四虎影院

四虎影院 spoke with Burgin about the group's annual Christmas Store, as well as Mission Arlington's growth into a local institution.

• Tillie Burgin: "The Christmas store concept began when in 1986, 鈥�87, and we were working with people, trying to help people. People started saying to me, 鈥榃e need help with our electric bill, we need help with our rent money.鈥� 鈥榃ell what happened?鈥� 鈥榃ell, we used our rent money to buy toys for our kids.鈥� And so we said, 鈥榃ell, don鈥檛 do that. Let us help with toys and turkeys and Christmas trees and hold on to your rent money, hold onto your utility money.鈥�"
• "As God has continued to direct us, people have learned how to manage. We鈥檙e preventing homelessness. We鈥檙e pleased with that. Plus, everybody gets to hear the Christmas story and, of course, that鈥檚 God鈥檚 gift to us, so there鈥檚 a sense of people finding hope and significance and it brings joy to the city and to the world.鈥�

• 鈥淚f they have children, they are qualified to come. And we make things work, regardless of circumstances and situations. A lady came a couple days ago, and she just buried her son. She said, 鈥業 know I should come for toys, but I came for prayer.鈥� Today, she鈥檚 volunteering with us and just trying to help her be OK in this crisis time. She didn鈥檛 need toys. She needed fellowship, she needed relationships, she needed a touch from God.鈥�

• 鈥淚 can tell you we fed 6,000 families at Thanksgiving. Last year we gave 36,000 children toys. We would spend all of our time counting."
• "We just pray that as people recognize that numbers mean people and those people are significant. The more that would keep coming, we want them. There鈥檚 a sign at the office that says, 鈥楶lease come back鈥� because a lot of the folks that come back are volunteering now because they know what it meant to get the help.鈥�
• "A lot more people have needed services and I will tell you that during the COVID days, we never shut down. These doors never closed. We beefed up everything we could beef up from inside to outside and of course volunteers were not like they had been. And so that meant our staff which was small in numbers but we all just jumped in together so that folks could not have to come in keep in their cars, take care of them. Our medical clinic was beyond super.鈥�

鈥淎ll you have to do is show up. A fella came today he said, 鈥業 know you are busy, you have a lot of people here. What can I do?鈥� I saw a truck, our truck had Christmas trees on it. I said, 鈥業f you鈥檒l jump up in that truck and start handing out Christmas trees to people.鈥� He鈥檚 still doing it. There鈥檚 always a place for people. Bring your children. The family coming together to volunteer is huge.鈥�

鈥淲e started a bible study in an apartment at 11 o鈥� clock on Sunday morning and I thought, 鈥榃ell, this is neat.鈥� And then, God began to grow it, and it has continued to grow. There has never been a plan, there has never been a committee meeting, there has never been a survey. When God launched, he launched.鈥�

Got a tip? Email Kailey Broussard at kbroussard@kera.org. You can follow Kailey on Twitter 

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