not only students from their church but students from all over the community will come to the event.