After a strong beginning, Brookhaven Mission Mississippi has seen its numbers dwindle since it began one year ago, said group spokesperson Betty Harrington.

Mission Mississippi meets the fourth Tuesday each month “to encourage and demonstrate unity in the Body of Christ across racial and denominational lines.”

The numbers at meetings started with 75 in March of last year, and then a few months ago, there were around 35 people coming to the monthly meetings, she said. Now there are under 10 people at each of their meetings, and those few are in the planning stages for an outreach project.

“We are talking about outreach projects that might help bring people in,” Harrington said. She explained that the philosophy of Mission Mississippi is vital to Christian life.

“Brookhaven has a feeling of unity among believers, but we need to also be sure that the core of believers is working together across race lines, and even if they don’t go to a church, we need to reach out to them, too,” Harrington said.

“Because, the very basic goal of this organization is to have a reconciliation between the races, and the denominations, and the hope for that spirit of unity is that it will be through the spirit of Jesus Christ.”

Brookhaven Mission Mississippi was started last year because of the efforts of local resident Phyllis Spearman. The Brookhaven Mission Mississippi was started March 25 in the company of community leaders and the president of Mission Mississippi Neddie Winters in the Stateroom of State Bank.

Harrington said there are two leaders of the Brookhaven group, the Rev. Warren Coile at First United Methodist Church and retired Rev. A.C. Herring.

While Brookhaven’s group is just a little over one year old, the statewide Mission Mississippi organization began much earlier. Twenty-one years ago, a group of Christian Mississippians raised a cross at the state capitol to represent unity and racial reconciliation, which they believed could be found through the spirit of Jesus Christ, and Mission Mississippi was born.

Mission Mississippi celebrated 20 years of promoting unity between the races last year by carrying a lighted cross through each of the state’s 82 counties. Brookhaven hosted an event at the government complex where local members of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes helped carry the cross.

The local group is looking toward doing something again this year to bring the community together.

“Before school starts next year,” Harrington said, “we are talking about organizing a community prayer meeting.” She said the group is also hoping for young people to get active with Mission Mississippi.

“There are not a lot of young people in the group,” she said, “but that is one of the things that we are hoping to change very soon.”

For more information about Brookhaven Mission Mississippi, call 601-833-6042.