Welcome Home Brazziel Family

Four Christmases have passed since the April 11 tornadoes and the last time the Brazziels celebrated Christmas at their family home in Pratt City. Ms. Brazziel and her 3 children have been living in temporary housing since their house was destroyed during the April 2011 tornadoes.

Partnering with the Alabama Rural Coalition for the Homeless, generous private donations, and hundreds of hours of volunteer work, we were able to build the Brazziels a new home on their former lot and move them in on Saturday, December 12. The Brazziels will be home for Christmas this year!

Volunteers joined together furnish and decorate the home taking it from bare walls and floors to a fully furnished home in 4 short hours. At Noon the Brazziels and their pastor, Bishop Bailey, arrived for the big reveal.

Ms. Brazziel gives all the glory to the Lord for taking care of her and her family and providing not only a house for her family but one where so many people have come together to make it a beautiful home.

Click here to see the House Tour and the Volunteers who made it beautiful.

CSM staff member Aaron Parsons presents the home
to Ms. Brazziel as Bishop Bailey looks on

Ms. Brazziel with her daughter and son

Ms. Brazziel and her family see the home furnished for the first time.

Volunteers who decorated the home pray over Ms. Brazziel and her family.

Volunteers Transform the Brazziel Home

This sweet group of volunteers from The Friends In The Foxhole Bible study brought their husbands and children to plan a great move-in day for the Brazziel family. They spent the week shopping, propping, and planning special details and touches for each of the kids and Ms. Brazziel.

Our homes are built with a lot of volunteer labor and love and it is sweet to watch how God brings it all together so well. Many hands and feet went into this home, all at the right time, and all acting in obedience to God's Word and voice prompting them to serve and care for those around them. We are honored to have such great partners help us do all that God has called us to do.

Click here to meet the Brazziels and see the Home Tour.

Brazziel House Tour

Volunteers joined together to transform the Brazziel house into a beautifully decorated home. At 8am families arrived with cars full of linens, towels, rugs, pictures, and everything needed create a well-stocked home. Four hours later, the house was magazine ready, perfectly propped with special touches for each of the family members.

Click here to meet the Brazziel family and here to see the Volunteers at work. 

The "Friends In The Foxhole" Bible Study group and family shopped,
landscaped, decorated, and made sure the family was ready for Christmas!

The living room furnished and perfectly decorated for Christmas.

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Many great meals will be made in this kitchen.

Boys Bedroom

Hall Bath

Hall Bath

Girls' room decorated in their favorite colors: purple and teal.

Girls' room

A beautiful and relaxing master bedroom.

Master Bath

Kid's Serve Day

In late November, we had about fifty people representing ten different groups in the warehouse to help us prepare things for the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. Of the seventy-five volunteers, fifty of them were kids between the ages of five and eighteen, ten of them were college students from Samford and ten were parents.  This group came to CSM for a "Kid's Serve Day" that involved sorting and storing canned goods, writing letters to our families in need and helping with our food ministry!  At the end of it all, we had them search every square foot of our 80,000 square foot building for a four foot long stuffed dolphin.  One of our youngest of the group, a girl scout from Troop 646, finally found the dolphin after this group of seventy-five searched the warehouse for the better part of an hour.  At CSM, we love to serve, we love to have fun and we love to have fun serving! When you volunteer with us and help us to serve our city, we do our best to serve and play with joyful and loving hearts.  Thanks to all of the kids, families, troops and small groups that came to work with us this past month!

Letter From Tracy: Tis' The Season

Tis the season to remember our Savior’s birth. We celebrate by seizing opportunities to bless families in need. We open wide our eyes to see the steps God had laid before us as an organization to impact our communities for Christ.

Tis the season to look back over the year and see the blessings of God in serving over 50 organizations and 8000 families a month with food needs. It’s the season to marvel at starting an aquaponics greenhouse and having gardens that served over 4,000 families with fresh vegetables.

Tis the season to rejoice in helping 25 families repair their homes and assisting two families rebuild their homes this year.

Tis the season for assisting over 200 kids this Christmas and helping one of our partners serve over 1,000 kids for Christmas. At Thanksgiving we were able to serve 2,800 families with food and the love of the Lord.

Tis the season to celebrate mobilizing over 4,000 volunteers to help make a difference.

Tis the season to thank the Lord to allow us to serve with our partner churches to see people come to new faith in Christ and start their new life.

Tis the season to look forward to anticipating the power of God to change lives and increase our impact in this city He has sent us to pray for and serve.

Tis the season, which is every season to serve our risen Savior who lives with us today.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Staff of CSM

Thanksgiving Baskets of Kindness

Over 500 volunteers packed and hand-delivered turkeys and groceries to 2800 homes across the city. This event was is a favorite for all who participate and the residents love talking to the people who bring the Thanksgiving blessing to their home.