Crestview Baptist Church introduced "Love Midland," an initiative aimed at fostering community unity through a day of service, on Feb. 24. This one-day event encourages Midland residents to come together at various locations across the city, collaborating with key partners to make a positive impact on the community.
Katie Summers, the missions and guest experiences director at Crestview Baptist Church, explained the vision behind "Love Midland" in an email to the Midland Times newspaper.
“Our goal and vision for ‘Love Midland’ is to have a community that serves/volunteers together, creating a city that people are proud to be a part of and want to be present in,” said Summers. “We live in such a generous community and have so many non-profits, churches, and other organizations that together, we can make a significant impact. We believe that now is the time to collaborate together as never before and ‘Love Midland.’”
The initiative, supported by partnerships with the City of Midland, Midland Independent School District, Spectrum Solutions, Safe Place of the Permian Basin, Mission Agape, and The Attic Foster Network, offers various opportunities for residents to get involved.
Service activities on Feb. 24 include painting walls at the Day Hab Center from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., playing Bingo and sharing lunch with 40 clients at Crestview Church from 10 a.m. to noon, and from 9 to 11 a.m., there will be making beds at the new location of Safe Place of the Permian Basin, assembling food bags at Mission Agape, creating "comfort kits" for children in foster care, painting and beautifying bathrooms in the teachers' lounge at MISD South Elementary school, and participating in the cleanup of weeds and trash from streets.
“Crestview has done some small church-wide serve days like many other organizations and churches, but our goal is for this to be a project involving the whole community,” Summers said. “We are excited to partner with the City of Midland, Midland Independent School District, and many other non-profit organizations in this initiative.”
Summers outlined the long-term vision, saying, “We will all individually continue to do projects as needed, but our vision is to have a City Wide Serve Day where we all come together and serve across the City one day every year, and to provide on-going ‘Love Midland’ serve opportunities throughout the year. We are looking at Fall, 2024, so watch for that date to put on your calendar. We want this partnership to last for years and look forward to what ‘Love Midland’ will provide our City.”
To participate in this event, individuals can sign up on the Crestview website by clicking on the logo of the partner organization they wish to support on Feb. 24. Spaces are limited, and some partnership events are already full. For inquiries or to join the initiative, contact Katie Summers at katiesummers@crestview.church.