World Changers
Our Youth (Grades 6th-12th) spend time every summer on mission through World Changers, in various parts of the country working to help those who are unable to do for themselves on home repairs and construction. This is a real training ground for getting on the mission field where students are able to work hard, but also invest in the homeowners and neighbors by loving people they just met, and opening their faith to these new friends in sharing their faith journey with them. It is a staple of this youth ministry each year, and lends itself to providing us with many other mission opportunities.
Matthews Help Center
This is a local non-profit that has various outreaches into the Matthews area. They help provide food, transportation, clothing and financial help to those who require it. Pleasant Plains Baptist helps support this ministry financially each year and we're glad to see it go to such a great cause.
Backpack Ministry to Local Schools
We sponsor a local elementary school with this ministry, delivering more than 30 backpacks each week full of food for families to use over each weekend of the school year. Many children are able to eat consistently during the week because of receiving breakfast and lunch provided through the school system, but struggle over the weekend without that help. Pleasant Plains has done this for a number of years, and these students have a special place in our hearts and we are honored to be able to do this to help these families.
Lottie Moon & Annie Armstrong offerings
Each year at Easter and Christmas, we celebrate the lives of these great ladies who served as missionaries in the Southern Baptist denomination. Our Annie Armstrong offering at Easter goes to help fund mission efforts in North America, while the Lottie Moon offering at Christmastime goes to help fund mission efforts overseas!
Disaster Relief
When the need arises, we GO! We try to send teams to help people and areas that have been affected by hurricanes and flooding, even as recently as with our neighbors in Western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. Our church rallies to the cause whenever possible to collect donations, goods and funds to send to various mission organizations such as Baptists on Mission and local churches where they are able to do the most good, and we have teams that scramble to get ready to go help however possible. We've sent chainsaw teams to clear debris, construction teams, cook teams, laundry teams, medical teams, and are willing and eager to do anything we can to help those that are hurting.
Youth Spring Break Missions week
Each year, our Youth dedicate several days of their break to helping families and loved ones with yard work, odd jobs and helping however they can. We start with members of Pleasant Plains who may need a little extra help, and if we finish there, you'll see them reaching out to other areas in our Matthews area to show the love of Christ through their service!
White Christmas
Each Sunday School class at PPBC has different designated food items to contribute in the weeks leading up to Christmas, as we've adopted several families in our area that are in need of help. A couple weeks before Christmas, each class brings what they have collected of their specific items together and it turns into mountains of food that will provide and help care for these families.
Missionary Support
We are thrilled to get to be a part of mission efforts all over the world, not just here at home. We give each month to help support the ministries of missionary friends of ours in Paraguay, Slovenia, Sweden, ANM (Advancing Native Missions), ABWE Global (A Global Missions Agency), TPI organizataion (Training Pastors Internationally), as well as through our own Southern Baptist denomination's IMB (International Missions Board), and NAMB (North American Missions Board), and our local Metrolina Baptist Association. We LOVE Missions!
Local Service projects
Pleasant Plains has various needs within our own church body, and we jump in to help locally when we find of other needs in our community. We love our community, and when they are hurting, we hurt with them. Whether it's yard work for the elderly, building porches for shut-ins, or volunteering through food pantries and food distribution agencies, we do what we can to be a benefit to the community that the Lord has planted our church in here in Matthews, NC.
Backpacks to Cuba
We sponsor a local elementary school with this ministry, delivering more than 30 backpacks each week full of food for families to use over each weekend of the school year. Many children are able to eat consistently during the week because of receiving breakfast and lunch provided through the school system, but struggle over the weekend without that help. Pleasant Plains has done this for a number of years, and these students have a special place in our hearts and we are honored to be able to do this to help these families.
Angel Tree
At Christmas, we have several in our community that have been identified as families in need through a local school, and we are able to put requests for gifts on individual angel ornaments placed on a tree in our Welcome Center. People take these ornaments home and purchase the various gifts, wrap them, and bring them back a couple weeks before Christmas, and some of our volunteers then deliver those gifts from PPBC to these families. Talk about seeing the love of Christ in tangible ways! We love doing the Angel Tree each year!