Volunteers Enjoy Getting Ready for the Jackson Home "Big Reveal"

Our hearts are full from all the amazing miracles we saw happen this past month, especially when we remember all the volunteers who gave time and resources to make the move into the Jackson House a beautiful experience. A special thanks goes out to the Friends in the Foxhole Bible Study, Shades Mountain Baptist Church Bruce/Autrey/Hagen Class, and Signature Homes for pitching in with their whole hearts, creativity and resourcefulness– glorifying God the whole time! The Jackson family was overwhelmed, and your willing hands and prayers on their behalf have altered the course of their lives for generations to come.

Volunteers from Shades Mountain Baptist Church 

Tracy was so happy to bless the Jackson family with a new house! 

CSM Celebrates Mothers

Some things at CSM are all heart. In this ministry, we can’t escape the importance of elevating and resourcing mothers. So many women are single moms, have raised their grandchildren, have had to juggle working full-time with child-care, not to mention they have most likely functioned as the family cook. On Mother’s Day weekend, we always celebrate the ones who have poured their lives into their families and often into the lives of other women.

In partnership with kind and generous people of South Highland Presbyterian Church, we invited our partner women’s ministries to come and enjoy a beautiful luncheon in their honor, catered by The Fish House Restaurant. Some of the women in attendance are in the process of rebuilding their lives, some are finding a way to protect their children and/or themselves from abuse, and some are elderly women who deserve great honor for a lifetime of love for their children and grandchildren. Some in attendance were the precious ministry leaders who give their lives away on behalf of these women. Our spirits were lifted in worship by the musical brilliance of Al and Passion Lewis, and we were all encouraged to honor our own mothers throughout their life in a poignant address by Sandra Hardy. A special thanks to Deborah Foster for being our delightful MC for the event, to Debbie Perkins for managing the on-site details, and to all the volunteers who came to prepare, serve and clean. We ♥ Moms!

Volunteers setting the tables

Jamie Barnhart and Rhonda Marshall ready to greet the guests

Here they come!

Welcome and name tags for all

Deborah Foster shared her MC skills with us all

Deborah enjoying lunch with her daughter

Al and Passion Lewis got everyone on their feet!

Sandra Hardy from Urban Hope shared from
her heart as a Mom and daughter

All the guests moved around the room to find answers for a crowd-breaker

Roses on the ready for all moms in attendance

 CSM intern Morgan Rhodes happy to send the
guests home with a rose after pouring her heart into
coordinating this event for the past few months. 

One of our beautiful moms

Not By The Numbers— By The Heart!

Ernst & Young Emerging Leaders

Ernst & Young recently came to CSM with their Emerging Leaders Program to volunteer as expression of EY’s mission of “building a better world” and for an interactive learning experience and exposure to service opportunities in Birmingham. They divided into two groups— one went with Michael and our summer intern, Marissa, to clean inside and outside our Ensley ministry house, while the other group made light work of assembling over 200 compassion food boxes in the warehouse cooler. A day in the life of number-crunchers, counted in compassionate heartbeats.

Summer Food Drive for Kids

Summertime is almost here, and many of our partners will be ministering to kids throughout the city. Several are hosting summer camps and special events and they depend on CSM to help them provide healthy meals and snacks throughout the summer. 

A large number of these students normally receive their breakfast and lunch at school and now they will receive these meals at summer camp. Most food drives are held during the fall and winter, and research shows that food donations are usually down during the summer.

We need your help this summer! Are you, your Sunday School class, youth group, ladies ministry, local organization or business looking for a summer project? Well, please consider organizing a summer food drive for us. We can use non-perishable food items including snacks that we can distribute to help feed our local youth and their families. You can drop off your donations here at the warehouse. Let’s come together and help our youth have a happy and healthy summer. 

“He who is kind to poor lends to the Lord, and He will reward him for what he has done.”

Proverbs 19:17

Contact: Rhonda Marshall (rhonda@csmission.org)

COTH SERVEday at CSM

COTH First Saturday SERVEday volunteers

 Each month on the first Saturday of the month, red shirts marked with the word “SERVE” can be seen across Birmingham during the community-wide First Saturday SERVEday organized by our friends at Church of the Highlands. At Christian Service Mission, we get to host three different teams form the Birmingham Dream Center, which is part of the Church of the Highlands family. This month, we partnered with those teams to bundle diapers for moms in need, give groceries to families in local Birmingham communities, and provide clothes for those in need.

Bundles of Hope, a diaper resource ministry warehoused at CSM, hosted a group of volunteers who bundled diapers in packs of 25. Bundles of Hope (BOH) will then distribute diapers to ministries across the Birmingham Metro Area who will then give the diapers to moms that are in need. The hope is that the diapers will build a bridge to forge relationships with single moms across our great city. These moms usually need love and support as much as they need diapers and BOH is bringing community to these moms through local churches and ministries in Alabama.

Bundling diapers for Bundles of Hope

Another team of amazing volunteers of all ages sacked groceries in our pantry here atm CSM before loading up the groceries and going door to door to pray for families and bless them with some extra groceries. Kem English, the group’s leader, has this to say about the co-laboring, “Each bag is an opportunity, a privilege even, that I get to bless someone with today. God has already appointed those blessings today. You have no idea what just a smile can do for a person and everyone can smile, right? Grocery bags are just an avenue, a catalyst, a tool if you will, to ask someone how they are today. We can’t save people, that takes Jesus. But we can listen to how they are and we can love them wherever they are.”

Bagging groceries to make someone's day

The third and final group is the Boutique clothing ministry out of the Dream Center. This group is led by the amazing Alexis Gartment. Each SERVEday Saturday, her team comes in to sort the clothing donations they receive throughout the month and store at CSM. As of this April’s SERVEday, they are also setting up the Boutique for neighbors across Birmingham to come and take their turns shopping for items they need. Alexis birthed this ministry effort from the overflow of her heart several years ago. It truly brings an element of blessing to those hurting, and often neglected in communities surrounding the Church of the Highlands Birmingham Dream Center.

At CSM, we LOVE that we get to partner with our amazing and generous friends at Church of the Highlands as they love on their neighbors! And we are already looking forward to next month! This year’s National SERVEday will be Saturday, July 16, 2016! Like Highlands, CSM loves that we get to love our neighbors every single day and can’t wait to partner with them for another annual SERVEday! If you want to learn more about how you or your church organization can get plugged in, visit the Church of the Highlands website and check out SERVEday under the Outreach Ministry tab.