Mission Arlington | Mission Metroplex

Stories

Easter Draws Near

Easter Sunday

Christians world-wide remember and celebrate the resurrection of Christ from the dead every Easter, which happens this year on Sunday, March 31st.  Mission Arlington® sponsors & supports Bible studies & congregations in more than 350 locations across our community.  On Easter Sunday, these congregations will gather in apartment community club houses, neighborhood homes, and a few church facilities to worship a risen Lord.  This is a sweet and special time for all Christians, but especially for us here at the Mission.  If you want to know more about attending one of our Bible studies, contact us here.

There are a couple of ministries which we sponsor during the Easter season that are both engaging and fun.

Maundy Thursday Youth Service

On Thursday evening, March 28th, at 7:00 p.m. youth from Mission Arlington’s Bible studies and congregations will gather in central Arlington to worship the Lord and to study His word.  Mission Arlington’s Bible study leaders & teachers will join with these students as they worship.  Mission Arlington® provides a large quantity of pizza, and the students join with their Bible study leaders after the service for conversation about what they heard and learned.

“World’s Largest” Easter Egg Hunt

With over 100,000 plastic eggs, filled with candy, this event is affectionately called the “World’s Largest” Easter Egg Hunt.  The event is from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and it is both free and open to the public.  Mission Arlington® provides free food, a huge area for carnival games, bouncy houses, and of course, a giant Easter egg hunt.  This is truly a fun event for the whole family.

For More Information

If you would like more information about worshipping with a Mission Arlington® congregation on Easter, or any other Sunday, please contact us by calling our main number:  817-277-6620, or by emailing us through our contact form, linked here.  If you would like to know more information about these events, or if you would like to volunteer at the Easter egg hunt, please make contact through the same number and enclosed link.

Your Prayers

Please keep us, and these ministry events in your prayers as we draw near to Easter. Thank you so much.

A Glance Back: 2023 Ministry Results.

A young boy delivers Thanksgiving food on 2023. It is so much fun to serve at Mission Arlington.

Accountability and transparency are important to us, and we work at it in multiple ways.  One way we do that is to publish our ministry results at the end of each year.

On our website, for example, you can actually review our posted ministry results from the last 21 years, all the way back to 2003.

To discover a printable listing in one place for 2023 results, click here.

Instead of writing a separate post about each ministry experience from 2023, we thought we would highlight some of the accomplishments from last year in the graph below.

 Ministry Basic Information  Time Frame # Helped
 * After School  Average of 1,626 students/week for 26 weeks. 3,252 students attended at least once.  Spring & Fall  42,276
 * Bible studies & Congregations  360 locations. On average, 3,800 attend weekly. Year-round  7,600
 * Camps  We hosted six (6) camps (two K-3rd; two 4th-6th; and 2 youth) Summer  1,025
 * Carnivals  20 carnivals (bouncy houses, soccer cage, snow-cone, popcorn, etc.) Year-round  1,000
 * Christmas  7,551 families represented; 1,032 spiritual decisions; Over 4,000 bikes. Christmas  30,752
 * Dental Clinic 33 dentists treated 1,407 patients 3,474 times.  Year-round  3,474
 * Easter Egg Hunt 100,000 Easter eggs Spring  3,330
 * Emergency Assistance 56,584 families Year-Round  195,972
 * Fall Festival Family-friendly outdoor fun the Saturday before Halloween Fall  1,155
 * Fun Days A Saturday morning for kids to be active and play together Spring  300
 * Furniture Delivery  6,234 families received furniture  Year-round  22,579
 * Groups 1,429 groups of all kinds – families, schools, civic groups, churches, and companies Year-round 26,254
 * Medical Clinic 4,203 individual patients in 10 disciplines by 30 health care professionals Year-round  12,601
 * Rainbow Express In 292 locations. 326 salvations Spring & Summer  17,846
 * School supplies For Arlington ISD Students Summer  9,000
 * Summer Missionaries From five (5) different states Summer  13
 * Thanksgiving 4,668 volunteers / 6,953 families helped Thanksgiving Day  28,099
 * Transportation 150 people Year-round  4,000
 * Volunteers Year-round  7,049
 * Youth Rallies Maundy Thursday: 261 / Back to School: 166 Spring & Fall  427
 * Spiritual Decisions 763 salvations / 678 rededications Year-round   1,441
 * Total Helped  416,193

Thank you so much for your constant support of the ministry here.  We thank God for you!

Volunteers Make a Difference

Individuals and volunteer teams of all kinds made a difference here in 2023. We are so grateful for each and every one of you who gave your time and energy to make a difference in the lives of people in our community.  Thank you so much.

Volunteers are important to the Mission Arlington® family for a number of reasons:
  1. We love and enjoy people generally, so it is always fun when you drop by.  You bring such energy and positive spirits when you come;
  2. There is always more to do here than our small staff can do, so having you here “lifts the load” in a multitude of ways. It takes about 2,500 volunteers each week to do what we do;
  3. We have also observed the biblical truth that “It is more blessed to give than to receive” play out in the lives of our volunteers over and over again. Notice the smile of the young lady pictured above who came to work with children.  We see smiles like that here every day;
  4. Finally, the presence and ministry of volunteers like you provides authentic help to people in need. Notice the smile of the young girl being cared for above. We see smiles like that here day after day.

Helpful Information about Volunteering with Mission Arlington®
  1. We work with your schedule – Officially, volunteer hours are from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, but we will work with your schedule, so that you can serve here in a time frame that works best for you;
  2. We are “kid friendly – We have volunteer opportunities for people of all ages, whether young or old.  We love having children here on the campus with us, because they can provide a valuable contribution. They also keep us young.  Bring your children with you when you come. We’ll put them to work; 
  3. We remove the hassle – If you are bringing a group of five or more, it helps for you to let us know you are coming. That way, we will have a plan in place for you the moment your team arrives. Otherwise, you don’t need an appointment at all.  There is always work which needs to be accomplished here, so you can just show up, and we will get you to work immediately.  Unless you are needing us to “count your hours” in some way, we also do not have required paperwork, or an extended application process.  We try to make it as easy as possible for you to get started doing what you came here to do; 
  4. You can use your gifts – We will do our best to use your gifts as you serve with us.  If you want to work with people, children and/or youth, we will place you accordingly.  If administration and paperwork is your gift, we have a place for you. If you have gifts in the construction industry, we always have something you can help with.  Or if you just want to help, and you don’t mind serving where you are most needed, we can get you going too; 
  5. We will “count your hours.  If you are needing us to count your hours for any reason, please bring any paperwork required by the group who these hours are for, and we will document your volunteer time, and sign the paperwork you need. Please check in with our Volunteer Office before you volunteer, so that we can document your time properly.
  6. You can bring your group – Bring your friends, family, office staff, co-workers, or people from any group to which you belong (civic clubs, churches, schools, businesses, etc.) Teams of people work with us here nearly every day.

We look forward to serving with you in this new year!  Hope to see you soon.

The Mission Arlington Difference


If you are new to our community, you might not know much about us. Or, perhaps you’ve intersected with us at some point, like dropping off donations, but didn’t realize that we had a whole range of services. Sometimes, it is hard to explain the work which happens here to others in a concise way.

We are basically a group of people who love the Lord and want to share God’s love and to meet needs in our community in any way that we possibly can.  We’ve written these distinctives as a brief way to describe the distinctiveness of who we are and what we do.  We hope this is supportive to you, and we also hope you always know how much your support means to us, and to the work here.  Join us, won’t you?

Here are some of the distinctives of Mission Arlington®
  1. Mission Arlington® is faith-based. People matter to God and to us.
  2. We are open 364 days a year, closed only on Christmas Day. Emergency services are open 6-days a week.
  3. We have longevity. We are in our 38th-year of serving this community.
  4. Our administrative overhead is low – at 1.47 percent. More than 98.5% of every dollar you give ministers directly to people in need.
  5. We are accountable. In addition to a local & respected board, we are audited each year. We partner with multiple charity watchdogs, in good standing with all.
  6. We are holistic, caring for the physical, spiritual, emotional & educational needs of people – a kind of one-stop shop to help.
  7. We are truly grateful – aware that provisions come from the Lord through a generous community.

We are so grateful for your constant support!

“Brush Your Teeth.” Dental Health & Help for Students

Importance of Oral Health for Students

According to a CDC report, the number of children through age 17 who receive regular dental care has been on the decline for the past few years. The National Library of Medicine reports that “oral health is one of the most unmet needs of adolescents.”  They also point out that unmet oral health needs can lead to serious problems for those under 18, including “pain, missed school, heart disease, and even death.” There are many reasons that teens don’t get good oral care, and one of them is cost.  We are so pleased to be able to provide these healthcare services free of charge, and it does make a difference.


On Saturday, August 19th, eight (8) volunteer dentists working through the Allan Saxe Dental Clinic was able to provide dental (oral health) care for   twenty-one (21) patients underneath the age of eighteen .  We were so honored and blessed to help.


Historic Partnerships

Since at least 2005, United Concordia Dental & the Texas Rangers have been partnering with Mission Arlington® to care for the oral health needs of youth.  We can do so much more together than any of us can on our own, and these beautiful partners have proved that time and time again.  It was so much fun to watch Texas Rangers Alumni pitchers Jovani Gallardo (#49) and Jose Guzman (#23) autograph baseballs for the young people.  The smiles and the laughter of these children & youth lit up the room, as these two professional ballplayers took pictures, signed autographs, and personally invested in each student, and the student’s family, who came through.

Quality, Dedicated Medical Professionals

On this particular day. August 19th, eight (8) dentists gave their Saturday morning – when they could have been doing almost anything else – to use their personal gifts and medical skills to make a difference in the lives of children.  Other medical professionals volunteered that morning as well, and it was so much fun to watch.

We are grateful for you!

Mission Arlington has been serving families in need throughout our community for 37 years.  We can be here, by God’s grace, because of the faithful support of a generous community who makes what we do possible.  You provide the food, the clothes, the household items, and the furniture, day-by-day, all year long.   We are so truly grateful.

Come see us when you can!

Jade

Meet Jade! Jade, a college student at Southern Miss, spent her summer serving as a summer missionary here at Mission Arlington. Jade heard about Mission Arlington through the Baptist Student Union at her college.

“The reason I came is because I told the Lord that my summers were for Him,” Jade said. “I wanted to take two months out of the year to solely focus on God by serving him and his people.”

When Jade arrived at Mission Arlington, she did not know what her work at Mission Arlington would hold.  Jade said, she grew in reliance on God and daily learned to release each day to God’s will. Amidst the unknown, every day guaranteed new opportunities to serve and love God’s people.

While at Mission Arlington, Jade taught bible studies and served in the free store where those in need came to shop for their families.

“Seeing him meet people’s needs is really amazing,” Jade said.

Jade said, she grew in leadership and prayed for God to guide each step and decision. While at her apartment bible study, Jade developed relationships with the children and began teaching them. After much prayer, Jade and a fellow missionary decided to walk through the book of John with the kids. In chapter 8, Jesus said,

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness.”

Jade said the day they read this verse at bible study two children raised their hands and said they wanted to know The Light. That day, they accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. Since then, the children started bringing their Bibles and growing in Christ.

“Some days I would struggle and I would say, God where are you?” Jade said. “But this summer I have seen that he is here and he does provide.”

Jade said as challenging as it was at times, it is all worth it to see people coming to know Jesus.

Jade who plans to study biblical counseling, has grown in patience with others and practiced understanding where each person is coming from. Jade said her capacity to love and show compassion has grown this summer. She has a new perspective and has personally seen God moving in her life and the lives of those around her.

“Mission Arlington is my new family,” Jade said. “I’ll be back soon.”

Mission Arlington Turns 37

Happy Birthday, Mission Arlington

Mission Arlington® began 37-years-ago today.  Launched by God through First Baptist Church Arlington, and led by Tillie Burgin from the beginning, Mission Arlington® began on Friday, August 1st, 1986. Tillie and her family had served for over a decade in South Korea.  When they returned home in 1978, the persistent question in her heart was, “If you can do missions in Korea, why can’t we do it in Arlington?  For seven years, Tillie, and a small, but strong group of laypeople prayed in homes all across the city, asking the Lord to show them what to do. In August of 1986, God launched.

Out of one family’s need to have a bill paid, the first apartment ministry began. On the first Sunday morning, at 11:00 a.m., seventeen (17) people gathered to study God’s word in an apartment.  Soon, one outreach Bible study turned to six, and hundreds of people were attending.  Today, Mission Arlington hosts Bible studies and congregations in more than 360 locations each week.  We love “taking church to the people.”

In those days, we discovered anew that people were struggling with a variety of needs.  The Lord began to allow us to meet those needs “one life at a time.”  Food, clothes, household items, furniture, and emergency financial assistance became part of what the Lord provided every day.  Health clinics (medical, dental, and counseling) grew to meet the physical and emotional needs too.  Today, over 600 people a day come through our front doors for help.  Every life matters to God, and also to us.

Through the years, we have grown to be supported by a vast array of congregations in our community and across denominational lines.  We have been so blessed by individuals, families, and so many teams of people in our community who also “put their shoulder to the wheel” to make a difference in the lives of people in need. We are extraordinarily grateful too for all this support.

We want to express our gratitude to each of you for your support through all these years.  Thank you so much.

Extra Care in the Summers

Taking Extra Care

In the thick of an intense Texas summer, you don’t have to be a native Texan to know that extra care is needed to stay safe & cool.  Where possible, we check the freon levels in our home and business air conditioner units.  We prepare for higher utility bills with our students at home and the temperatures on the rise. We drag our summer wardrobes out of the closets, and we use high end sunscreen if we have to be out and about.

Summer Ministry Broadens its Reach

At Mission Arlington®, Summertime calls for extra care of people as well. With schools out, there are adjustments in the availability of food and other resources for people in need.  As the heat rises, so do the electricity bills.  With the kids home for the summer, and with parents needing to work, schedules have to be adjusted, and families are looking for safe, productive things that kids can be involved in.

During the summer, our front room fills to the brim, with the extra need families have for food, utilities, and other resources.  As you can see from the picture for this article, one thing we also get to do during the summer is to take extra food out to where people live.  The young girl pictured here got to participate in this food giveaway, along with so many of her neighbors.  During the summer months, we host summer programs in apartment complexes and neighborhoods across our community, with creative and fun ways to engage the young people, while also sharing God’s love in authentic, wholesome ways. We host summer camps, back to school events, Rainbow Express, and so much more.

Extra Care Provided Here First

We can provide this extra care, because you provided it here first.  We have clothes to give away, funds for bills, food for hungry families, all because you constantly and so generously provide.  Day after day, individuals and groups of people find their way to us, with gifts of love for people in need.  When the summer surge does happen, we are ready, because you constantly stand with us.

We are so Grateful.

We are truly, humbly grateful for you.  We are able to stand on the front lines of care, because you first provided the resources here.  We want to say “Thank you” in as many ways as we possibly can, because it’s right, but also because we hear it from people constantly – who receive what you provide.  That care multiplies out too, because when you care for others, and they get better, they too begin to demonstrate care for others as it was provided to them. And on it goes.

Yet, we are now and always be most thankful to God for His great love, and for the joy we have serving Him in this wonderful community.  We hope that your Summer is going well.

 Come see us! 

“Can you hear me now?”

Patient receiving a hearing aid, free of charge, through the ministry of Mission Arlington’s Medical Clinic, and our partners and friends.

What would it be like to experience hearing loss, but not have the means to get help?

In partnership with our Medical Clinic, and “Hearing the Call,” audiologists, ENT doctors, and other helping professionals screened hearing-impaired adults in our community during the month of April.


Fifty-Five (55) people were able to receive hearing aids.


It was such a blessing to watch people receive the help they needed to begin hearing again.

We are so appreciative of the many health professionals who volunteer in our Medical Clinic to provide assistance to people experiencing health concerns.

The Medical Clinic team experienced over 11,000 office visits in 2022. What a blessing it is to be able to serve our community together.

We are so grateful for you, and for the constant support of this community.

More than 3,000 enjoy the Egg Hunt.

The Saturday before Easter, April 8th, was such a beautiful day for an Easter Egg Hunt.  Three thousand, three hundred thirty (3,330) children came with their families to enjoy the fun.

What a great day!

Mission Arlington® Bible study leaders arrive early to get in buses, so that they can pick up children all over town to bring them to the egg hunt.  Families from across our community found their way to this FREE & FUN way to spend time with the kids, grandkids, neices & nephews.  Families were laughing, walking & talking, enjoying the free food, and yes, the giant Easter Egg Hunt (with over 120,000 eggs prepared). It was truly a wonderful day!

How did it work?

Teams of people arrived early last Saturday morning to begin cooking over 4,000 hotdogs.  Stop 1: Everyone who attended was treated to the “Easter Story.”  The second stop was lunch, with hotdogs, chips, drinks, and other snacks, all free of charge. Station #3 was a row of bouncy houses, which children of all ages seemed to enjoy.  The final stop of the day was the giant Easter Egg hunt.  Volunteers placed brightly colored eggs, filled with candy onto six lanes of open land.  Eggs were everywhere, and the children could pick up the eggs to their hearts delight.  As people exited for the day, they were treated to one more stop – a firetruck, which the children thoroughly enjoyed. It was a special day.

We are Grateful for You

We love what we get to do every day, and big events like this are so much fun to do.  We can do a larger event like this, because you make it possible. Our community donates the eggs, the candy, and then shows up in big numbers to volunteer for the day.  We are truly so grateful for you.

ECFAinstagram

Translate »