‘Sponsor a Child,’ Wingard Home dinner provide ways for MC family to share Christ’s love with the community

Shari Barnes discusses MC's 'Sponsor a Child' program with Ken Gilliam, MC director of continuing education.

Christmas is a time for joyous celebration, and Mississippi College faculty, staff and students are engaging in community service projects that help spread the message of Christ throughout the community.

Shari Barnes, director of the Community Service Center at MC, coordinates the university’s participation in its “Sponsor a Child” program, a ministry that supports Angel Tree, Mustard Seed and Southern Christian Services for Children and Youth.

Angel Tree is an organization that provides clothing, toys and Christmas cheer to children with parents in prison. Mustard Seed is a Christian community that meets the spiritual, physical, emotional and intellectual needs of adults with special needs. Southern Christian Services assists vulnerable children throughout Mississippi in becoming self-sufficient and contributing members of society.

Before and after Thanksgiving break, the first names, interests, clothing and shoe sizes of 180 Angel Tree, Mustard Seed and Southern Christian Services participants are placed on construction paper “angels” on a display board in the Cafeteria.

Volunteers select an “angel” from the board, purchase some of the requested items, and return them to the MC Community Service Center. The full names of each “angel” remain private.

Barnes said supporting these programs is an ideal way to give back to those in need.

“It is such a joy to help fulfill the wishes of children somewhere in the state of Mississippi,” said Barnes, who has coordinated the Angel Tree program at MC for 19 years.

Dr. John Travis, professor of mathematics at MC, originally coordinated MC's involvement with Angel Tree and Prison Fellowship Ministries. Barnes eventually inherited the responsibility from Margaret Cole, executive assistant to the vice president and executive director of the Alumni Association.

In addition to the “Sponsor a Child” program, the MC Department of Art, Kappa Pi Art Honor Society and Campus Dining sponsor the annual Wingard Home Dinner, an evening of holiday food, fellowship, and Christian witness for residents of the Wingard Home, an oasis for abandoned, lost, hurting and abused people in Jackson.

Ray Gregory and Albert Smathers, faculty members in the Department of Art, inherited hosting duties from Randy Jolly, MC art instructor, who coordinated the Wingard dinner each year.

The event includes a warm, nourishing meal served on tables adorned with white tablecloths and poinsettias, devotional time with families, and an art activity. Guests will have an opportunity to create and ink a design of their choosing and make an original print as a keepsake of the event. Art Department students help serve the guests and assist with the art activity.

“Since the Art Department has hosted the dinner over the years, we wanted to do something art-related to connect the dinner to the department,” Gregory said.

The dinner is scheduled from 5:30-8 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 3, in Anderson Hall in the B.C. Rogers Student Center.

The Wingard Home strives to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ by ministering to individuals and families in need. The ministry provides accommodations for more than 60 unhoused men, women, children, pregnant teenagers and entire families living in dire need or having been displaced or abandoned.

“For Wingard Home residents, the dinner is the beginning of the Christmas season,” Gregory said. “It’s a time to enjoy and encourage your fellow man and focus on the goodness of God in the birth of Jesus, the Messiah.”

For more information or to donate to MC’s Sponsor a Child program, email Barnes at sbarnes@mc.edu.

For more information, to volunteer or to donate to the Wingard Home dinner, email Gregory at gregory@mc.edu.