Featured story archives

• Hearts, Hands and Feet
• Take My Hands Circle
• Mission Challenge ’07 — supporting our missionaries
• One-time ‘big mission project’ enters fifth year
• PW’s creative response to Hurricane Katrina
• Churches and quilters work to bring children a gift all their own

“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:15)

Encouraging the commitment of hearts, hand and feet prompted donations of 2,158 pairs of shoes. Photo courtesy of Claudia Torrey

The 2006–2007 Presbyterian Women’s Coordinating Team of First Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, had great success with their year-long Shoes for Missions campaign, themed “Hearts, Hands and Feet.” Organized by First Presbyterian’s PW foreign missions coordinator Claudia O. Torrey, Shoes for Missions collected a total of 2,158 pairs of new or gently-used shoes for people in need in North America, Latin America, Asia and South America. The response from the congregation and its school, The Oak Hill School, was so overwhelming that shoe donations were also made to 13 local mission entities in Nashville. Nashville Korean Presbyterian Church and other friends and neighbors of members of First Presbyterian donated shoes. The owner of a local UPS Store even offered a discount on shipping the shoes.

People in Tennessee, Kentucky, Jamaica, Mexico, Belize, Bolivia and Kazakhstan received shoes. A Presbyterian mission coworker in Kazakhstan received some of the shoes to distribute to people in need in the area. She sent thanks, saying, “We are so thrilled to get all of these great shoes. Thank you so much for getting them together and mailing them. We thank each person who donated them. That’s what we badly needed.”

Take My Hands Circle
by Fay Grasty

The Take My Hands circle knitted baby caps like these for children in Malawi and Bangladesh.

The Take My Hands Circle from Myers Park Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, has found ways to dedicate their handwork to bettering the world. From creating pieces for their sanctuary to knitting baby caps, the circle members have given warmth, life and love to many around the world.

In late 2006 and early 2007, Take My Hands participated in a project called Caps to the Capital, sponsored by Save the Children and Warm Up America. After hearing that in developing countries, “three out of four newborn deaths could be avoided with simple, low-cost tools that already exist, such as … knit caps to keep babies warm,” the Take My Hands circle was determined to help. Learn more.

Mission Challenge ’07 — supporting our missionaries

By Lora Whearty

When my husband and I were overseas, we cherished our connections with congregations back home. It was so touching to receive letters, small gifts for our daughters or even a church bulletin with our names printed on the prayer list. Those notes of encouragement tended to come at times when we really needed them.  My hope is that all Presbyterian congregations would create similar relationships with mission workers.
 
Mission Challenge’07 is a new effort to educate members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) about international mission and to build needed support for our Presbyterian mission personnel.  In October 2007, 30 mission workers will fan out across the country during the four-week event, with each mission worker visiting a different presbytery each week. The traveling mission personnel will urge congregations to support at least one PC(USA) mission worker. The relationship would include praying for and communicating with the mission worker, providing some level of salary support, and building awareness in the congregation about the mission worker’s ministry and the ministry of our international partner churches. 

Participating congregations and PW groups may choose which missionary to support and will be free to determine the level of their financial contributions. Each presbytery also is invited to accept a larger challenge of having every congregation within its boundaries commit to a relationship with a PC(USA) missionary.

In the spring of 2006, budget shortfalls forced the PC(USA) to cut 40 missionary positions. We do not want to repeat that catastrophe. Our missionaries help build the kingdom of God through education, evangelism, health care, community development and reconciliation.  I believe that Presbyterians are concerned about our denomination’s ministry to the world and would offer more support to our mission workers — all 235 of them — if they knew it was needed. When groups like Presbyterian Women become better acquainted with the work of our mission personnel, they respond with more personal care, more prayers and more funding.  Mission Challenge ‘07 is the largest effort of mission interpretation in the history of the Presbyterian Church.  I hope that you will be a part of it.

Questions about Mission Challenge ’07?  Visit the Mission Challenge ’07 Web site or contact Lora Whearty or call (888) 728-7228 x5916.

One-time ‘big mission project’ enters fifth year

Nancy Kauffman (left) and Betty DeJarnett sort baby clothes donated to Su Casa by Northwoods Presbyterian Church. Photo by Sharyl Davis.

In early 1990, Graciela Caballero visited Las Milpas, a community of 15,000 people just three miles north of the Mexican border. Many of the citizens of this isolated, dusty settlement live in extreme poverty and lack the basic skills needed to become employed and improve their lives. Graciela envisioned developing programs for the community that would emphasize self-worth and self-reliance. In 1991 those programs became a reality in Su Casa de Esperanza (Your House of Hope). Su Casa also offers programs that emphasize early childhood development and family-life education.

Several women from the Susie Sadler Circle at Northwoods Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas, have visited Su Casa. In 2002 circle members showed their support and appreciation for the project by sponsoring a Springtime Baby Shower for the infants and toddlers of Las Milpas.

The Susie Sadler Circle invited all women from Northwoods Presbyterian Church to participate in the shower. They published a flier listing the items requested by the Su Casa staff and placed cardboard boxes covered in bright yellow paper throughout the church building. Northwoods' women and their families gave tremendous support, donating many boxes of baby clothes, car seats, toys and other baby items. A Celebration Brunch allowed the church to celebrate together the gifts that were going to the children of Su Casa de Esperanza.

In preparation for the baby shower, Dot Best, Madline Reaves, Betty Dejarnett, Marcia Cole and Marilyn Germenis (left to right) organize the donated toys. Photo by Sharyl Davis.

In the beginning, the baby shower for Su Casa de Esperanza was to be the group’s one-time “big mission project.” April 2006 marked the fourth year for the Su Casa Baby Shower, and plans are underway for a fifth year. A toy workshop in July 2006 helped everyone get excited for the 2007 baby shower!

Submitted by Betty De Jarnett, Moderator, Presbyterian Women of Northwoods Presbyterian Church, Presbytery of New Covenant

PW’s creative response to Hurricane Katrina

By Diane Blankenhorn, PW Moderator, and Inez Dunlap, Special Projects and Concerns Coordinator, Presbyterian Women in the Presbytery of Mississippi

Volunteers prepare casseroles for Katrina relief workers and church members. Photo by Myra Hester.

It wasn’t so much Presbyterian Women of Mississippi Presbytery’s Coordinating Team that determined the “Special Projects and Concerns for 2006,” as it was Hurricane Katrina. After a few days of shock and bewilderment, PW committed to doing whatever they could to help the storm-ravaged people living near the Mississippi coast.

The first project was to assemble and deliver Personal Care Kits and Clean‑Up Kits to the coast. Along with grooming items, each Personal Care Kit contained a Bible and a letter of hope, love and encouragement. Between 200 and 300 kits were delivered to and distributed by the coast churches.

Then the workers began to come. Men and women, Presbyterians and members of other denominations and faith traditions from all over the country came to volunteer, helping to clean and rebuild.

With few restaurants open and poorly stocked grocery stores in the area, it was a challenge to provide at least one hot meal a day for workers, as well as for some elderly church members. The Casserole Caravan formed to meet those needs. Each inland PW cluster took turns preparing, freezing and delivering casseroles.

During Advent, more than 400 workers descended on the coast and a “Roofing Blitz” was initiated. This required all PW clusters, including those in neighboring St. Andrew’s Presbytery, to send casseroles as well. This support will be needed for many months, even years to come.

To contribute to the Presbytery of Mississippi's hurricane relief efforts, send a check made payable to Presbytery of Mississippi (with “for Katrina Relief Effort” in the memo line) to:

Presbytery of Mississippi
PO Box 148
Hattiesburg, Mississippi 39403‑1488

Churches and quilters work to bring children a gift all their own

“Sweet Dreams” birthday pillows brighten young lives at Farmington Children’s Home

August 2006
By Rob Lamb, Presbyterian Children’s Services, St. Louis, Missouri

Children who are brought into the care of Presbyterian Children’s Services often arrive with nothing but the clothes they have on. Most possessions they might have had are left behind. One of our development representatives related the story of a young boy brought into Farmington Children’s Home last year who asked for a plastic cup that he saw. When asked why he wanted the cup, he simply said, “Because I don’t have anything of my own.”

That story nagged Betty Phillips as she sat at a Missouri State Quilter’s Guild retreat last fall. Quilters there were promoting Benjamin Smiles, a program to make small pillowcases for children with cancer. Ms. Phillips envisioned a similar program for the Farmington Children’s Home, sharing her thoughts with her friends and members of First Presbyterian Church of Perryville and Brazeau Presbyterian Church. The idea took off.
Soon, Betty and her group had a plan for giving out pillows and pillowcases to the children at Farmington Children’s Home on their birthdays. They enlarged the pattern of the pillowcases to fit a standard pillow. Donations of pillows, fabric, pillow cases and money started coming in. An embroiderer began embroidering “Sweet Dreams” on each pillow.  And women now get together regularly to hold work parties so that the children can have something all their own. Each child who gets a new pillow wrapped in a beautiful pillowcase is free to take it with them when they leave.

“It has absolutely snowballed since we started,” said Betty. “We’ve delivered over 40 of these already. We anticipate needing around 15 per month.”

It is difficult to measure how such a creative gift has an impact on the kids who receive them, but the early evidence is that the kids are deeply moved. The pillows and pillowcases make them feel very special and loved. Plus, having a possession they can call their own gives them an extra measure of security and comfort. For so many of the children who have been living the lives of nightmares, Sweet Dreams is a blessing of hope and joy. To the members of the First Presbyterian Church of Perryville and Brazeau Presbyterian Church, we sincerely thank you for giving something so out of the ordinary and so wonderful. May all your dreams be sweet, too!