Goods are stacked and ready to distribute at Mission Central.
The upcoming holiday season may be a time for helping others, but at Mission Central, that’s a 365-day-a year calling.
In 2016, Mission Central, the mission warehouse of the Susquehanna Conference of the United Methodist Church, distributed more than $7 million in donated resources through 7,243 volunteers, touching an estimated 3.3 million lives.
“There’s no strings attached to what we do,” stated Executive Director Rob Visscher. “There’s no proselytizing.”
Adam Hoover, Mission Central’s director of development, said he received a call recently from a woman who needed help, but wanted to him to know upfront that she wasn’t religious.
“I told her it didn’t matter,” he said.
Toy Time
Bishop Neil Irons founded Mission Central in 2001. He initiated a task force and spent a year developing his concept—a centralized location for donations and distribution of everything from food and clothing to medical supplies and household items.
Originally, Irons planned to construct a new building for Mission Central on a lot near the Susquehanna Conference of the United Methodist Church headquarters outside Mechanicsburg. Things didn’t quite turn out that way, however.
One day, when Irons was driving to the proposed construction site, he was forced to take a different route due to flooding. That’s when he passed an existing warehouse with a “For Lease” sign posted. At 48,000 square feet, the building was twice as large as what Irons was planning to construct, but he stopped anyway.
After some discussion, the building’s owner agreed to sell the warehouse on Pleasant View Drive to Mission Central and tithe 10 percent of the sale price. The tithe covered sale closing costs and a down payment for Mission Central.
Overall, the purchase saved the agency a lot of time because it no longer had to construct a new building for its headquarters. Mission Central opened in July 2002, two years ahead of schedule.
Today, it operates using three points of focus: disaster response, mission outreach and mission education or teaching others “about the economic difficulties and things that we take for granted,” Visscher explained.
“We agreed that what we were called to do was not something that would live strictly within the United Methodist Church,” Irons said. “It would be holding hands with anyone else who had this commitment or desire to help other people.”
Each November, for instance, Mission Central “gears up for the holidays,” Visscher said.
This year, the organization is set on collecting 2,000 toys to distribute to disadvantaged children through local schools and communities, Toys for Tots and other outlets. In fact, toy donations are Mission Central’s greatest need over the holidays, Visscher said. So, the mission is seeking new toys valued between $25 to $50, gift cards or monetary donations.
Last holiday season, Mission Central and Communities in Schools Pennsylvania sponsored an angel tree that provided gifts for K-8 students at Goode Elementary School in the York City School District. This year, the program is being expanded to include McKinley Elementary and Davis Elementary schools in York. Students at Harrisburg High School are being given warm hats and gloves for the season.
Then there are families whose homes were destroyed over the summer by Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Hurricane Irma in Florida, whose needs go far beyond gifts. Mission Central once again helped. In mid-September, agency volunteers assembled some 5,000 hygiene kits valued at $15 each and 5,000 cleaning buckets and supplies valued at $65 each. Those items were shipped to storm victims.
Very Moving
In addition to its own focus, Mission Central works with several partner ministries.
The Computer Ministry refurbishes used computers and equipment to provide assistance and improve efficiency within churches and other organizations of need. The New Digs Ministry recycles household goods throughout central Pennsylvania, helping more than 2,500 families by distributing nearly $1 million of goods annually.
Project C.U.R.E. distributes durable medical equipment like walkers and wheelchairs locally and to more than 130 developing countries. And the Bethesda Mission uses Mission Central’s warehouse as its food distribution center for senior citizens, the homeless, unemployed and undernourished.
Mission Central also has expanded to include 38 independently owned and operated hubs throughout nine U.S. states.
Mission Central gave its hub located at Good Sheppard United Methodist Church in Northfield, N.J., “something it couldn’t do on its own” when Super Storm Sandy hit the Atlantic Coast in 2012, recalled Good Sheppard Pastor Tom Stark.
“When the (storm) forecast started, I started getting calls from Mission Central,” Stark remembered. “When those (supply) trucks rolled in, the biggest trucks you’ve ever seen filled with diapers and heaters and blankets and food, it was incredible to see how people were connected with Mission Central in Mechanicsburg. It was very moving.”
Mission Central is located at 5 Pleasant View Dr., Mechanicsburg. For more information and to volunteer, call 717-766-1533 or visit www.missioncentral.org.
