The Presbytery of Central Nebraska

---

Over the years many changes in programming and staff took place. Plans were made and dreams were envisioned, some of which bore fruit. Just over a decade ago, new challenges for Westminster Woods came into focus when the community of Lexington began to change. Into a community that had been essentially 100 percent Caucasian, Hispanic people began to move to work in a new beef processing plant. Today, Caucasians are no longer in the majority. Such dramatic change has caused stress on the schools, churches, and the community at large.

Westminster Woods and the Presbytery of Central Nebraska are finding a unique opportunity for ministry and mission because their camp and conference center is within two miles of Lexington. The presbytery’s administrative structure was changed in 2004 to add an associate executive presbyter for leadership development and camp administration. A mission exchange relationship was formed with the border ministry at Piedras Negras, Mexico, and Eagle Pass, Texas, and an intergenerational group from the presbytery has gone to Mexico on a mission work trip. Plans have been made for a group from Mexico to come to Central Nebraska to lead two weeks of camp in Spanish for Hispanic children.

Westminster Woods is also partnering with El Centro de La Comunidad, a community mission in Lexington, and looking at providing space for classes in English as a second language and for GED testing in Spanish. Other possibilities under consideration are provision of leadership development opportunities such as job training, interview training, and community development training.

In 2006, Westminster Woods celebrates eighty years of ministry to this presbytery and its communities.

The Presbytery of Central Nebraska is home to 41 churches with 6,490 members.