The Mission Ministry of Custer Road UMC
follows Jesus' command to love God and neighbor by coming together in collaboration with our community, intentionally building trusted relationships and growing as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Get Involved in CR Missions!
Local Missions
August 24 | 6-7:30pm | Custer Road UMC | The Upper Room
For more information, visit: crumc.org/agape or Click HERE to pre-register today!
Agape provides critical housing and life skills that empower women and their children to transform from crisis and poverty to self-sustaining, fulfilling lives. Custer Road holds an annual collection of personal and household items and provides monetary donations and volunteers.
The Alternative Gift Market is typically held in November or early December. This gives you an opportunity to do a different kind of Christmas shopping. Shoppers have the opportunity to donate to charities and give a gift to someone really in need. This Christmas, consider giving a different kind of gift, a gift that gives twice. Give to your loved one, a handmade beaded cross or nativity set, or a certificate for a week’s worth of clean water. When you do, your gift helps someone in need – a hungry family, a struggling child, a Third World artisan. Your giving can transform the world!
Bed Start helps households in poverty, crisis and/or need by providing household furnishing at NO COST!
If you need assistance, please complete the REQUEST FORM on Bed Start’s website at www.bedstart.org.
You can help by donating your time, your talents, financial support as well as gently used furniture. Did you know that Bed Start needs help from people serving every week? And did you know that they need more help than just delivering beds on Saturday mornings? Regardless of your activity level, Bed Start could use your help.
Every Wednesday Evening: Meet in the parking lot directly across the street from the church at 4:45pm. All Wednesday night deliveries occur near the church. Every Saturday Morning: 7:45m-Noon (meet in the parking lot at 7:45am, depart CRUMC at 8am) Provide Pick-up and Delivery help on Saturday mornings. Deliveries are made around Dallas and Collin County. A pick-up truck/trailer are helpful, but not required. Having a servant’s heart and helping with Bed Start has no age limit. Youth are welcome to join us! If you can love on families and have a strong heart for showing kindness to someone we are serving than we want your help. You don’t need a strong back to be able to help.
There are lots of ways to serve with Bed Start! For a list, just click here. You’d be surprised at all the ways you can be a part.
To serve with Bed Start, complete a VOLUNTEER APPLICATION at www.bedstart.org or email bedstart.volunteer@gmail.com
Monetary donations are also welcome to purchase beds and bedding. Donate at www.bedstart.org.
Items we are greatly in need of:
An easy way to donate! Make a purchase off of the Amazon Wish List.
Dressers/Chest of Drawers, Beds-Twin and Full Sized, Kitchen Dinette Sets, Utensils/Pots & Pans
To arrange a large furniture pick-up please complete the PICK-UP REQUEST FORM on the Bed Start website.
Pillow Project: 25 pillow are needed every week. Sign-up to provide pillows.
https://www.familypromiseofcollincounty.org/
The Family Promise Network provides a way for our church to work together with other churches to help homeless families. Families are now staying offsite. During our rotations (5 per year) we provide 3 dinners, gift cards, notes of encouragement and prayers to the families in the program. Sign up to help make a difference for these families!
Custer Road United Methodist Church has committed to intentionally building trusted relationships in CRUMC’s neighborhood through partnership with local schools. We are collaborating with Christie and Thomas Elementary Schools. Our goal is to have 100 CRUMC Mentors at these schools. The school administration has identified Student Mentoring as one of the key areas to promote the growth of student achievement for the students at these schools. As Title 1 schools (focused on improving the achievement of the disadvantaged), they are in need of individuals that can spend time with children reading and working on assignments.
No special training is needed, only a desire to intentionally build a relationship with a student. Typically, it is a 30 minute to 1 hour commitment during the lunch/recess time, but arrangements may be able to be made for after school mentoring as well. To get connected at one of our partner schools, email Pat Garrett, LSM/Mentor Coordinator.
Family Sponsorships: We will also provide volunteers for Book Fairs, teacher meals and other volunteer opportunities requested by the schools. A Back to School Teacher Appreciation Breakfast will occur in August and we collect school supplies annually. We also sponsor families at Christie & Thomas Elementary for Christmas.
Meals on Wheels provides hot noon meals to seniors who live alone, who are physically or cognitively unable to go to a grocery store or prepare a meal, or who are homebound. Custer Road UMC provides donations during the year and Harvest Boxes in the fall. Find out how to be a driver by clicking HERE.
The Collin County Committee on Aging is collecting Harvest Boxes for senior citizens in its Meals on Wheels Program that will be delivered to them in October. Boxes are important for seniors who are home bound due to health or transportation problems. Custer Road’s goal is to collect at least 150 boxes! Flyers with the items requested are available in the Weekly Update and on the church website-please link flyer or add all of the information. Interested volunteers should purchase the items, package them in a box (copy paper size with lid) and return them to the church. Boxes decorated for the season are appreciated by the seniors, but please no glitter or large items as they do have to be stacked. Please return boxes to the Mission Donation Area beginning September 3 and no later than September 24. Find a list of the items to purchase HERE.
Please email Tom Hutson at or visit the table in The Commons on 9/10 or 9/17 with any questions and discover how easy it is to brighten the season for someone who might otherwise have to do without.
People Who Love People serve the homeless and food insecure folks in the parking lot of God’s Pantry in Plano, located at 1896 K Avenue, Unit 200.
PWLP is a group of faith-based folks from churches in the area who supply breakfast items, smiles, encouragement, and show the love of Jesus every Monday and Thursday morning at 7:30AM.
You can sign up HERE to provide needed items.
This program provides support to young parents in the PISD school system. Custer Road sponsors the annual Christmas and graduation dinners, has as ongoing collection of diapers and new/gently-used baby items like clothes, formula, strollers, swings, car seats, high chairs and maternity clothes.
Order today from their ongoing Amazon Wishlist
Seniors serving seniors handyman program. Volunteers provide minor home maintenance and repair services with a key focus on safety issues in the home. They focus on seniors, age 60 and older and others with special needs within the Plano community. There is no charge for the help provided. Donations are welcome to offset the cost of materials and help others who are less fortunate. Larger projects are done on Fridays, with smaller tasks completed throughout the week. To request their services or volunteer, contact them at 469-366-4286 or go to their website at www.plain-o-helpers.org.
The purpose of POWS is to provide a safe, warm, and secure place for the homeless to stay overnight when the temperature drops below 40 degrees or there are dangerous conditions which could cause injury or death from exposure. The site for POWS is The Salvation Army location in east Plano at 3528 14th street. The POWS season runs annually November 1 through March 31.
POWS is staffed by volunteers. Custer Road has formed a team and is looking to expand our volunteer list. In order to become a team member, volunteers must attend a training session and pass a background check. For more information please contact CRUMC Coordinator Mark Orland at m_orland@yahoo.com.
You can learn more here.
Project Transformation is a seven-week summer day camp for inner-city children that is facilitated by PT Corps Members and partner churches. About 100 corps members and many volunteers work with the children to teach Bible lessons, make crafts, play games, sing songs, write plays and read one-on-one.
Custer Road’s Summer Lunch Program serves children and adults in our community. The goal is to provide a free, nutritious lunch, fellowship, sports activities and support to love on our neighbors. The program runs Monday-Friday throughout the summer. 2024 volunteer needs will be listed in May!
See below for Summer 2023 results!
Global Missions
The Alternative Gift Market is typically held in November or early December. This gives you an opportunity to do a different kind of Christmas shopping. Shoppers have the opportunity to donate to charities and give a gift to someone really in need. This Christmas, consider giving a different kind of gift, a gift that gives twice. Give to your loved one, a handmade beaded cross or nativity set, or a certificate for a week’s worth of clean water. When you do, your gift helps someone in need – a hungry family, a struggling child, a Third World artisan. Your giving can transform the world!
In conjunction with Buckner International shoes are delivered by a mission team to orphanages in Peru. The mission trip in July will engage and build relationships with children and families while providing shoes and humanitarian aid in several different communities and orphanages. This includes a work project (home cleaning or remodel, bathroom completion etc.)in the communities where Buckner works through Family Hope Centers.
Put shoes on children and smiles on their faces. What child doesn’t love getting a new pair of shoes? New shoes are fun, clean, bright, and colorful! New shoes help a child run faster, jump higher, go further!
Not only are new shoes fun, they provide important benefits. Shoes protect against disease and infection. They allow children to attend school. They provide hope by demonstrating worth and God’s love to orphans and vulnerable children. And they help connect families to ministries that can transform their lives.
For more information on how you can help, contact Lanie Williams at laniew1983@gmail.com.
Operación Abrigo is an ecumenical ministry that brings together nearly three decades of ministry serving the people of Juarez, Mexico. Over the past 30 years, we have partnered together in building thousands of cinder-block homes, five churches, a medical clinic, and a community center for families living on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez.
Serving one family at a time, we are partnering together to transform lives on both sides of the border. Custer Road has served with OA many times. We have a summer trip for young adults led by Rev. Tim Morrison and have a fall trip open to everyone.
Custer Road is partnering with World Renew and the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church in Rolling Fork, MS, to help rebuild homes, and therefore lives, that were damaged or destroyed by a tornado March 24, 2023. Join experienced leaders Bruce and Marcia Fallis on this unforgettable trip Sunday, October 15 through Friday October 20.
No homebuilding experience is needed; however, it is helpful to know what skills each participant has. Interested participants will be sent a questionnaire to complete.
There will be a pre-trip meeting (date to be determined) where participants will be given a packing list.
REGISTER HERE by Thursday, October 5, 2023.
If you have questions, contact:
Marcia Fallis: 214-773-2191
Bruce Fallis: 469-286-7183
Jennifer Wagner: 972-951-0189
For more information, visit:
UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief)
UMCOR’s work of alleviating human suffering around the world includes disaster relief and supplies, disaster risk reduction, and humanitarian development. It also relates to the Global Ministries’ unit on health. UMCOR operates in the United States in collaboration with relief teams organized by annual (regional) conferences. On the international level, it works through partner organizations and, at times, its own country offices, depending on need. Custer Road UMC regularly works with UMCOR for relief efforts during catastrophes to people who lack ready access.
If you’d like to contribute, you can do so online at UMCOR, or through the CRUMC Website and designate the gift for UMCOR and a Specific Advance if needed.
Living Water International is a Christian organization dedicated to helping communities acquire desperately needed clean water and to experience “living water”- the gospel of Jesus Christ – which alone satisfies the deepest thirst. Imagine a well – that WE PAY FOR AND BUILD WITH THE HANDS OF OUR OWN CHURCH MEMBERS – that will gush with clean, life-giving water and sustain generations for years to come. Living Water International helps communities in developing countries create sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene programs.
Imagine having nothing but dirty, bacteria-infested water to quench your thirst. To wash your clothes in. To cook with. To bathe in. And to give to your children to drink. No one should live this way. But more than 884 million people around the world do. Enough is enough. Because no human being should live this way.
Custer Road Mission Teams have traveled to Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador since 2016 to dig a water well and provide hygiene lessons.
To get more information about trips, contact Tony and Elizabeth Hairston via email here.
Dresses are sent through “Send Hope” to Honduras, as well as with mission team going to Haiti and Guatemala. The group is open anyone who is interested in sewing or helping in other ways. Ready-made easy to sew dress kits are available throughout the year along with sewing instructions.
Drives / Collections
Custer Road UMC host blood drives several times throughout the year with Carter BloodCare. There is always a need for blood! You can donate at any Carter BloodCare site at any time. Just be sure to tell them you are from Custer Road UMC. We have a credit account, and should any of our family members have the need for blood, they can use credits from this account to assist in the payment for their blood use.
God’s Pantry
Food Drive and monetary donations benefit the God’s Pantry. Annual collection of food items is in November. Sign-up to serve at God’s Pantry via their website.
Head Start is a federally funded child development program designed to provide comprehensive services to preschool children from low-income families. Children and families in Head Start receive comprehensive services that include health, dental, nutrition, family wellness, education, disabilities, and family services.
A fall mission, this collection of NEW children’s sweat suits, jeans, socks & underwear provides warm clothing for the Head Start children in time for cooler weather. Bring your donations to the Missions Donation Bin by October 8. Our goal is to provide Head Start with 146 sweat suits!
Custer Road UMC collects school supplies in July and August that benefit: Summer Lunch Program backpacks, teachers and students at Carpenter MS and Christie & Thomas Elementary Schools with needed supplies, and Teacher Appreciation gifts.
Leadership Opportunities
Would you like to be more involved in our Mission Ministry?
This role is fun and easy! Serve as the liaison between the church and Project Transformation (PT). Work with their staff to fill volunteer needs and provide items they request. Shadow current PT Coordinator, Gale Paul, this summer and learn the ropes! For detailed information, email Stephanie Mills.
Would you like to be more involved in our Mission Ministry?
This role is fun and easy! Serve as the liaison between the church and the School Age Parent Program. Work with their staff to fill volunteer needs and provide items they request. This role will start again in the new school year. For detailed information, email Stephanie Mills
