We tend to be a forward looking group of people, always thinking about what’s in front of us, or “what’s next.” At the same time, we appreciate the opportunity each year to look back at what the Lord has done, and to glorify Him for what he has done here.  Your faithful and generous support of our work has been a big part of the footprint for this past year.  We are truly grateful.

With the reporting of each individual event through the year, it is often easy to miss the big picture.  We believe, therefore, that it is important for us to communicate the big picture as clearly as possible.  Here are a few of the highlights.

Twenty (20) New Bible Studies started
Mission Arlington® has started and sponsored 329 Bible studies across our community for some time.  This year, the Lord helped us to push outward, starting twenty new Bible studies & congregations.  At the end of 2014, the total number of congregations supported by the mission is 349.  On Easter Sunday last year, 13,000 people attended one of those congregations.

Medical Ministries Continue to Grow
The number of professional volunteers who support our dental and medical clinics is such a blessing. This past year, our dental clinic treated 1,434 patients who were treated in the clinic 4,961 times. The clinic performed 1.4+ million dollars worth of free dental care. The medical clinic treated 8,591 patients and provided 1.3+ million dollars worth of free health care and more than 729 thousand dollars worth of free prescriptions. Diabetes was the number one concern treated, followed closely by hypertension.  This year was the first year of the new diabetes education and prevention programs installed in partnership with UTA. The goal is to help people discover ways that they can prevent diabetes in their own life.

Emergency Assistance Stabilizes Some
Mission Arlington’s “front room” is our first line of defense for helping people in need. Working people, in a moment of crisis due to a job loss, a health crisis, or an unexpected, broken relationship brings them to our front doors.  This year, Mission Arlington® provided assistance to 42,739 families, representing 152,344 people.  Obviously, this is still a huge number, but it represents a slight drop in need over last year, hopefully an indication that people’s lives are doing a little bit better. We are truly grateful.

Rainbow Express® Continues to Expand
Rainbow Express® is Mission Arlington®’s version of a back-yard Bible club. Crafts, snacks, music, games, crafts, and Bible stories form the fun.  In 2014, we hosted Rainbow Express in 492 locations. 39,638 children and youth attended at least one of these fun-filled, Bible-centered events.  That’s a lot of children, and we were so blessed.

Volunteer Teams Continue to Lend Support at Mission Arlington®
Schools, civic clubs, churches, businesses, individuals, families, and other non profit groups all sent people here to volunteer with us in 2014.  Altogether, nearly 1,500 teams (1,492) came to support our work in the community.  This represents nearly 42,000 people (41,859).   We hope and pray that, as a faith-based organization, we will always be Spirit-led.  At the same time, we are also volunteer driven.  On average, 2,500 volunteers each week help Mission Arlington accomplish its goals. 

Administrative Costs Continue to be Low
Mission Arlington® is governed by the Lord, under the supervision of a Board of Directors. The organization is audited annually by a well-respected, local team of auditors, and we also voluntarily partner with various charity watch organizations.  Our administrative overhead for 2013 was 3 percent. This means that 97 cents of every dollar given goes directly in ministry to people in need.  We will report our 2014 numbers as soon as our audit is completed once again in early 2015.

New Prayer Initiative Began in 2014
Mission Arlington®, we have said continuously, runs on the prayers of the people. In 2014, we began asking people to join us in prayer, no matter where they are, at 10:00 a.m. every morning.  This effort began in one of our mission congregations, and has now spread mission-wide.  The Mission Arlington® family covets your prayers for us, and for our work here.  If you haven’t joined in on this beautiful effort, we invite you to begin this year.

Furniture Ministry Continues to Grow
Our furniture ministry is a big part of what we do. Our community continues to give so generously from what they have.  Beds, couches, kitchen tables and chairs, dressers, refrigerators, washers & dryers, and so much more, come into our place every day.  One of our great privileges is to receive what you give, then turn right around and give it away. Mission Arlington® always gives, and never sells any thing we receive.  In 2014 we gave furniture to 10,417 people. 

Holiday Ministries Continue to Bless Thousands of People
In 2014, Mission Arlington® delivered Thanksgiving food to 5,743 families (23,404 people).  You gave the turkeys and the Thanksgiving food.  Six thousand of you showed up to help us deliver that food.  We enjoyed the amazing privilege of being the ones in the middle.  Christmas was a special time as well. Through our “adopt a family,” “angel tree,” programs, and our Christmas Store, 7,522 families (32,246 children) received Christmas gifts.  Because of your generosity, we were also able to give away 4,000 bikes.

Ministries with Children and Youth Stay Strong
Many people know that we help with emergency assistance at our main campus, but not everyone knows how much happens here to support the children and youth in our community. For example, 4,182 children (with their parents) came to our giant Easter Egg hunt last Spring.  Mission Arlington® hosted 7 summer camps for young children through older youth. 1,162 children and youth attended these free camps.  One of the most exciting new ventures we began in 2014 was a wrestling league.  Every Tuesday and Thursday nights, wrestling coaches teach young boys to wrestle, while teaching them God’s word.  Dozens of young students participated in this free wrestling league.  It is beautiful to watch God use these ministries with young people.

And So Much More!
So much more happened here this year than we can put into one blog post like this.  Please take a look at our 2014 Annual Report to get an overview of the year.  Or, you can take a look at the reports from the past decade if you like. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions, or if there is any way that we can be supportive to you.

We are grateful to you for all your help this past year.  We are grateful for the privilege we have of walking together through 2015. You make a difference here. Thank you.

To God be the glory!