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The Mission Ministry of Custer Road UMC

follows Jesus' command to love God and neighbor by coming together in collaboration with our community, intentionally building trusted relationships and growing as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Get Involved in Missions!

Local Missions

family outside home

AGAPE

Agape provides critical housing and life skills that empower women and their children to transform from crisis and poverty to self-sustaining, fulfilling lives. Custer Road holds an annual collection of personal and household items and provides monetary donations and volunteers.

Ongoing Donations:

  • Gift cards—Wal-Mart, Kroger, Tom Thumb, Visa/MasterCard (for food, clothing, medications), Race Trac and Quik Trip (stations closest to Agape housing, for gas). Gift card values be no more than $25/card. Order gift cards from the Custer Road student Revelation Choir!
  • Amazon Wish List: Items on this list will help provision the new townhomes for homeless single women and homeless single moms and their kids.
  • Monetary Donations: Submit online, or make checks payable to CRUMC, and note “Agape” in the memo line.

Please bring donations to the bin in the Mission Donation Area. Gift Cards and checks can be left at the front desk.

The Missions Gift Market (formerly Alternative Gift Market/AGM) is typically held in November or early December. This gives you an opportunity to do a different kind of Christmas shopping. Shoppers have the opportunity to donate to charities and give a gift to someone really in need. This Christmas, consider giving a different kind of gift, a gift that gives twice. Give to your loved one, a handmade beaded cross or nativity set, or a certificate for a week’s worth of clean water. When you do, your gift helps someone in need – a hungry family, a struggling child, a Third World artisan. Your giving can transform the world!

Bed Start deliveryBED START

Bed Start helps families in poverty, crisis and/or need by providing household furnishings at NO COST!

Anyone can help by donating time, talents, financial support and gently used furniture. Regardless of your activity level, Bed Start could use the help.

Wednesdays | 4:45pm | The Wheelhouse

Saturdays | 7:45am | The Wheelhouse

Pick-up trucks/trailers are helpful, but not required. 

For details on volunteering and donating, visit BED START.

Pre-selected items can be purchased via the Amazon Wish List.

Bed Start Pillow Project: Sign up HERE to donate pillows to much needed families!

Local School Ministry: Custer Road United Methodist Church has committed to intentionally building trusted relationships in CRUMC’s neighborhood through partnership with local schools. We are collaborating with Christie and Thomas Elementary Schools. Our goal is to have 100 CRUMC Mentors at these schools. The school administration has identified Student Mentoring as one of the key areas to promote the growth of student achievement for the students at these schools. As Title 1 schools (focused on improving the achievement of the disadvantaged), they are in need of individuals that can spend time with children reading and working on assignments.

Mentoring: No special training is needed, only a desire to intentionally build a relationship with a student. Typically, it is a 30 minute to 1 hour commitment during the lunch/recess time, but arrangements may be able to be made for after school mentoring as well.

To get connected at one of our partner schools, email Pat Garrett, LSM/Mentor Coordinator.

MEALS ON WHEELS

Meals on Wheels provides hot noon meals to seniors who live alone, who are physically or cognitively unable to go to a grocery store or prepare a meal, or who are homebound. Custer Road UMC provides donations during the year and Harvest Boxes in the fall. Find out how to be a driver HERE.

People Who Love People serve the homeless and food insecure folks in the parking lot of God’s Pantry in Plano, located at 1896 K Avenue, Unit 200.

PWLP is a group of faith-based folks from churches in the area who supply breakfast items, smiles, encouragement, and show the love of Jesus.

Mondays and Thursdays | 7:30am

Sign up HERE to provide needed items.

young mother holding baby carrier

The mission of the School-Age Parent Program is to provide the practical and emotional support expectant and parenting teens need to stay in school, remain on track for graduation, be the best parents they can be, and prepare for a bright future. Educational support is provided for students as they transition from pregnancy, to birth, and beyond.

Custer Road is sponsoring the End of the Year/Graduation Celebration on May 15. Beginning April 7-21, we are collecting baby shower items to be distributed at the event. The types of items needed can be found on the Amazon Wish List HERE. However, any new or gently used items are appreciated. Please drop donations off at the table in The Commons on April 7, in the bin in the Mission Donation Area through April 21, or send them directly to the program at the address listed. You can also make a monetary donation online at crumc.org/giving or by check payable to CRUMC and indicate SAPP.

If you have any further questions, please email Rhonda Dye.

Seniors serving seniors handyman program. Volunteers provide minor home maintenance and repair services with a key focus on safety issues in the home, at no charge. They focus on seniors, age 60 and older and others with special needs within the Plano community.

Donations are welcome to offset the cost of materials and help others who are less fortunate. Larger projects are done on Fridays, with smaller tasks completed throughout the week.

Find details HERE

 

November 1  – March 31 | The Salvation Army | 3528 14th St. Plano

The purpose of POWS is to provide a safe, warm, and secure place for the homeless to stay overnight when the temperature drops below 40 degrees or there are dangerous conditions which could cause injury or death from exposure.

Learn more HERE.

teacher and student

PROJECT TRANSFORMATION

Project Transformation is a seven-week summer day camp for inner-city children that is facilitated by PT Corps Members and partner churches. About 100 corps members and many volunteers work with the children to teach Bible lessons, make crafts, play games, sing songs, write plays and read one-on-one.

Email Stephanie Mills for more information.

people serving lunch

Summer Lunch Program

Custer Road’s Summer Lunch Program serves children and adults in our community. The goal is to provide a free, nutritious lunch, fellowship, sports activities and support to love on our neighbors. The program runs Monday-Friday throughout the summer. 2024 volunteer needs will be listed in May!

See below for Summer 2023 results!

Leadership Opportunities

Would you like to be more involved in our Mission Ministry?

This role is fun and easy! Serve as the liaison between the church and Project Transformation (PT). Work with their staff to fill volunteer needs and provide items they request. Shadow current PT Coordinator, Gale Paul, this summer and learn the ropes! For detailed information, email Stephanie Mills.

Global Missions

The Missions Gift Market (formerly Alternative Gift Market/AGM) is typically held in November or early December. This gives you an opportunity to do a different kind of Christmas shopping. Shoppers have the opportunity to donate to charities and give a gift to someone really in need. This Christmas, consider giving a different kind of gift, a gift that gives twice. Give to your loved one, a handmade beaded cross or nativity set, or a certificate for a week’s worth of clean water. When you do, your gift helps someone in need – a hungry family, a struggling child, a Third World artisan. Your giving can transform the world!

Mexican families holding care packs

OPERACION ABRIGO

Operación Abrigo is an ecumenical ministry that brings together nearly three decades of ministry serving the people of Juarez, Mexico. Over the past 30 years, we have partnered together in building thousands of cinder-block homes, five churches, a medical clinic, and a community center for families living on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez.

Serving one family at a time, we are partnering together to transform lives on both sides of the border. Custer Road has served with OA many times. We have a summer trip for young adults led by Rev. Tim Morrison and have a fall trip open to everyone.

school children

UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief)

UMCOR’s work of alleviating human suffering around the world includes disaster relief and supplies, disaster risk reduction, and humanitarian development. It also relates to the Global Ministries’ unit on health. UMCOR operates in the United States in collaboration with relief teams organized by annual (regional) conferences. On the international level, it works through partner organizations and, at times, its own country offices, depending on need. Custer Road UMC regularly works with UMCOR for relief efforts during catastrophes to people who lack ready access.

If you’d like to contribute, you can do so online at UMCOR, or through the CRUMC Website and designate the gift for UMCOR and a Specific Advance if needed.

Living Water International

LIVING WATER

Living Water International is a Christian organization dedicated to helping communities acquire desperately needed clean water and to experience “living water”- the gospel of Jesus Christ – which alone satisfies the deepest thirst. Imagine a well – that WE PAY FOR AND BUILD WITH THE HANDS OF OUR OWN CHURCH MEMBERS – that will gush with clean, life-giving water and sustain generations for years to come. Living Water International helps communities in developing countries create sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene programs.

Imagine having nothing but dirty, bacteria-infested water to quench your thirst. To wash your clothes in. To cook with. To bathe in. And to give to your children to drink. No one should live this way. But more than 884 million people around the world do. Enough is enough. Because no human being should live this way.

Custer Road Mission Teams have traveled to Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador since 2016 to dig a water well and provide hygiene lessons.

To get more information about trips, contact Tony and Elizabeth Hairston via email HERE.

well-digging team

Dresses are sent through “Send Hope” to Honduras, as well as with mission team going to Haiti and Guatemala. The group is open anyone who is interested in sewing or helping in other ways. Ready-made easy to sew dress kits are available throughout the year along with sewing instructions.

Sunday April 14 – Friday April 19

Custer Road is partnering with World Renew and the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church and UMCOR in Rolling Fork, MS to help rebuild homes (and therefore lives) that were damaged or destroyed by a tornado in March 2023. There is still work to do and YOU can do it! Join experienced leaders Bruce and Marcia Fallis on this unforgettable trip Sunday April 14 through Friday April 19.

We will depart Sunday April 14 at 11:00am to drive the 6.5 hours to Cary, MS. We will stay at Cary Christian Center which has separate sleeping areas with bunk beds, bathrooms with showers, sinks and toilets, a large living area, dining area, and a kitchen where we can prepare and enjoy our own meals. We will work Monday through Friday and will depart for home after lunch on Friday.

The cost of the trip is $275.00 (partial and full scholarships are available). This includes transportation to and from MS as well as local transportation to the work site. It also includes lodging and the cost of food that we will take turns preparing. Participants will be responsible for meals on the road and possibly one dinner out in MS. All supplies and tools are provided; however, participants should bring work gloves.
No homebuilding experience is needed; however, it is helpful to know what skills each participant has. Interested participants will be sent a questionnaire to complete.
Get involved! Have fun! Serve others! Show the love of Christ!

We will have a pre-trip meeting (date TBD) and will provide participants with a packing list.

If you have questions, please contact:
Jennifer Wagner 972-951-0189

For more information, visit:
World Renew
Mississippi Disaster Response
Cary Christian Center

REGISTER HERE (by April 1)

Drives / Collections

www.CarterBloodCare.org

Custer Road UMC host blood drives several times throughout the year with Carter BloodCare. There is always a need for blood!

Sunday | May 19 | 8am-1pm

Questions? Contact Lynda Starnes, Blood Drive Coordinator 214-394-8245.

You can donate at any Carter BloodCare site at any time. Be sure to tell them you are from Custer Road UMC. We have a credit account, and should any of our family members have the need for blood, they can use credits from this account to assist in the payment for their blood use.

GOD’S PANTRY

God’s Pantry exists to extend a helping hand to the needy providing food to anyone who is facing circumstances beyond their control. God’s Pantry is a faith-based non-profit that has an open-door policy. They have never run out of food nor charged for any of their services. Volunteers distribute 10,000+ pounds of donated food each month. People Who Love People serves outside on Monday and Thursday mornings.

Monetary Donations: Monetary donations for rent, utilities and purchasing perishable foods are also needed. Click HERE to give (indicate God’s Pantry on the memo line).

Volunteer: God’s Pantry is located at 1896 Avenue K in Plano. Volunteers are needed on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 9:00 AM for sorting. Sign-up to serve at God’s Pantry HERE

children

HEAD START

Head Start is a federally funded child development program designed to provide comprehensive services to preschool children from low-income families. Children and families in Head Start receive comprehensive services that include health, dental, nutrition, family wellness, education, disabilities, and family services.

A fall mission, this collection of NEW children’s sweat suits, jeans, socks & underwear provides warm clothing for the Head Start children in time for cooler weather.

school supplies

Custer Road UMC collects school supplies in July and August that benefit: Summer Lunch Program backpacks, teachers and students at Carpenter MS and Christie & Thomas Elementary Schools with needed supplies, and Teacher Appreciation gifts.

Questions?

Stephanie Mills

Stephanie Mills

Director of Missions