Missions

Like to help people?

Want to touch lives?

You've come to the right place.

Marvin is a hands-on missions church. Our mission hearts and mission hands reach around our community and around the world, touching lives for the glory of God. Whether it's the whole church working together on Great Day of Service each spring or Mission Week each summer, putting an extra dollar in the offering plate for our Dollar Club or mentoring a child at our partner school, Marvin makes getting involved easy.

highlights

Christmas Joy

Formerly Santa's Secret Workshop, our Christmas Joy ministry started almost 20 years ago as a joint mission project between Marvin and St. Paul’s churches to serve underprivileged families within our communities. One-hundred-plus families are prayerfully screened and selected by staff from Bonner Elementary, Marvin Church, Vida Abundante, St. Paul Children’s Services and Bethesda Pediatrics. Each referral is recognized as a family with needs or hardships.

During the weeks leading up to Christmas Joy, we collect new, unwrapped toys and gifts for infants through high-schoolers valued at around $15. Parents are invited to come shopping for their children. Each child receives three gifts, a stocking filled with goodies and a stuffed animal. The family also receives a gift and spiritual encouragement. There is no cost to families to partake in Christmas Joy. This program is made possible through your generosity—thank you!

Sign up here

Missions Serve Night

Mission Serve Nights happen each month! Spend an hour or so serving our neighbors. This is a great opportunity to round up your family after dinner and do a little mission project that will make a big difference in the lives of others. All ages are invited to come get involved. You don’t need to sign up—just show up!

6-8 p.m. each third Monday night in Pirtle Hall

graphic: christmas joy logo

Upcoming

Events

Help Locally

NOAH Fund

NOAH stands for networking, organizing, advocacy and healing. Think of it as a boat that keeps people afloat during a domestic, medical, transportation or emotional crisis. NOAH is a calm in the storm. The Missions office works closely with PATH, the Salvation Army, St. Paul Children’s Foundation and other helping agencies in our community to find the best care for those in crisis situations. Marvin members and others in our community have turned to this ministry in times of need. All inquiries for assistance are treated confidentially.

Bonner Elementary partnership

We partner with Bonner Elementary School in East Tyler to provide help in tutoring and assisting teachers and students throughout the school year. Help teachers in the classroom, work one-on-one mentoring kids, volunteer during special events like field days and book fairs and more! 

If you want to help on campus with our Marvin projects, you must  become a certified TISD Volunteer. To volunteer, click the button below, scroll to the bottom of the page that opens and click on volunteer. Even if you are a past volunteer, you must re-apply every year.

Register with TISD

Military Care

We send care packages to U.S. soldiers serving overseas twice a year, one at Independence Day and one at Christmas. We collect funds, notes, cards, pictures and letters of encouragement to include in the care packages. Do you have a loved one serving overseas? We’d like to include your friend or family member in our mailings. Just submit the form to include them.

Christmas 2023 holiday mailing

During the first three weeks in November, we will collect Christmas cards and letters for those actively serving. Drop your notes in the Welcome Center. Then join us for our holiday packing party at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 28, in Pirtle Hall.

Military Care Packages

 

 

Military member's mailing address*

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Meet the Menders

Would you like to do local hands-on work year-round, as much or as little as you would like to? Marvin Menders provide minor repair work for the elderly and those in need. They do small projects ranging from replacing light bulbs and repairing fences to building wheelchair ramps. The Menders do good work and enjoy great fellowship. Everyone’s invited to be part of this group!

graphic: menders working

Core Dollar Club

Worship in Core and join the Dollar Club! Each person in worship is asked to put one extra dollar, over and above your regular pledge, in the offering plate each week. Each week those extra dollars help someone with an immediate need right here in our community. 

Mission Week

What is Mission Week? It's one of the foundations of Marvin's Christian outreach and service since 1988! During one week of June each year, participants of all ages experience a wide variety of hands-on projects during the week. There’s a place for everyone to serve! You can deliver water or do major construction or do minor construction or paint or do yard work or do electrical work or install flooring or take digital photos or tie blankets or run errands or serve meals or sew school bags or pray or give money! There's a place for you and you are needed!

Ongoing Collections

Bring any of the following items to the Welcome Center at any time to help local ministries:

  • Used eyeglasses for sight.org which provides eye care for people in Togo, West Africa. This Christian ministry helps restore sight through cataract and pterygium surgeries, glaucoma treatments and eyeglasses. In addition, they are involved in eye-health education and Christian discipleship.
  • Magazines for local retirement centers.
  • Sample-size toiletries for St. Paul's.

Sweets for the Soul

Sweets for the Soul serves the families of people under hospice care. Our bakers deliver a little cheer by means of homemade desserts and cards of encouragement. We serve the second Monday of each month at Hospice of East Texas.

Christmas missions

Foster children's party | Bring joy to children each Christmas at our annual Christmas party for the Methodist Children's Home foster children. You can get involved by either helping with the party, purchasing gifts for the children or by making a monetary donation. Our annual party will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 9, in Pirtle Hall.

Christmas Joy | Join us in the Marvin Gym from Dec. 13-15 as we invite parents to come and pick out a new gifts and stockings for their children. We will need lots and lots of new unwrapped toys/gifts (valued between $10 and $20) and many helpers to spread Christmas joy. Two-hour volunteer shifts include being a general helper, shopper, stocker, greeter or gift wrapper. We will also have needs for set up and take down. 

Sign up 

Hiway 80 Christmas card parties | Marvin will sponsor Christmas Card Parties on Thursday, Dec. 6, for Gateway to Hope (10-11:30 a.m.) and Triumph Village (3-4:30 p.m.).  Each party will feature food, music, a devotional, games, a visit from Santa and an opportunity for attendees to send Christmas cards to family and loved ones. 

Hiway 80 Christmas event in Longview | Marvin Church will have a “ready to man” booth at the Hiway 80 Family Christmas Event on Saturday, Dec. 16, at the Maude Cobb Event Center in Longview. This is a joint event for the Longview and Tyler outreach programs. 

Warm blankets for people in need | In December you can drop off a new blanket at one of the blanket trees around the church or give $20 for a blanket or poinsettia in memory or in honor of a loved one.  

Holiday Serve Nights | Join our Missions Serve Nights at 6 p.m. in Pirtle Hall.

  • Nov. 20 | Fill handmade stockings to be distributed at Christmas Joy.
  • Dec. 18 | Assemble gifts of love to be distributed to people staying at the Salvation Army on Christmas day.

Santa for Missions | Have Santa visit your family, business or group! Proceeds benefit the Bethesda Pediatric Clinics. Contact Mary Gammell (903.561.7119) to schedule your visit.

Missions Partners

Global Missions

Tanzania, Africa

Amazing Grace United Methodist Church is in Bunju, Dar es Salaam near the coast of Tanzania, Africa. The church now includes a preschool and a primary school. The preschool has been operating since 2021, while the primary school is under construction with major progress having been made this year (2023).

UMCOR

We are a major supporter of UMCOR, United Methodist Committee on Relief. Since 1940, UMCOR’s mission – providing relief in disaster areas, aiding refugees and confronting the challenge of world hunger and poverty – has helped to heal the hurts of humanity is nearly 100 countries. UMCOR maintains a corps of trained disaster response specialists for quick reinforcement of national efforts and keeps a supply of relief materials in warehouses for dispatch. It also trains disaster response specialists in their own countries as part of a global ministry by a global church and works in partnership with international agencies.

Our church supports UMCOR through our annual Easter Offering for Missions as well as through the collection of disaster kits for the UMCOR Depot located in Baldwin, Louisiana. In the past, our church has assembled health kits, school kits, layette kits and flood buckets for distribution through the Depot.

Learn about UMCOR

PHA (Program for Humanitarian Aid)

For the past 10 years, PHA has been connecting vulnerable Ukrainian youth with a community who provides loving guidance towards healthy lives in Christ.

Although our core mission remains unwavering, these trying times have led us to fully embrace our humanitarian roots. When the conflict erupted in February 2022, PHA extended its reach to provide essential humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians who, due to the devastating war, found themselves displaced within their own homeland.

Now, more than a year and a half into this relentless conflict, we persist in exemplifying the boundless love of Christ. Our commitment continues to extend its warm embrace to orphans, at-risk youth, and the internally displaced Ukrainian community, steadfastly navigating the challenges and uncertainties of these turbulent times.

Learn more about PHA

Organic Farming International

Before building the training center in Togo, West Africa, Jean Claude and Anastasie had already put together a group of former student farmers for OFI whom they had trained 12 years ago while they were with Mercy Ships. Jean Claude and Anastasie are empowering the group by providing teaching and training material online. This group will assist them in the future by helping them train others. Since OFI was created, the group has been voluntarily involved in different communities providing organic farming training and preaching the gospel. Currently, Jean Claude and Anastasie hope to buy 15 hectares of land to build a training school for OFI. In addition, they are involved in YWAM Tyler helping train missionaries in organic farming.

Learn more about Organic Farming International

Love Mercy International

Love Mercy International (LMI) is a ministry based in Lindale, Texas, that helps meet physical, spiritual and mental needs of people here at home and around the world. Debbie Lascelles is the founder and director. Locally, LMI staff are working with at-risk youth, especially those challenged with mental health issues.

Learn more about LMI

Meet Our Missionaries

Marvin Church is proud to support full-time missionary individuals or couples around the world. Some are in our back yard, so to speak, and some are on the other side of the world. The Marvin Mission Team coordinates support of these missionaries, not only monetarily, but with prayer, cards, letters, emails and Facebook messages. The Mission Team keeps up with their successes or hardships with reports at monthly meetings. Support comes from the entire Marvin membership through the church budget. Aren’t we glad to be part of a mission church that has big hearts and big hands serving our neighbors!

ROBERT AND ROBERTA ADAIR
Asian Access

Robert and Roberta serve in northeast Japan (impacted by the March 11, 2011, 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami). Partnering with an established Christian church, they look for places and means to establish new communities of faith among the 99 percent of Japanese people who do not know Jesus as their personal Savior. Teaching English to their Japanese friends gives them the perfect opportunity to witness about Jesus Christ.

Learn about Asian Access

PATTY BECK
Youth with a Mission

Patty Beck has served with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) since 1985. Her work with this organization over the years has involved several areas of service, including leading numerous short-term teams to more than 40 nations and training students and staff members in areas of practical development, character development and spiritual discipleship. In addition, she has given oversight to the development and production of communication materials that have served the pioneering projects of the mission. Currently she oversees the area of operations at one of YWAM’s largest campuses and equips members in organizational and management areas to further the work of the ministry. Her passion is to disciple and help the next generation discover and walk in their potential, while spreading the work of the kingdom around the world.

Learn about Youth with a Mission

KATHERINE EWING
Love Mercy International

Katherine has worked with Youth With a Mission for more than 40 years. Now she is working with Debbie Lascelles in their new ministry Love Mercy International. Locally, at LMI, Katherine helps disciple at risk youth. Internationally she helps AIDS widows start small businesses to fight poverty. Katherine challenges people to read the Bible aloud; any chapter, anywhere, any time.

Learn about Love Mercy International

CHRISTY AND CHRIS HILL
Program for Humanitarian Aid (PHA)

Chris and Christy Hill are the co-executive directors of the Christian nonprofit Program for Humanitarian Aid (PHA). They have committed their lives to serving orphans, at-risk youth and those in need of humanitarian aid in Ukraine.

Their journey into this ministry began in 2014 when they embraced their roles as full-time leaders, managing operations both in Ukraine and in the US. After 11 years of marriage and successful careers in the secular world, God led them into this ministry. Both graduates of Texas A&M University, they proudly call Tyler, Texas, their home. Their faith is a cornerstone of their lives, and they are active members of Marvin Methodist Church.

Throughout the year, Chris and Christy make trips to Ukraine, where they passionately divide their time between on-the-ground service and raising awareness for the ministry in the United States. Their commitment to PHA is unwavering and through God’s blessing, PHA has a profound impact on those we serve.

Learn How PHA Serves | ProgramForHumanitarianAid.org

JANICE JOHNSON
Youth with a Mission

Janice joined the ministry team at YWAM in 1990. She has served in many areas including accounting and communications. For many years she has faithfully served in the IT department. Given that so much of everyday life is now based around, and dependent upon, technology, Janice’s work is critical to the smooth running of every department on the campus, as well as the wi-fi needs in staff / student accommodation. She also loves to get to know the students who come to the mission training schools, making them feel welcome and appreciated. She can often be found talking with them over lunch in the cafeteria or during one-on-one time when she has the opportunity to mentor them and speak into their lives.

Learn about Youth with a Mission

DEBBIE AND CHRIS LASCELLES
Youth with a Mission

Since the early '90s, Chris and Debbie Lascelles have served as missionaries with Youth With A Mission (YWAM). They have traveled the globe and helped meet practical needs of people and shared the Gospel. Chris is originally from New Zealand and is currently receiving training in the field of animated filmmaking as a means to reach a younger audience. Debbie is the founder and director of Love Mercy International.

Learn about Youth with a Mission

ANASTASIE AND JOHN-CLAUDE MOUDITOU
Youth with a Mission

Jean Claude and Anastasie Mouditou are Missionaries from Congo Brazzaville in Central Africa. Twenty-five years ago, they received the call to serve the Lord as agricultural teachers. Previously they worked five years with Youth with a Mission and Mercy Ships for nine years in Western Africa. In 2011, the Lord brought them to the United States to study. Jean Claude is a graduate of Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, Texas, with a master’s in soil science. After 25 years of ministries, the Lord gave them a vision to start an Agriculture school to help their fellow Africans. In 2020 they started an 501(c) 3 tax exempt nonprofit organization named Organic Farming International.

Their vision is to train people in organic farming, helping those in need to produce healthy food, generate income and make disciples. Students receive training for six months and then go back to their communities and train others as well. Jean Claude and Anastasie’s plan is to build agriculture training centers across western and central Africa. The first center will be established in Togo (West Africa). Later, they hope to extend the center in countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leonne and Congo.

Learn about Youth with a Mission

ALFRED NJAU
Amazing Grace Church and School, Tanzania, Africa

After attending Perkins School of Theology at SMU, Rev. Njau graduated from Africa University Seminary in Zimbabwe and is now getting his doctor of ministry degree from Truett Seminary. In addition to that, he is spreading the gospel in a part of the world where there are few Christians. Currently Njau serves as the pastor for his church plant, Amazing Grace United Methodist Church in Bunju, Dar es Salaam near the coast of Tanzania, Africa. Since the planting of that church there has been a preschool and a primary school added. The preschool has been operating since 2021, while the primary school still remains under construction with major progress having been made this year (2023). Rev. Njau said, “I believe to God everything is possible.”

REV. PAUL RENJITHAN
Bombay, India

Rev. Paul Renjithan is the pastor at Marvin and Brighton Methodist Prayer and Social Welfare Center. At this church they have Sunday morning worship services, Sunday School classes and weekly prayer, and they offer Vacation Bible School in November after the rainy season ends. They also have a sewing class, a night study space for people to come and study since they do not often have space at home to do so, and they help teach women how to start small businesses so they can help provide for their families. Additionally, once a year the church has a church-wide picnic to help foster community and celebrate what the Lord is doing in their congregation. 

Future plans for Rev. Paul and the church include starting a medical clinic with qualified and dedicated doctors to improve the health care of the people. They continue to teach and train women in micro financing to help women in slum areas start self-employment opportunities. One way they do that is by teaching sewing and doormat making classes (using old clothes) to women in the slum areas. Additionally, beautician classes and childcare training will be started to provide more job opportunities for self-employment.

Volunteer

Menders

VolunteerMissions

Work with the Menders doing local repairs.

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