Local Church Assembles Care Packages For Prisoners

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Altogether the five Pinelake Church campuses will be donating a total of 10,000 care packages to inmates across Mississippi.

Each package is personally put together and prayed over before delivery.

“I hope that because we reach out to people in the prison system that they will know that God loves them and that we love them because God loves them,” says volunteer Ashley Vaughn.

The gifts from the Starkville church campus are for prisoners at the Winston Choctaw Regional Correctional Facility.

“There are people in our society that are overlooked, but here’s a reality– they aren’t forgotten by God,” says Pinelake Student Pastor Austin Davis.

“God calls us to serve. To serve each other and to serve those in need,” says Vaughn.

The gift bags contain a variety of objects like shampoo, soap, socks and candy.

Church members say they hope this small offering will have a big impact.

“If they don’t know Christ, it could lead them to a saving knowledge of Him. And beyond that.. you know maybe they do and maybe they’ve just made some poor choices and they’re sitting in a jail cell. This could bring some encouragement to them in a dark and lonely place,” says Pinelake Deacon Wade Stewart.

Volunteers believe what they’re doing will also have an impact on the church body.

“When we come together and serve together, we get closer to God and closer together as a church,” says Vaughn.

“Anytime you can get together and work together at accomplishing something that’s going to go beyond us… It’s always a blessing,” says Stewart.

Pinelake leaders say the reasoning behind the care packages is simple.

“God loves us all no matter who we are or what we’ve done,” says Stewart.

“Jesus tells us in scripture that we love because he first loved us and so this is just our opportunity to those who are in society who might me overlooked,” says Davis.

The church will be hand delivering the care packages to the Winston Choctaw Regional Correctional Facility.