Missionbutton

January 20      Cents-Ability
February 3      Souper Bowl of Caring
March 23        One Great Hour of Sharing Offering*
April 13           Cents-Ability
May 11           Pentecost Offering*
June 15           Davis-Stuart
August 3          Cents-Ability
October 5       Peacemaking Offering*
November 16 Cents-Ability
December 24 Joy Offering*
  *Offerings of the Presbyterian Church(USA)

On January 20, 2008, the congregation generously gave $512.67 to Cents-Ability, a Presbyterian Hunger Program which supports food pantries throughout the United States and Africa. We hope you are enjoying remembering the needs of others as you pray at mealtimes with your families. Our next opportunity to receive the Cents-Ability Offering is April 13. When do cents make sense? A few cents a meal for each person in a family dedicated in prayer on a regular basis and offered to the Cents-Ability Offering makes a lot of sense because it teaches young people the habit of prayer, thanksgiving and praise to God, and concern for others. A young mother recently told me that until they began praying at dinner meals their child had thought prayer was about asking God at bedtime for what they wanted and for magical protection for those they loved. Gratitude had not entered into it, nor the idea of serving the needs of others. Now they pray not just for folks in poverty in Charleston, but have developed a global awareness of hunger and deprivation as it exists in other nations as well. On Jan. 23 this congregation gave over $500 to the Presbyterian Hunger Fund which supports food pantries and soup kitchens in all four quadrants of West Virginia for direct food relief. PHP (Cents-Ability) also support efforts to help people feed themselves through development assistance grants in this country and in Africa. A few cents accompanied by prayer over & over again in many households makes infinite sense.

At a youth led worship service on Feb. 3, 2008, $633 was given to Manna Meal for its daily soup kitchen (breakfast and lunch at St. John’s Episcopal Church Dining Hall) and 461 pounds of food valued at $922 was donated for a total of $1555. Isn’t that awesome! Thank you for your great generosity.

“Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have.” Hebrews 13:16 This year, while many congregations receive One Great Hour of Sharing for the sixtieth time, the Offering remains a vital and evolving part of Presbyterian mission. All three programs our gifts support are exploring new patterns of ministry. The Presbyterian Hunger Program’s Joining Hands Against Hunger links congregations and presbyteries in the US with overseas networks of churches and community groups to work for peaceful social change. Internationally, Self-Development of People is focusing on fewer countries, but in a deeper way, in order to develop a critical mass for positive change. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is focusing on the long-term spiritual and emotional toll disasters can take on communities and finding new ways to help those communities draw on the resources of the whole church.

Yet One Great Hour of Sharing’s mission remains the same: we walk toward recovery and wholeness with those whose lives have been shattered by disaster; we stand with communities facing the slower crises of hunger, disease, unemployment, and environmental degradation that make them vulnerable even before disasters strike. In sharing resources with people in need around the world, we witness God’s love in action