Stories
Keeping warm when it’s cold!
Thank you for your continued support with items that help to keep people warm.
As historic, bitterly cold weather enveloped much of North Texas, the need to help people keep warm became evident. Our supply of coats, blankets, hats and gloves diminished quickly. We communicated the need through our Facebook page, and very quickly, people responded – as our community always does – with much needed items to keep people warm.
We are always amazed and grateful for the support of this community for other people in need. We are so grateful for your support, but the need remains great.
As power remains out across our community, we are continuing to respond to people’s needs as best we can. We know that we will get through this, as we always do, but we are so grateful that we get to do it together.
You are making a difference here, and we are so grateful for you!
Warmth for the Cold
As historic, bitterly cold weather enveloped much of North Texas, the need to help people keep warm became evident. Our supply of coats, blankets, hats and gloves diminished quickly. We communicated the need through our Facebook page, and very quickly, people responded – as our community always does – with much needed items to keep people warm. We are always amazed and grateful for the support of this community for other people in need. We are so grateful for your support, but the need remains great.
Thank you for your continued support with items that help to keep people warm.
As power remains out across our community, we are continuing to respond to people’s needs as best we can. We know that we will get through this, as we always do, but we are so grateful that we get to do it together.
You are making a difference here, and we are so grateful for you!
A Year to Remember
Some say that this was “a year to forget,” and we understand the sentiment. It has been a hard year on so many fronts. At the same time, we experienced many blessings that we won’t soon forget:
We grew to love our community more deeply.
As need increased across the year, often in staggering ways, you came in to “lift the load” day-after-day. Lines of cars packed with donations rolled through non-stop, from open to close. The joy you so enthusiastically expressed when you gave filled us up as surely as it did the overflowing bins which received your gifts. This remained true – even when many of you gave despite the negative impact of the virus on your own family. You can see how touched from the April 2020 Facebook post below:
“You drop by all day long, as if you don’t have a care in the world. You say you just picked up “a little something extra” from the store, but your trunk is filled with food for people in need, as if money grows on trees. You say something new came in, and you are letting us have “this old thing,” and you think we don’t notice that what you’ve given is brand new. You never need anyone to know your name, and the moms and dads you’ve helped probably never will. We only see, but God knows, and we pray that you will be as richly blessed as you have blessed others. We are humbled and inspired by you, and so grateful to walk the journey with you in these days. Thank you for making a difference here.”
We grew personally and spiritually.
Adjustments happened as “social distancing” became the order of the day. We wore masks & gloves, took temperatures, and created protected, outdoor spaces to keep everyone safe. Along the way, we grew closer to each other, to people in need, and to you. We were extraordinarily blessed even on the longest of days. With Tillie’s leadership, we kept our sense of humor and found ways to smile as we served together. As the Pandemic worsened, affecting the health of people we knew, and simultaneously affecting the economic foundation of so many people’s lives, we knelt to pray more often than we had before. In this most personal of relationships, we found strength for our journey – for these days, of course, but also for the days ahead. We are grateful.
We saw increased ministry effectiveness.
Since we couldn’t gather in large groups, we had the opportunity to rethink, and to re-create some of our traditional ministry offerings. Our health clinics, for example, adjusted to serving people differently, so that everyone could socially distance and stay safe, yet still receive treatment. Since we couldn’t gather for our annual Easter egg hunt, we put the eggs together with food baskets and made home deliveries to more children than ever before. For our Fall Festival and Thanksgiving Day ministries, we moved everything outside, and found those who gave and those who received liked it better. In December, we were able to create a space for a second, fully operating Christmas Store, operating in parallel to each other. The second store provided for better distancing and decreased the wait time of each guest. We can see keeping many of the changes made this year many years into the future. We are thankful too that – by God’s Grace – we were able to keep our doors open every day of 2020.
We are grateful for you!
With the apostle Paul, we “thank God every time we remember you,” (Philippians 1:8), and we never want to forget what He has done in and through us this past year. We are grateful for you. We know that there is still a long road ahead. We are so grateful we get to walk it with you.
Young Hearts that Give
Ordinary People Making Extraordinary Differences
Everyone knows that the need is great in our day, because of COVID-19’s affect on our economy, and a variety of other factors. At the same time, we are seeing generosity from people in extraordinary and beautiful ways. Day after day, people give what they have to make a difference here, and it is impacting the lives of ordinary people experiencing a moment of need.
A Special Birthday Party
Instead of receiving birthday presents on her 13th birthday, Natalie hosted a birthday parade, asking people to collect canned food for people in need. Natalie stood on her front lawn as car after car drove by, honking, waving, and dropping off the food. Natalie and her family brought the food to Mission Arlington® yesterday, and presented it to Ms. Tillie.
We are Grateful for You
What an extraordinary young person. What a beautiful community. Thank you for the way each of you give, so that another life will be ok. We are grateful for you.
More Illustrations of our Generous Community
Tillie Burgin, our Executive Director, often says, “God gives. You give, and we give it away.” Want to see more examples? Click the following links:
Generous Gifts from Young Hearts
Ordinary People Making Extraordinary Differences
Everyone knows that the need is great in our day, because of COVID-19’s affect on our economy, and a variety of other factors. At the same time, we are seeing generosity from people in extraordinary and beautiful ways. Day after day, people give what they have to make a difference here, and it is impacting the lives of ordinary people experiencing a moment of need.
A Special Birthday Party
Instead of receiving birthday presents on her 13th birthday, Natalie hosted a birthday parade, asking people to collect canned food for people in need. Natalie stood on her front lawn as car after car drove by, honking, waving, and dropping off the food. Natalie and her family brought the food to Mission Arlington® yesterday, and presented it to Ms. Tillie.
We are Grateful for You
What an extraordinary young person. What a beautiful community. Thank you for the way each of you give, so that another life will be ok. We are grateful for you.
More Illustrations of our Generous Community
Tillie Burgin, our Executive Director, often says, “God gives. You give, and we give it away.” Want to see more examples? Click the following links:
A Season for Giving Thanks
Because you gave, 6,019 families (24,559 people) received help on Thanksgiving Day.
Because you gave, 6,019 families (24,559 people) received help on Thanksgiving Day.
So much to be thankful for
In a year like this one, it is sometimes easier to focus on the struggles and difficulties our nation and community are walking through. We hear news about increasing food insecurity, loss of jobs, and rising stress levels all around – nationally and locally. Certainly, the task of Thanksgiving seemed daunting this year. We knew that the need would be as great as ever, and we also knew that fewer volunteers would be able to help. We had concerns too about having enough food for all the need. As we look back – now a few days after Thanksgiving – we have so much to be thankful for. As he always does, God provided, and you stepped up and into the need. Wow.
Gifts of turkeys and Thanksgiving food
Day by day, you drove by, your trunk filled with food. After long days, or a long week at work, you made the time to stop by the store to pick up extra Thanksgiving items, just so someone else could be ok. Some of you live close to our drop off point in downtown Arlington, but many of you drove across the Metroplex, just to make sure you were helping to “lift the load” of hard-working moms and dads in a moment of need. Instead of one turkey this year, many of you brought by 2 or 4, or a trunk load. One man dropped by late one night with a truck load of turkeys. He had tears streaming down his face, because he was so grateful that he could give. By the end of Thanksgiving Day, we had just enough turkeys and Thanksgiving meals to meet the need.
Gifts of Presence, Time, and Effort
In a year when volunteerism is down across the country, and understandably so, thousands of volunteers still came out to help us make these deliveries to people’s homes. Through the last several years, we’ve averaged 6,000 volunteers on Thanksgiving Day. For the sake of social distancing, we decided not to register the volunteers this year, so we don’t know exactly how many came, just that the number of people were less than in previous years. Spontaneously and beautifully, these volunteers began to make more deliveries. Instead of the 2-3 deliveries teams typically make each year, volunteers offered more of their time to deliver to 6-8 families. When they finished, they would come back again for more. Generous, faithful, hard-working people delivered all of the food in short order.
Grateful for this Community
The Mission Arlington® family is simply a reflection of our community. When you give, we give it away. We refer to ourselves often as twice-blessed, because we are so blessed to receive what you give, and then blessed again to give it away to people in need.
All Glory to God
We want to publicly express our gratitude to God for the privilege we have of serving with you, and in working with the extraordinary people who come through our front doors for help every day. Mission Arlington® belongs to God and always has. Despite the circumstances of these days, we have so much to be thankful for.
The 2020 Fall Festival was so much fun!
Year After Year
The FALL FESTIVAL has been a long-standing event at Mission Arlington®, and it has been so much fun to host each year. It started years ago as a way of providing family-friendly events during the Halloween season, and it just grew into what it has become today. This year, even during a year of a full scale pandemic, we still had 1,243 children (with families) attend this event.
Family Friendly Fun
Bouncy houses, carnival games, hay rides and freshly cooked food form the basis of the experience, but the heart of the event is for our community’s families to receive personal care while they build memories for themselves in a safe, fun, and memorable setting. Year after year, this event seems to do just that.
Free of Charge
One thing we are especially proud of is that this event is “Free of Charge,” as everything is which Mission Arlington® provides. Tickets aren’t required to get in. There isn’t any charge for the food which we cook fresh on site that morning. The games and rides are free, and the kids receive big bags of great prizes with each carnival booth, and then also a bag of delicious candy before they leave. We are so grateful also to provide free transportation from many locations across our community, so that they can experience this event.
Because of You
We are so grateful for the community support which makes all of this possible. So many individuals, families, civic groups, schools, and business teams purchased, collected, and delivered candy to us, so that we could give it away. We hope you know how much that simple act meant to the children and their parents. Others took the candy and spent dedicated time from home placing the candy into bags. Still others gave up their Saturday to volunteer, to unload boxes of food, to cook hotdogs, to stand at bouncy houses, pick up trash, help people feel welcome. It was a beautiful site to see, and we can’t express our gratefulness enough. Thank you.
A Different Kind of Festival
This year’s festival was COVID-19 adjusted. We moved every part of the festival outside this year, creating wide open spaces between events. Every adult and every child (except the very young ones) wore masks, and no one seemed to mind. We took temperatures of every participant before they got on a bus with us, and limited space on buses and every event at the festival (from bouncy houses to hay rides) so that everyone could properly socially distance. Typically this event draws about 2,500 children, so we know that attendance was down this year, but we are still glad we were able to host it. Families who needed to stay home this year could do so (and anticipate next year), and those who just needed/wanted to get out could do so safely.
We are so very grateful for the privilege we have of “sharing God’s love” with families across our community, day by day, year after year. We love so much the privilege of doing it together. Please come by when you can. Keep praying, and together we can make a difference – one life, one family at a time.
“Denture Day” at the Saxe Clinic
The Allan Saxe Dental Clinic is in full operation.
Dentists, hygienists, and so many other talented volunteers, have been dedicating their time and expertise to “lift the load,” even during these difficult days of 2020. Because of these dedicated & talented volunteers, the clinic treated 1,600+ patients, (3,500 office visits), accomplishing more than $1.1 million worth of dental care in 2019.
We were able to provide a wide range of dental services for people in need, including patients from every age group (children, youth, adults). One need long evident in our community has been the need for dentures. This past month, on Saturday, September 26th, we had “denture day” at the Saxe Clinic, and what a great day it was!
Denture Day at the Saxe Clinic
So many people came together on “Denture day.” Three (3) Baylor Dental students were present, assisting our volunteer dentists. Four (4) pre-dental students from the University of Texas at Dallas joined-in to provide support. Several dental assistants were in the clinic on that day, after they had already spent a full week at work.
The dentist who was there to work on dentures has been serving with us once a month, every month since 2005. Wow! Because everyone came together like this, we were able to provide denture care for so many people on that day. What a blessing!
Need for Dentists, Hygienists, and other Volunteers
The need continues to be great. Every dentist, hygienist, and/or other volunteers who help, make a huge difference in our ability to support our community. If you are interested in serving, give Jean a call on her cell phone, or call Debbie at 817-704-6141. You can be a blessing to someone in need, and find blessing in return.
Thanks to everyone for your constant support of our work here. We are grateful for you!
Shine the Light
Shining their Light
This past April, right at the start of the global pandemic, Mission Arlington® / Mission Metroplex® received a gift of $2,500 from “Be the Light” Youth Association, located in the DFW community. “Be the Light” is led by over 30 students from the North Texas area.
This creative and energetic team of young people teach speech and debate classes to 4th-9th graders in the community, and then donate 100% of the proceeds to nonprofits that support disadvantaged families and children in the region. Mission Arlington® / Mission Metroplex® was honored to be a recipient of this gift.
Seeing Increased Need
Because of the pandemic and its affect on families, Mission Arlington / Mission Metroplex has provided food to more than 48 thousand families (171,822 people) in the first six months of this year. This represents a 364 percent increase over this time last year, and there are no signs that the need is slowing down.
Making a Difference
Our administrative overhead continues to be a very low 1.7 percent. This means that more than 98 cents of every dollar donated here provides direct care to people in need. The gift of $2,500 from “Be the Light” made an authentic difference in the lives of real people in need. Wow!
We are thankful for the heart of this beautiful team, and for everyone who makes a difference here.
Abby “On Mission for Life”
Abby first came to Mission Arlington with her Kansas youth group twice when she was younger. She had been working in small ministries back home. After a missionary talked at her church, she was sure God was calling her to go and do more for him.
About the time Abby was trying to figure out where to go, “memories” started popping up on her social media of her time in Arlington while friends were also posting pictures of Arlington. So she said “Ok, God. I’ll look into it.”
Summer of 2020 became the moment that doors opened for Abby to spend a few months here. She helped in our food pantry and at two Bible Study locations, in Arlington and Grand Prairie. Abby valued the connection she made with people, and she loved sharing her faith.
Abby returned home in August to finish her high school senior year. Her original plan was to be a park ranger and work in the mountains, but now she feels like she will be “on mission” for life.
Abby says, “Everybody is different but they all have that same need of Christ. It’s really cool to be a part of that.” We thank the Lord for sending Abby. She made a difference here, and we look forward to seeing how she will serve the Lord in the days, months, and years ahead.
