DELAND — Mary Beth Wilson lives in an apartment a few blocks away from First United Methodist Church, Ormond Beach. A few weeks ago, she found a bottle of water imprinted with the church’s name and address on her doorstep. A few days later, she received a sports bottle.

Both items were left by members of the church and held an invitation to a June 15 block party sponsored by the church at a nearby park.

After receiving the two gifts Wilson decided she would attend the party. "I guess they really wanted to get to know me," she said.

The Ormond Beach church was one of 10 United Methodist churches and two Assemblies of God churches in the DeLand District participating in last month’s Celebrate Jesus Mission. The main goal of the weeklong mission effort was to motivate district churches to "be in ministry to the unchurched, lost and hurting in their immediate vicinity," according to Mont Duncan, the district’s superintendent.

Celebrate Jesus Inc., a Florida-based ministry that’s part of Share Jesus International, recruited teams of volunteers from Florida, Indiana and Great Britain to help the churches accomplish that goal. The visiting teams worked with local church teams to "share and show God’s love to the community in a non-threatening manner through acts of kindness," Duncan said.

Some churches handed out cold water to passers-by. Others handed out prayer plants, went on prayer walks through the neighborhood and prayed for homes and businesses, or offered children’s ministries.

This is the third year this kind of mission has taken place in Florida.

Despite different approaches taken by the individual churches, Duncan said the results were the same. "I see all positive things going on in peoples lives and the churches," he said.

At 100-member Barnett Memorial United Methodist Church in Enterprise members visited the surrounding community, but found themselves reaching people in their own building. The congregation, which is mostly Anglo, has been sharing its facilities with the Link of God Missionary Church, a Hispanic congregation of about 150 people. Although the two congregations were respectful of each other, they didn’t communicate much, said the Rev. Dennis Redstone, pastor of Christ United Methodist Church in Lehigh Acres and leader of the visiting team.

According to Redstone, Enterprise church members wanted to carry 2,000 prayer plants to their neighbors. Each plant included a brochure with information about the church and a card on which to write prayer needs. Those cards were collected and distributed at nightly meetings to individuals in the church who prayed for the need.

When the Hispanic congregation heard about the mission, it offered to help deliver plants and prayer requests. "On Monday, when 30 people from the church went out, 20 people from the Hispanic church stayed behind and prayed for us," Redstone said. "I heard one member of the church say, ‘Finally, we’re coming together.’ "

Mission efforts at Trinity United Methodist Church near downtown DeLand had a similar effect. Lana Saxon, chairwoman of the church’s Celebrate Jesus committee, said the church had been experiencing some division over recent discussions about changing the church’s location. "We needed something to bond our church together," she said, adding that involvement in Celebrate Jesus met that goal. Through the mission, everyone focused on the work of the church and the immediate task of reaching their neighbors, she said.

Trinity’s team handed out bottled water to people at Wal-Mart, K-Mart and the Health Department building. On Tuesday and Thursday, church member and first grade teacher Ginger Johnston taught a parenting class called "Mom and Me" for stay-at-home parents. The program was designed for parents who feel isolated and to help them learn how to teach their children at home. It also included a "moms’ only" Bible study time. Johnston hopes to find someone who can organize the program on a long-term basis.

The church also held an "Ask the Expert" session Tuesday night. Visitors asked bankers, nurses, weight-loss experts and a psychologist any questions they wanted. One expert was added at the last minute, according to Saxon, when the director of the local Healthy Kids program received one of the bottles of water being passed out at the Health Department. "He came out with the water and said he wanted to come to the Ask the Expert night and talk about insurance," she said.

Although he was pleased with efforts to reach people outside the church, Duncan said he was most pleased with the way church members have overcome their fear of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. "People are afraid to talk to strangers, and that includes clergy and laity," he said. "We let our perceptions of the negative prevent letting our churches reach out to the community. Through Celebrate Jesus, the fear has been removed. It’s been a freeing experience."