MISSION PARTNERS
MISSIONS THAT FPCOS SUPPORTS IN 2023Learn more about our mission partners.
Check out our current Mission Partners and prayerfully consider where God is calling you to serve. Click HERE to fill out our Mission Interest Form to get more information about the missions you are interested in.
LOCAL MISSIONS (JUDEA)
HELPING HANDS
KEY CONTACT: Kory Duncan
WEBSITE: fpcosms.com/care
Helping Hands is a ministry of the Care Team at FPCOS that reaches those in need in our church and neighborhood. Helping Hands provides financial, material and relational support to hurting people. Most importantly, we share and show the gospel of Jesus Christ by inviting them to experience God’s love in our midst through worship and fellowship with our church family.
The Lord Is My Help
KEY CONTACT: Beth Buckner
WEBSITE: thelordismyhelp.org
The Lord Is My Help is a soup kitchen/food pantry in Ocean Springs that feeds over 200 people a day, with 75% of the meals they prepare being delivered to elderly, ill, indigent and disabled in our area. Established in 1984, The Lord Is My Help now serves more than 5,200 meals per month and distributes an average of 400 emergency grocery bags per month from their Food Pantry to families in our area.
Sue’s Home (Community Care Network)
KEY CONTACT: Joanna Worch
WEBSITE: ccnms.org
Founded in 2003, Community Care Network is a faith-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization located in Ocean Springs, MS that seeks to empower those they help through life skills training, safe supportive housing and ongoing support and to minister healing and restoration through Christian counseling and teaching. They provide emergency services, including transitional housing (Sue’s Home) for women and children and life skills training and supportive services for families in crisis who are homeless or have been displaced.
Young Life
KEY CONTACT: Earl Darphin
WEBSITE: msgulfcoast.younglife.org
Young Life is a non-denominational, Christian outreach ministry with the mission of introducing adolescents to Jesus Christ and helping them grow in their faith. Young Life leaders seek to imitate Jesus by meeting high school kids where they are, earning the right to be heard through building bridges of authentic friendship, and sharing the Gospel with their lives and their words in ways that an adolescent can relate.
REGIONAL MISSIONS (SAMARIA)
Belhaven University
KEY CONTACT: Luke Mittwede
WEBSITE: belhaven.edu
Belhaven University is a Christian liberal arts college located in Jackson, MS that seeks to teach students from a Christian worldview perspective and to prepare students academically and spiritually to serve Christ Jesus in their careers, in human relationships and in the world of ideas. FPCOS partners with them through providing a summer youth ministry internship opportunity for their students. During the internship, interns are equipped with a robust understanding of youth ministry in which they love and serve students and families of the church here and beyond.
Cursillo of Mississippi
KEY CONTACT: Bill Hennessey
WEBSITE: mspresbyteriancursillo.com
Cursillo is a three-day spiritual renewal event designed to rekindle, deepen and strengthen your desire to live the Christian life. Led by lay members and clergy of the Presbyterian Church, its purpose is to inspire and equip disciples for Christian action in their homes, churches and communities. In a thoughtful, prayerful and joyful environment, you will enjoy fellowship with other Christians and leave with a desire to serve and live boldly for Christ.
Good News Jail + Prison Ministry – Jackson County
KEY CONTACT: Tanner Swetman
WEBSITE: Facebook
Good News Jail and Prison Ministry is a ministry that seeks to reach every inmate in the world with the good news of Jesus Christ, in order to make disciples and build the church. Good News places chaplains in jails and prisons in order to serve the spiritual need of inmates and prison staff, with the goal of being vessels for effective evangelism, biblical discipleship and church mobilization. FPCOS partners with Good News and Chaplain Gary Shirley at the Jackson County Adult Detention Center.
Home of Grace
KEY CONTACTS: Mark Mohler (Men’s Campus); Tami Long (Women’s Campus)
WEBSITE: homeofgrace.org
The Home of Grace, a nationally known addiction recovery program, has helped tens of thousands of individuals battle addiction. In operation since 1965, their mission is to offer freedom from addiction through Christ-centered recovery. The Home of Grace addiction recovery program is built on the foundation of Christian principles. Their program is rooted in the Biblical virtues of truth, honor, integrity, respect, faith and disciplined living.
Reformed University Fellowship (RUF)
KEY CONTACT: Elaine Dent
WEBSITE: ruf.org
Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) is a Presbyterian-affiliated college campus ministry in which one of our former summer youth interns now serves as an RUF intern. Allie serves on the campus of the University of North Florida, daily connecting with students through small groups, large group worship and fellowship events.
Reformed Youth Ministries (RYM)
KEY CONTACT: Luke Mittwede
WEBSITE: rym.org
Reformed Youth Ministries (RYM) is an organization that exists to serve the church in reaching and equipping youth for Christ. They have three main thrusts to their ministry. The first is to create resources (podcasts, Bible studies, books for students, etc.) for the benefit of the church with a particular eye toward youth ministry and its leaders. The second is to provide training opportunities to youth ministry leaders. The final way is by organizing and executing summer conferences for youth ministries around the country. FPCOS students have loved attending their conference each summer and the leaders have greatly benefitted from the resources and training that have been provided.
INTERNATIONAL MISSIONS (ENDS OF THE EARTH)
Christar
KEY CONTACT: Tina Folkers
WEBSITE: christar.org
FPCOS commissions and supports home grown missionaries that work with Christar in Asia. The vision of Christar is to cultivate Christ-honoring transformation among least-reached Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and other un-churched people groups worldwide. In the establishment of indigenous churches, Christar is a part of the transformation process that God is bringing to the world, while pursuing Christ-honoring influences on the community at large. Read more about Christar’s Christ-honoring transformation and why we share the gospel with least-reached people.
EPC World Outreach / Engage 2025
KEY CONTACTS: Linda McDowell (Nick & Amanda); Russ Allman (Greg & Elizabeth); Sonya White (Kevin & Jena)
WEBSITE: epcwo.org/engage2025
As part of the EPC World Outreach’s initiative Engage 2025 this team (Nick & Amanda, Greg & Elizabeth, Kevin & Jena) exists to serve unreached Muslim peoples in the Middle East. Their hope is to see the refugees they are serving come to faith. Their vision is to see disciples who make disciples, who make disciples, so that the gospel will be spread throughout the Middle East and to all the places these refugees have been displaced. The team develops relationships and serves the community through soccer ministry, educational programs and assistance, food vouchers, home visits and the Crochet Project.
Michele Harris – Haiti
KEY CONTACT: Michele Harris
After a trip to Haiti in 2010 as part of a Samaritan’s Purse relief effort, FPCOS member Michele Harris developed relationships with Christian Haitians who are living in most difficult circumstances. Her mission is to support these Christians by providing medical care and living expenses for orphaned children. On her mission trips to Haiti, she usually sees over 150 patients, and she and her husband, Neil, made a commitment following the 2010 earthquake to help rear 16 children who were orphaned that day.
Pioneers (Anna)
KEY CONTACT: Rebecca Castleman
WEBSITE: pioneers.org
Pioneers partners with local churches to make disciples and initiate church-planting movements among unreached peoples who are without self-sustaining witness to the Gospel within their own culture. Anna, a Belhaven graduate and former FPCOS summer youth intern, is currently serving through Pioneers in the Middle East.
United World Mission (Brianne)
KEY CONTACT: Jerrod Partridge
WEBSITE: uwm.org
United World Mission equips leaders, establishes churches and engages in holistic ministry globally. Brianne, a Belhaven graduate and former FPCOS summer youth intern, is working with a UWM church plant in Spain, where she coordinates an arts outreach dance ministry. In May, she began hosting salsa dance classes, as well as choreographed an entire piece for a youth group, which was used for a local evangelical event.
The Word at Work – Belize
KEY CONTACT: Leah Ethridge
WEBSITE: twaw.org
The mission of The Word at Work is to glorify Jesus Christ by connecting resources with needs and people with opportunities to serve. They run short-term mission trips for groups of people from churches of all denominations from the USA to Belize, Central America. Their work complements, adapts, supplements and encourages Belizean ministries in their work for those in need. Experience and conviction have led to TWAW’s understanding of how to facilitate a God-glorifying short-term experience – one that builds up and transforms the traveler while advancing the cause of the local mission.