CSMC Missions Letter 2025
Many years ago on a Sunday morning, I was about to turn into the church parking lot when I saw two boys running across the street towards the front steps of the Sanctuary. They didn’t realize it, but these brothers had left their 3-year-old baby sister behind in the middle of the road as she had not yet made it across the street. I slammed on my brakes, jumped out of my car, and scooped her up while running to the other side of the street in a sheer panic. I worked with the children’s choir at the time and did not recognize them. I will never forget the conversation we had in those next moments on the front steps leading up to the Sanctuary. I asked them their names and how they had heard about our church. They began to share their story with me.
Their family had been displaced by Hurricane Katrina. They had absolutely no connection to our church. I asked them why they had come that morning and the oldest brother said he had seen our steeple from the house where they were staying. He said he knew this was supposed to be a place that loved people. He had woken up that morning, cooked breakfast for his little brother and sister, and dressed his siblings. He said they had come to church so they could be loved. I sat there in awe of the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our steeple is a symbol of our church family’s mission…to love people in the name of Jesus Christ and to serve others with everything God has entrusted to us. I am asked each year to share some of the tangible ways Crystal Springs Methodist Church has carried out this mission. I have listed below some of the ways you each have contributed by donating your time, your talents, and your giving.
October 2024 - The CSMC youth led a shoe collection for the organization Shoes4Love. The shoes collected were provided to micro-entrepreneurs to sell in their local markets overseas to help provide income for their families. Around 1,000 pairs of shoes were shipped.
October 2024 – 3 large totes of pencils, paper, art supplies, etc… were delivered to the principal at Crystal Springs Elementary to bless children in need of supplies.
October 2024 – 49 Operation Christmas Child boxes were assembled by the Blaze ministry and stuffed with toys and lots of love. Our church’s boxes were delivered to Mali, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The delivery of these gifts also brought about the opportunity for children to hear a 12-part discipleship program which was taught by local teachers in their own language using Bible stories, fun activities, and memory verses to teach children about God’s love, salvation through Jesus Christ, and sharing their faith with others.
October 2024 – 3 boxes of hymnals and Bibles were shared with the residents of Jaquith Nursing Home at Mississippi State Hospital.
November 20, 2024 – Family Advent Meal Packing night was able to supply the SOS Food Pantry with 72 Christmas meals-for-two for those in our community who were experiencing food insecurity.
January 2025 – 6 dressers were donated to Grace House in Jackson. This is a home for those living with HIV/AIDS who have no other options for housing. Each dresser contained a drawer full of notes of encouragement written by our church members along with a jar of scriptures providing encouragement.
January 28, 2025 – A group of volunteers gathered and cooked 29 casseroles to provide for our church family to share with others in the community who are in a difficult season, had a recent surgery, experiencing grief, or celebrated the birth of a new baby. This ministry is called Baked with Love.
February – March 2025 – Thousands of shopping bags were donated by the CSMC family to the SOS Food Pantry to be used for food distribution in our community.
March 2025 - $300 was given to the Methodist Children’s Home to sponsor a child to attend their annual Spring break trip.
March 2025 – Wheelchair was donated to the SOS Food Pantry for the elderly/disabled to use as they wait in line for services.
February 2025 – Hand-made Valentine’s cards were made by the young women's Bible study group and delivered to the residents of Copiah Living Center to remind them that are loved and remembered.
February 23, 2025 – The God’s Pods and Blaze kids raised money for Camp Kamassa to purchase Keurig coffee makers for each of the cabins. They cooked baked goods from scratch and set up a table of goodies in the front and back of the church and raised $1,598.
March 2025 – Donation made to the Wesley Foundation at MUW to facilitate a mission trip to Delta Grace which provides house repairs in the Mississippi Delta living in poverty.
March 17-20, 2025 – CSMC members fed the N.O.M.A.D.S (Nomads On a Mission Active in Divine Service) who volunteered at Camp Wesley Pines to provide labor for several projects at the Tabernacle renovation.
March 30 – April 2, 2025 – 55 teenagers from our community participated in the Marines annual retreat. Jana used the theme ENOUGH to remind the teens that in Christ, they are enough and equipped to be his soldiers for the kingdom.
April 6, 2025 – Rise Against Hunger Meal Packing Mission attended by 70 participants in our church family. 15,120 meals were packed to the glory of God. The meals were delivered to the islands of the Philippines. Mobile kitchens are used to feed children in schools and to serve the hungry in the community.
May 3, 2025 – 12 church volunteers partnered with several Job Corps students and attended a Camp Wesley Pines workday to help prepare cabins, grounds, and facilities to receive the children for the upcoming summer session.
May 18, 2025 – CSMC youth participated in a car wash to raise funds for chairs in the newly renovated Tabernacle at Camp Wesley Pines. A total of $4,000 was raised by the participants and used to purchase 60 chairs for the new worship space.
May – June 2025 – 3 plastic totes full of fun costumes and wigs were collected for the Camp Kamassa Threatrical Dress-Up Room. These costumes will bring joy to the children over the next few years and can be used for skits and performances.
June 2025 – The Baked with Love casserole ministry prepared their second batch of food consisting of pork tenderloins and rolls. These meals were shared with those celebrating a milestone, given as a gift to a new neighbor, or those processing a new diagnosis.
July 2025 – True North VBS had the joy of welcoming 50 children who came to learn, worship, and grow in their faith together. It was such a blessing to see their energy and excitement as they discovered more about God’s love. They collected canned good for the SOS Food Pantry and raised around $125 for Texas Disaster Relief.
August 2025 – A $100 donation was sent to the Wesley foundations at the following college campuses: Alcorn State, Delta State, Ole Miss, Miss. State, and USM.
August 2025 – School supplies and uniforms in various sizes were delivered to the Crystal Springs Elementary School for children in need of additional resources.
August/September 2025 – CSMC collected new and gently used children’s clothing and other items for Born Free. This is a 17-bed ministry located in Raymond, Ms., that provides alcohol and drug treatment for pregnant women and women with children. The organization allows women to bring their infant and two children up to age 4 into treatment so they are encouraged towards sobriety. $826 was given to sponsor the next mother waiting for treatment.
September 15, 2025 – Baked with Love ministry volunteers met for the 3rd time in the past year and made 19 casseroles for those needing encouragement and support in our community and beyond.
*Special thanks to the 22 volunteers in our church who answered the call to serve at the SOS Food Pantry this past year. I hope you were encouraged by seeing the gospel in action in our community and enjoyed working with other fellow believers from area churches.
COMMUNION OFFERINGS FOR MISSIONS:
October 2024 - $4,158 split between Faith Responders (Global UMC) and UMCOR for
Disaster Recovery in North Carolina due to Hurricane Helene
November 2024 - $816 Casserole ministry
December 24, 2024 - Christmas Eve Offering - $3,403 for the Pastor’s Discretionary Fund
January 2025 – Special offering given to the Gideons for distribution of Bibles
February 2025 - $601 to local Global UMC churches to support those affected by California
wildfires
March 2025 - $1,716.60 – Marines Youth Program
April/May 2025 – Maundy Thursday Offering – $500 given to Mother’s Milk Bank in Jackson
to help facilitate donated breast milk for premature and ill infants whose
mothers are unable to provide life-sustaining milk to their babies due to
illness or health condition
June 2025 - $647 for Vacation Bible School expenses
July 2025 - $1,946 for Texas Flood Disaster Recovery/Relief to the Mid-Texas Conference
August 2025 - $603 for school supplies and for clothing items for children in need at
CS Elementary School
September 2025 - $826 to sponsor a woman for a 90-day substance use recovery program
who cannot afford the fee at Born Free ministry
ADDITIONAL GIVING IN 2024-2025…
$500 Junior Auxiliary of Crystal Springs
$400 SOS Food Pantry
$400 Camp Wesley Pines; $1,800 to pay the salary of one summer counselor
$500 Camp Kamassa
$100 to each of the Wesley Foundations at Alcorn State, Delta State, Ole Miss, Ms. State, and
USM
$200 to the Methodist Children’s Home for back-to-school supplies/clothing
$1,400 split between providing to those in need at the holidays, contribution towards the Jasper
Branning Honorary Scholarship, the Tabernacle renovations, Marines, and VBS
The Pastor’s Discretionary Fund (PDF) was used over the past year to take care of the most sensitive needs in our community. These funds are meant to convey love and support of those in the direst of circumstances and to remind them of the loving arms of Christ through His provision. Examples of how these funds are used would be to help those struggling with health challenges, widows in need, or single mothers desperate to make ends meet.
*CSMC was honored to receive a Chester King Burnham Charitable Trust grant award of $10,000 to be used to further the kingdom through the investment in the children and youth in the Copiah County community. The Administrative Council members worked diligently on preparing a proposal for the grant. The money will be used to fund the Vacation Bible School and the Marines Youth ministries of CSMC.
In closing…remember, many of us will take a turn needing the generosity and support of our church family during times of difficulty. You may find yourself on the giving end or on the receiving end of that kindness. Thanks be to God for knowing our church family wraps its arms around the needs of the world, our nation, our state, our community, and each other. Over the past year, CSMC as a family have shown the love of Christ to those living with HIV/AIDs, babies in the NICU needing milk, the unclothed and shoeless, children needing educational supplies, residents in nursing homes, children overseas hearing the gospel for the first time, the hungry in our own community and throughout the world, orphans, camp ministries, teenagers, children and adults with disabilities, the grief stricken, retiree missionaries, college kids, those struck by disaster, pregnant mothers struggling with addiction, the poor and the sick. May the words of this letter rekindle a fire in your life to work towards ways to strengthen your faith and serve others in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Acts 20:35 says it best…”In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
In Christ,
Julie Johnson
Missions Coordinator
Crystal Springs Methodist Church