Local church groups play an active role in the Vicksburg community.

On Tuesday, Hawkins United Methodist Church held their fourth annual “Wheels Around Town” Trike night, which is a community service project sponsored by the church to provide activities for ages one- to five-year-olds.

From a miniature schoolhouse to a pint-sized fire station, the Abundance Life Center of the church housed a little town fit for children to ride their bikes and trikes through.    

Julie Townley, who is the program director at the church, said the annual event was started after learning parents were seeking out activities for their little ones.

“Parents from the church and from the community had said there were not enough activities for preschoolers,” Townley said, so the church decided to offer the trike night. This year’s theme for the event was Winter Wonderland and activities included crafts, a photo booth, an indoor car wash and a snowflake café, which offered complimentary refreshments.

Crawford Street United Methodist Church has added Micah’s Mission as one of their mission projects.

Micah’s Mission is a school where children learn how to incorporate life skills along with education. It is geared for children in kindergarten through 12th grade and includes students with and without special needs.

“CSUMC Micah’s Mission is a school where we are learning full circle. We are not only learning academics, but we are also learning daily living skills and social skills and how to take those across different settings such as going into the community and giving back,” the school’s teacher Emily Williams said.

Micah’s Mission uses the Time4Learning curriculum, which is what the Mississippi Department of Education recommends.

The school is located in the upper level of the church’s Memorial Hall and offers two graduation tracts, the certificate route with the option of students feeding into the Jacob’s Ladder Learning Center, Williams said, as well as a tract for students to become college and career ready.

More positives in Vicksburg this week:

• This past weekend more than 100 youth from parishes throughout the diocese attended a three-day conference at the Vicksburg Conference Center. The theme for the weekend was “Ablaze” and the talks centered on encouraging youth to go out and share their faith with the world.

“In our Catholic faith, we celebrate a very important feast Feb. 2, the presentation of the Lord. It occurs exactly 40 days after Christmas,” said Abbey Schuhmann, coordinator for youth ministries for the Diocese of Jackson. “The feast represents our baptism and how at our baptism we are presented with a candle as the symbol of the light of Christ. We have that responsibility as baptized Christians to spread the light of Christ. So the theme Ablaze came about.”

The conference included daily mass, small group sessions and praise and worship led by Catholic musician PJ Anderson, who was also the keynote speaker.